Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

Resident Evil 3

Did start with FF7 Remake first and have been enjoying that, but Resi 3 immediately gripped me more and I knew I'd beat it sooner, so I ploughed on with that. Not played the original and in fact I'm not overly familiar with the series - have only beaten 4 and 5 besides this now - and have to say I enjoyed it a lot.

Expected it to be scarier, even though I've heard the game leans more on action compared to more recent titles. I'm a wuss - which was partly why I haven't played most of the games - so it wouldn't have taken much. There were a lot of nice tense moments though.

Also got Resi 2 Remake lined up to play so looking forward to that, but I feel like giving the older games a go again too.

I've got nothing to say about any of these I'm afraid, apart from my general surprise that Cappa's almost sold me a 7/10 DS game.

If you rummage through the Game Boy Colour’s software catalogue, you’ll have to dig deep to find anything that’s not a cheaply-made cash grab of a children’s license. With all due respect, the likes of Bob The Builder: Fix It Fun and Tweenies: Doodle’s Bones are fairly representative of the tone of that system’s library. So should Wendy: Every Which Way be, by rights. Releasing a 2D platformer based on a secondary character from Casper the Friendly Ghost for an outdated system in 2001 sounds mental as well as just plain awful. 

But it isn’t! It’s actually pretty good! That’s because Wendy: Every Which Way was developed by WayForward Technologies, the makers of Shantae, Mighty Milky Way ( ), DuckTales Remastered and many other games you’ll know and probably quite like. While I don’t always think that WayForward hit the darts board with their arrows, they’ve always got some clever ideas and technical know-how, and this is a good example of that ingenuity and mastery. The main gimmick here is to change gravity, an idea they expanded upon in Mighty Flip Champs a decade later. On 8-bit hardware, it’s impressive stuff. The sprite work and background scrolling is even better - this is maybe the most colourful and technically-advanced game on the GBC.

This is structured a bit like Super Mario Land: you platform across twelve levels, do a bit of side-scrolling shooting occasionally, fight a boss, and see the ending. It’s got a similar difficulty level and length to Super Mario Land too, which if you know, is basically hee-haw for both. Yet as easy and quick as this is, it made for a very pleasant forty-five minutes. On a handheld which doesn't have a reputation for having many standouts, this is one. Just don’t pay £180 on CEX like I did'nt, 7/10.

Void Bastards

https://twitter.com/Shaolin_Jaster/status/1259627255468183552

Do I need to say more?

10/10

Didn't think I'd ever see anyone talk about Wendy on here due to it's rarity.

Just finished a playthrough of Streets of Rage 4 and I'm glad it exists along with getting to play it with Game Pass.

As I don't know what it is but found it just to be okay, as not overly keen on the artstyle and even though it's a better game then The Bouncer, I had more fun with that because it's pretty bad.

The_Jaster wrote:

Void Bastards

https://twitter.com/Shaolin_Jaster/status/1259627255468183552

Do I need to say more?

10/10

That's a recommendation! Not one I'll ever pick up because roguelike, but more of this please devs.

The rest of the voice acting is great too and unlike what you normally see in games it is way more relatable, now maybe it's just a happy accident from the devs clearly just having fun with it but it makes the Sci-fi world more believable to me. The gameplay side of things is pretty good too with a nice mash up of strategy and action, for example when was the last time you ran away in a game and it felt like the right thing to do?

This totally stands out on it's own maybe not because it's better than every other game but because it's really not like anything else.

I hadn’t completed Pilotwings 64 before now. I just never gave it the same attention as my N64 favourites. I don’t think anybody did. I actually hated it at first - I remember renting it from Blockbuster and returning it sharpish, asking to swap it for something different. Nowadays, I’m capable of appreciating games that aren’t 3D mascot platformers. 

I was due a playthrough of this (and not only because I’ve had my copy since I was at uni in the late 2000s). You’ll usually find it on any of the popular gaming websites’ ‘Top N64 Games’ list, if not in the top ten or twenty, then it’s hovering around there. After completing it for myself, I’m not so sure: while I think it’s still a playable and versatile game (that’s as relaxing as it is infuriating), I say that there’s plenty better on the N64’s library. What brings Pilotwings 64 down for me is the lack of a wow factor. The accuracy of the controls, the multi-layered, fully 3D environments, the volume of secrets and the variety of vehicles and challenge types would have undoubtedly been hugely impressive on the N64’s launch day, especially as a glimpse towards the console’s future. Yet today, those features and feelings just aren’t as striking anymore. I think Pilotwings has always had that status of being a game that helps launch new hardware and showcases it, like Ridge Racer was for PlayStation. That’s where Pilotwings 64 would have worked best, not twenty-three years later.

That said, it’s still a good game that I encourage you to track down, somehow. The difficulty curve is really well measured, the locations are interesting, and that porno soundtrack reminds me of the glory days of Babestation. On balance, I think it’s the best of the three Pilotwings games. 7/10.

Oh no, that makes me worry I just have nostalgia in my head. I haven't played this in probably a decade - nearly two probs - but it still feels like a 10/10er. I'm probably wrong though. I think I just like the flight simulator without having to worry about radioing someone to tell them you're about to take off and all that.

I think you'd still enjoy it with that nostalgia. Stuff like the human cannonball and birdman modes will always be fun, and the secrets still raised a smile, even if I knew what they all were. I liked Pilotwings 64 on the whole, it was consistently good. 7/10 might seem a low score, but it's a high 7/10...!

I remember picking up Pilotwings 64 for a fiver in what, 2000? It was a fun distraction - perfect Sunday afternoon gaming. However, if I'd plonked down £60 at launch I'd have been back down Woolies asking what's going on at Nintendo. You're right about the tech-demo nature of Pilotwings 64 and it may well have blown my young mind in 1997, but even three years later it felt a little primitive. It's an interesting series that could have popped as a Wii-U launch title or even as a Labo piece of kit, but it's difficult to see where the series could go outside of being launch title showcase material, a la Pilotwings Resort. I just like a bit more game in my game.

Luigi's Mansion 3

It took a few gold bones, but I beat Luigi's Hotel Mansion 3. And I liked it! Mostly. The main criticism I would level at it is that sometimes I just don't think I clicked with the logic and the controls sometimes, and I don't think it was necessarily (always) the game's fault. For example, logic: there was one boss fight where I was doing the right thing but then needed to do another thing within a short time limit, and I couldn't work out what that second thing was supposed to be, and E Gadd's advice only referred to the first thing I was already doing. With controls: in another boss fight I was convinced I was doing something wrong because what I was trying to do never worked, only to Google it and discover that I was right, it's just that the suction shot was being finicky (something which frustrated me in the final boss fight too). I should point out that it wasn't just in boss fights that I got stuck and confused! Those are just the examples I remember.

That said, it's my favourite of the series so far, and it was really well realised and executed (the animation was great, there were a lot of clever puzzles and visual gags, and Gooigi was a cool addition). I enjoyed myself and if it wasn't for the occasional frustrations mentioned above (and the unnecessary padding*) it'd be top-tier stuff for me. But it's more a 4/5 sort of a game in my eyes.

*

Spoiler:

In general: yes, yes, and a bit more yes. Very good flawed game. To go into a brief spoiler-specific bit:

Spoiler:

It sounds like the forum has a unanimous opinion on Luigi's Mansion 3: it's great, but not quite on that top echelon of Nintendo games, with Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Play Billiards and the other all-time classics.

~



Absolutely no cunt would have waltzed into Electronics Boutique, made a beeline for the N64 section and picked Robotron 64 off the shelf when Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64 and Blast Corps were their other options. The state of that box art. 

I’d heard of this in N64 Magazine, but I only picked it up years later when I saw it cheap online (my 2013 Amazon order says I paid £6.57 with postage - absolute bargain, seeing as it goes for £55 at CEX). As you’d likely guess, it’s an N64 sequel to Robotron 2084, the twin-stick arcade shooter from the early 1980’s. Robotron 2084’s place in history is assured, as it’s control scheme and simple design set the framework of many arcade classics after it, such as Total Carnage and Smash TV. The Nintendo 64 update is merely a footnote in history, unfortunately. 

Robotron 64 can be exhilarating, especially when it ramps up the challenge, it’s then it becomes truly relentless. Across 200 levels, there’s tons to get fired into, and there’s lots of excitement when the arena becomes packed with literally dozens of enemy robots. The bloody weird Speedcore soundtrack adds to that mania - you’d immediately mute it in 99.9% of games, but it works well in this. Yet all’s not well. Robotron 64 became really repetitive well before I’d reached its end. It’s the same basic gameplay loop, and you’re using the same tactics on Level 1 as you are in Level 200. It gets harder, definitely, but not soon enough. Later on, it mixes it up with special weapons, bonus stages and new enemies every so often, but none of it particularly stands out, at least not individually. That became an issue, and the game’s parts just kind of blended together. Without much variety and new tricks to keep me hooked, it got a bit old a bit too fast. It’s an ugly bastard too, by the standards of then and now.

It’s an all right game that I can just about recommend, but it’s not difficult to see why nobody was hyping it up back in 1998 or since. It could have been something more, 6/10.

I can honestly say that before this point, I never even heard of Robotron 64.

Wii Play Billiards was alright, but the real GOAT was Wario Ware Smooth Moves Darts.

That artwork truly is abysmal. I remember it from N64 Magazine but I have never come across the Robotron franchise, back in 1998 or now. Granted, the only time I would have been in an 80s arcade would be whilst in a pram on a family day out to Margate, but the premise of Robotron 64 sounds like it was aimed at those familiar with the brand, rather than enticing new gamers. Particularly if that artwork is anything to go by.

Doesn't help that it came out on the Playstation more than a year earlier too (we always got the bum deal - remember Fighting Force? More than 2 years later that turned up).

Wario Ware Smooth Moves Darts should have had Minecraft's success. 

I wasn't aware that there was a PlayStation version of Robotron 64 until I looked it up! I find these 1990s retro updates quite interesting. There's no chance in hell I was buying stuff like The Next Tetris, Pong: The Next Level or Robotron 64 back then, it was old, foosty and reeked of pish. These days though, as my taste (and smell) in games has changed, I'd be keen to give them a try. Robotron 64 is a competent enough game. 

Never played the N64 version of Fighting Force! Did it really need a re-release after the PSone version though? That wasn't a great game by any stretch.

Isn't the most famous one of that being Resident Evil 2 when it came to N64 the PS1 verison was a £20 platinum title and the N64 verison was about £60.

Fighting Force I remember being a banger but played it a lot CO-OP

masofdas wrote:

Isn't the most famous one of that being Resident Evil 2 when it came to N64 the PS1 verison was a £20 platinum title and the N64 verison was about £60.

Fighting Force I remember being a banger but played it a lot CO-OP

Yeah I enjoyed Fighting Force in co-op at the time, but I was coming off of Streets of Rage 1-3 so a 3D equivalent blew my mind, regardless of the sluggish controls. I seem to recall Resident Evil 2 getting some bonus content, or did I just make that up?

The irony of them archaic 80s games arguably holding up more now gameplay-wise than their forward-thinking 3D counterparts.

Yeah, Res Evil 2 had a few different things on the N64, I can remember green blood was a thing. Still, not sure if was worth £40 more but now looking at what each is worth in 2020 maybe it was.

On the 2D - 3D thing it's now brought up now and again by IGN themselves that they gave Castlevania SOTN an okay score because it was 2D & graphically not great. That time and place also play a factor as that's been since reviewed and it's the banger will all know. Again expensive game now because it didn't sell well when it came out.

Continuing the spoiler chat:

Buskalilly wrote:

I can honestly say that before this point, I never even heard of Robotron 64.

I'm sure I read the review back in the day, otherwise I'd be saying this. Clearly utterly forgettable.

I started Mischief Makers on the N64 when I was fourteen years old. That was in Summer 2003 - I remember buying this for a fiver in G-Force in Glasgow (RIP), but getting hopelessly stuck about halfway through my initial playthrough. I booted up again seventeen years later, realised my mistake, and quickly ploughed through the rest of the game. 



There's my save file. That seventeen year gap between starting it and finishing it probably best explains the big issue with Mischief Makers: it’s overly complicated and easy to misunderstand. I got stuck at a part that’s actually as easy as pushing a button, but the game didn’t explain that. Mischief Makers doesn’t really explain itself much. Yet that’s it’s personality. Mischief Makers - a multi-genre game all about a cyborg called Marina chasing down an Evil Empire who keeps kidnapping the professor who created her - shares a lot of its DNA with Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy. That’s unsurprising as the same Japanese developer, Treasure, made it. If you’re familiar with those Mega Drive games, you’ll already know that Mischief Makers is completely batshit mental. 

This was Treasure’s 1997 Nintendo debut, and it was unapologetically retro at a time where GoldenEye 007, Super Mario 64 and Lylat Wars were giving gamers fully three-dimensional worlds to be wowed by. While Bob-Omb Battlefield doesn’t look as amazing as it once did, Mischief Makers’ sprite work still looks really nice, if a wee bit unclean. The gameplay counts most though, and that’s where this excels. I don’t think this has aged like most N64 games. This remains a highly imaginative and skilful game that can be totally ingenious and massively rewarding (if you take the time to learn the controls, natch).

I remember this getting booted by some of the shiteier N64 magazines of the day, getting landed with scores like 20% and such bollocks. Mischief Makers was probably too clever for them, quite frankly. For you though, the former Super Play/N64/NGC/NGamer/Nintendo Gamer Magazine reader - and therefore a man of great culture, taste and sophistication - I really encourage you to find a way to play this. Cracking stuff, 8/10.

Mischief Makers is the sort of game why we need N64 Online on the Switch as it's not something I could see on a N64 Mini but people would want to play.

You know the N64 library better than me but any others like MM that wouldn't make a N64 Mini because it's not OoT etc but be a big deal on a Switch N64 Online service?