Four Random N64 Games To Play This Summer
A handful of cartridges to definitely get you in a seasonal mood!
By: Toxicka Shock
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Even now, the Nintendo 64 is a fairly controversial console.
On one hand, it’s obviously home to some of the greatest video games of all time. Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, GoldenEye … all undisputed classics. But by that same token, the system can be criticized for its comparably shallow library. Yes, Perfect Dark and No Mercy are fuckin’ awesome, but once you start digging past the first party releases and niche sports titles, there’s definitely a lot of lackluster content to drudge through … especially when you contrast it with the diversity and robustness of the Saturn and PS1 libraries.
One thing is for sure, though. The N64 library — no matter what you think of it — definitely had some vibes. Being 64 bits and all, there were a ton of games on the console that never got ported to its Sega and Sony contemporaries, and quite a few of them remain unsung mini-classics of their respective genres.
And out of all of the retro consoles out there — for reasons I really can’t succinctly describe — the N64 just feels, well, summery and shit. When I think of the console, I can almost smell the leaking freon of the air conditioner wafting through my nose and the faint, ghostly taste of Pepsi One dancing on the tip of my tongue. With so many racing, proto open-world sandbox and space shooting action-adventures on deck, the summertime aesthetics are definitely strong in so many N64 staples … which makes the console library well worth revisiting around the Fourth of July, if only to shake a few morsels of sentimentality out of the experience.
Beetle Adventure Racing
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment, EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: March 23, 1999
By all empirical wisdom, this game seems like it would suck. For starters, it’s not just a licensed video game, it’s a licensed racing video game, and those are generally a special breed of terrible. Second, it’s made by Electronic Arts, who kept their footprint on the N64 fairly limited compared to their output for the PS1. Basically, you just expect EA to go low effort here and crap out yet another uninspired arcade racer on a system that’s already glutted with them.
Oh, how wrong you would be. Not only is this a damn great game, there’s a strong argument to be made that it could be the best overall racer on the console. Indeed, in some respects you could even consider this game a precursor to Burnout … albeit, without all of the twisted metal and with way more power-ups.
Don’t let the cartoony box art fool you, this is actually a deep and feature-filled hybrid racer that gives you tons of content. The handling is just about perfect, the music is top-notch and the course design is simply marvelous. As hard as it might be to wrap your head around it, this game more or less feels like the perfect amalgamation of Mario Kart and Gran Turismo — fun and accessible to just about everybody, but with just enough technical nuance to keep the hardcore glued to their control pad. Give EA some props here — whether it was their intent or not, they ended up making the greatest Cruis’n video game of all-time with Beetle Adventure Racing.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.0
California Speed
Developer: Atari Games/Midway Games
Publisher: Atari Games/Midway Games
Release Date: March 18, 1999
Speaking of Cruis’n, here’s yet another example of Midway milking a cash cow until its nipples fall off. California Speed doesn’t even try to mask the fact that it’s anything more than a mild variation of the tried-and-true arcade racer formula. Indeed, instead of calling it an offshoot, it’s probably truer to call California Speed a glorified reskin.
That said, as derivative and uninspired as it is, California Speed remains guilty pleasure fun (albeit, with quite a few things that you can and should complain about.) For starters, the whole Golden State shtick here is incorporated pretty well, with some fairly well-designed tracks to blast through. For example, the Silicon Valley course literally concludes with the racers jetting inside a mammoth computer mainframe, while the San Fran track literally takes you atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, it’s goofy and silly, but it makes for some really rousing multiplayer — especially when one of the vehicles you can commandeer is a goddamn souped-up golf cart with a top speed of 170 miles per hour.
Like I was saying upfront, though, California Speed is hardly a game without some notable faults and flaws. For one thing, the controls are way too slippery, with especially poor collision detection — sometimes hitting another racer causes you to stall out completely and, other times, you simply ghost right through them. Secondly, there’s a massive lack of game modes and options, with very little to unlock and a substandard replay value as a result. And lastly — and perhaps most irritating — this game has some of the WORST rubber band A.I. cheating I’ve ever experienced. Seriously, you can be in pole position for 99% of a race, but as soon as you pass through the last curve or hairpin turn, all of a sudden three or four vehicles will swoop by you at literally the last fucking minute. Be forewarned — this game is bound to make you curse, and curse motherfuckin’ often.
Rating: 7.0 out of 10.0
Body Harvest
Developer: DMA Design
Publisher: Midway Home Entertainment
Release Date: Oct. 20, 1998
Well, on one hand, Body Harvest is a game that’s rough around the edges — graphically and in terms of gameplay. But if you can overlook a few minor shortcomings and appreciate the bigger picture, I think you’ll be impressed by just ambitious and ahead of its time it was; indeed, it’s pretty much the precursor to both Grand Theft Auto III AND Halo at the same time.
Body Harvest is a game that, depending on your perspective, could be considered Duke Nukem or Turok in third person or perhaps Super Mario 64 meets Starship Troopers. You play a badass space marine decked out in a gaudy orange uniform and it’s your job to (what else?) repeal an invasion by insectoid-like alien invaders. Despite the iffy color scheme, the resemblance between your avatar here and the hero of the subsequent Halo games is downright uncanny — to the point you kinda’ wonder if the folks at Bungie didn’t take a few of their aesthetic cues from this one. But that’s not where the similarities end, folks — much like a certain Xbox killer app, you too can take control of any number of vehicles in Body Harvest and use ‘em to splatter bugs en masse. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s also an ambitious time-travel element to the game, which takes the entire dynamic into even grander territory.
The controls take some getting used to. Honestly, even once you get accustomed to them the gameplay is a bit clunky and janky, which is easily the biggest criticism you can lob against the game as a whole. That, and the game incorporates a few puzzles and ultra-lite RPG elements that feel totally out of place — especially when the developers could’ve used that time to better refine the shooting and action elements of the experience. Still, it’s a game that feels WAY ahead of its time, and even now it’s fun to just walk around the world of Body Harvest and seeing just how much stuff you can actually interact with. It’s a game that isn’t without its issues, but the exploration elements of this pioneering, multi-genre action title alone make it well worth going out of your way to play at least once.
Rating: 8.0 out of 10.0
ExciteBike 64
Developer: Left Field Productions
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: May 02, 2000
It took Nintendo nearly a decade to give gamers a true sequel to the pioneering NES favorite ExciteBike, and the end results are kinda’ mixed. Granted, there’s still a lot to like about the overall experience, although considering the series’ vaunted reputation and what some of its action-sports contemporaries provided gamers, in some respects it’s difficult to not be at least mildly disappointed.
The good news about EB64 is that the core biking mechanics are spot-on. Handling and turning corners isn’t a pain in the ass in the slightest, while getting big air (and more importantly, not crashing on the way down) does take a little bit of gray matter. In the NES original, pretty much all you had to worry about was not overheating; here, even the slightest bump on the terrain can jostle you off your bike and send your avatar careening off a mountain cliff or into oncoming traffic. Ultimately, it strikes a nice balance between old-school arcade racing fun and the more technical, nuanced elements of the Dave Mirra series.
Alright, so the core controls are good and the level design is nothing short of fantastic. The downside, you might be wondering? Well, the game just doesn’t have enough content to keep you plugged in for very long. The career mode is just 20 races deep and the customization options are shockingly scant. Indeed, some of the bikes are locked to certain characters, which keeps you from fine tuning the gameplay to meet your specific wants and likes. That said, the multiplayer modes are pretty damn great, complete with an array of weird-ass mini-games, including a giant soccer ball fracas. And even if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, the track editor tool is pretty robust — and unlike the NES original, at long-last, now you can actually SAVE all of your hard work. All in all, it’s a satisfying experience — albeit one that, all things considered, should’ve been just a tick better than what the final package resembled.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10.0
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