Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

Here https://gamstat.com/games/xbox/ccu/

It's not 100% accurate as A) Might have never connected your PS4 online for some reason B) Take Last of Us Part I that's had 42,900,000 players but as it points out it has two versions, so I would count as 2 players

I would however believe 25,500,000 players have earned a trophy on their profile as the games truer number, as we know it's sold over 20m+ but used games would play a factor in this as you may have played my used PS3 copy and then that would count as two players as well

Thanks Mas. That's an interesting source, particularly as it would include digital sales.

This thread has gone off course, but this can be discussed elsewhere (I looked at PES and thought they were selling worse each year, yet the total active user numbers have gone up each year).

Yeah, hopefully a Balla or someone could move this over.

On PES, it's gone down each year on PS4 but gone up on Xbox, remember that PES is on Game Pass though

Edit

Funny we talk PES and announced no PES this year but a paid seasonal update as they're switching engines too unreal to being a great PES to next gen next year.

I love that SEGA Superstars Tennis the best-selling tennis game ever, I think that's a class game. The DS version too, that's a proper forgotten gem.

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N64 Magazine said: “Stunning greatest hits package of the PlayStation games, topped with some exclusive N64 extras”. 91% in Issue 40, 5/5 in Issue 59
Nintendo Official Magazine said: “One of the very best racers ever to grace the N64. Superb”. 92% in Issue 96.

I finished Ridge Racer 64, one of the less-remembered games from that series. I’m not sure what the logic behind it was. While the four previous ones on the PlayStation were really successful in their own ways, surely nobody was going into the new millennium thinking ‘bloody nora, I need a greatest hits port of two early ‘90s Ridge Racer games for my four year old Nintendo’. As much as the day’s Nintendo magazines hyped it up and as highly as they eventually rated it, I remember Ridge Racer 64 having no bearing on the charts when it released and being heavily discounted by the time my folks bought me it as a Christmas present that year.

Releasing in mid-2000, Ridge Racer 64 sits awkwardly between Ridge Racer Type 4 and Ridge Racer V in the franchise’s chronology. Ridge Racer Type 4 almost approaches Gran Turismo’s enormity, with over 300 different cars and full campaign mode. However, it doesn’t have that refined realism of Gran Turismo, and most definitely maintains that distinctive Ridge Racer character. RRV keeps that same fast, arcade-esque racing gameplay in place, but any enhancements are all relative to the technical performance of the game as a flagship launch title for the PS2. Ridge Racer 64, on the other (third) hand, takes things right back to basics, seemingly acting like Rage Racer (aka Ridge Racer 3), Type 4 and RRV never happened. This is more or less the same Ridge Racer experience you perhaps enjoyed in the mid ‘90s, just on a Nintendo 64 cartridge. That’s got it’s positives no doubt, but I think the game is quite flawed in several departments too.

Without using the Expansion Pak at all, Ridge Racer 64 is lightning-fast and buttery-smooth, and it’s got an excellent framerate by the standards of the N64. Fair enough, that’s at the expense of a little bit of a graphic downgrade, but it’s no different to F-Zero X in that regard. There’s lots going on too, with a Grand Prix campaign that took me about nine hours to finish as well as a few dozen cars to unlock. They’ve all got their own play style and characteristics, and a handful of them are even just for laughs, like a golf buggy and a Pooka monster from Dig Dug. It pays off to experiment with these vehicles up to a point, but eventually I just had to choose what was fastest. That’s because Ridge Racer 64 gets ruthlessly challenging on the higher Grand Prix classes, requiring perfect driving. That’s easier said that done, as the AI is often overly-aggressive and there’s collision detection issues littered right throughout the game. In other racers (like MRC and Automobili Lamborghini), this isn’t too big of a deal, as you simply bump off of the cars/walls, mostly keep your speed and just keep going. Here though, any impact slows you down really badly, and it’s at that point where you might as well start up your race again. It’s a hard, frustrating game, but not impossible, and ultimately rewarding to master. Also, at least Ridge Racer 64 is a game that’s built for a quick five-minute blast, and at least none of the tracks test your endurance with how long they are.

Mastering Ridge Racer 64’s controls was both my biggest difficulty and grievance, at least at first. I couldn’t get used to the curve of the drift – it doesn’t play like the Ridge Racers that preceded it, for some reason. Instead, the developer introduced a new ‘Ridge Racer 64’ way of powersliding round corners and bends. I was about three quarters of the way through completing this before I found out that you can change it in the options menu, to a way that emulates how it was in the first Ridge Racer, or to how it works in Ridge Racer Revolution. Changing that improved things a lot for me, as did playing with the D-Pad rather than the analogue stick. That kind of sums things up: ironically, the worst parts of the game are the new things it introduces. As well as an inferior and awkward play style, the three exclusive desert tracks aren’t particularly well designed, being too tight for overtaking and having too many turns that you can’t anticipate. The game's new soundtrack is just okay too, featuring nothing nearly as good as Drive U 2 Dancing, Pearl Blue Soul or Samurai Rocket. It doesn’t really get the adrenaline going, but at least it’s not as audibly offensive as San Francisco Rush or Cruis’n USA.

I hold the first four Ridge Racer games in very high regard, and I was disappointed to rediscover that Ridge Racer 64 doesn’t reach those heights. Due in large part to the redesigned yet ill-conceived drifting mechanics, the aggravating collision detection problems and the vanilla soundtrack, I feel that it’s just not at the same standard as it’s arcade and PSone predecessors. But’s that’s not to completely discredit it. When it gets it right – and, crucially, when you get used to it and get into a groove with it – Ridge Racer 64 can be a very exciting game. Overall, it’s still a proficient and enjoyable arcade racer that’s worth revisiting, whether on Nintendo 64 or via it’s 2005 DS port. 7/10.

Excellent write-up Cappa!

I had no idea RR Type-4 had 300 cars in it - I always viewed Ridge Racer as an arcade racer and figured each entry would have 10 cars and a few courses. It's doubtful I'll ever play it, but you're right about it being lauded at the time by Nintendo magazines. That "Ridge Racer woman" was all over them, yet it's funny to see Nintendo Official Magazine declare a mash-up of two old Fony GreyStation games one of the best racers on N64.

Cheers gjones. Looking back, I think the gaming magazines got a bit overexcited about Ridge Racer 64. I did too, I was fully expecting to give this a 9/10 before I started replaying it.

gjones wrote:

Nintendo Official Magazine ... Fony GreyStation

Oh gawd, I remember when it used to do this. It also had the bit where people could send in their 'GreyStations' or Mega Drives to be smashed by Mario's Mallet, didn't it? Cripes...

Wooft, harsh! Again, I remembered those being the scores, and I remember being very confused at the discrepancy at the time. Looking back at the description and what you say, it's a miracle it even reached 73%.

I remember the other two being better received though? I'm going to say they got (rumbling of Memory Extractor) 83 and 88%. Also: Jes Bickham 'blinding foes with a spectacularly buffed-up bonce', or something like that.

Yeah, I think I either rented this or played it a pals house as I only remember playing the multiplayer.

I do remember Rally being decent enough from what I've played of the Dreamcast version

I've seen a few 'Worst 10/20/30 N64 Games' types of lists that have Chev's Luv Shack and South Park Rally ranked highly. That's undeserved, I think they're both quite good. I don't even know if I'd have South Park on such a list either, there's much worse. It was a terrible choice for a FPS though.

Are the new South Park games up to much?

What I've played of the first it's like playing a episode of the show, just umm they're RPG'S with turn based combat which the second is slightly more real time.

You mention worst lists do you think that's down to small library on N64, like as not till now I'd really be looking at imports, so what was available in Europe it's overly huge just in the high 200's with lot be top tier games.

Yeah I played South Park on N64 a fair bit at the time. It was as Cappa says, Acclaim throwing a license over a tired Turok engine, and it relied on gimmicks like a weapon that fired a cow over your head, or "yellow snowballs". I remember the levels being large and empty (and of course, full of white snow) and it never felt satisfying to play.

I thought Luv Shack was a pile of arse at the time that didn't have as many questions as a quiz game needs. I'd quickly find questions repeating, but the mini-games weren't all bad. Memory serves me poorly, but there was one with rounding up turkeys or something like that. Turkeys seemed to feature heavily actually, and looking back, this would have been based on the first two series of South Park, which are probably the worst (in turns of humour at least).

South Park Rally I've not played, but it was panned in Dreamcast mags yet oddly acclaimed in N64 ones. I wonder if that was because they just ported the PlayStation version to Dreamcast at the time, which was a common occurrence.

Was it a straight port? I can't remember as take Tony Hawk that did take advantage of the DC power that some did but then it was Acclaim who brought South Park along with Attitude & the ECW games over which are pretty terrible.

I think critics just didn't like it's weird track design or sense of humour. I only remember N64 Magazine giving it a decent review, all the other magazines and websites put the boot into all the versions. 

About masofdas's Worst Games question: https://www.thegamer.com/the-25-worst-games-on-the-nintendo-64/ is a good example of what I'm talking about. Even if you discount all the American games there, it's hard to say that stuff like MRC and Bio Freaks are actually bad. South Park Rally is 7th worst on that list, and while it's all subjective, I'm not with it.

On bad games watched a video looking at the 8 or so worse games this year and it's not top tier stuff but things you've heard of, and I'm like I bet 10 worse games come out this week alone on mobile or steam.

Which goes into a whole topic which Alannah Pearce did a video on, that sites only really review the 7+ games as they're not going to get the clicks for the okay 5/10 game.

I don't get clicks for posting a 3/10 or a 9/10, so I've just reviewed what took my fancy. That said, there's definitely a couple of games in my collection that I don't think I could get any chat going with, like Dark Rift and Jeremy McGrath's Supercross 2000. There's a whole different game I abandoned because it was just too unremarkable. 

Plenty of shite to come, though, and get used to seeing some low scores. At least with the N64 you can suss out the worst games pretty quickly, with their stink lines wafting from their cartidge slot.

Dark Rift sounds like it smells, just from the name.

There's good and bad points to the size of modern system catalogues. Nobody in their right mind would review every Switch game, but I do miss "bad games" because they could be fun in their own right. That said, is anyone going to try collecting every Switch game? Or every PS4 game? Unlikely. The same thing happened to music, where there is so much music available now, any Tom, Dick or Harry can release something. Now and then, we do get a Fallout 76 or a WWE 2Kanything, but games journalists are going to lean towards the good stuff and I can't blame them.

Looking forward to more N64 reviews You've inspired me to try do something similar for Xbox 360 (which will be soon last-last-gen and open to the whole "is it retro" argument).

Hmm also on the whole is it retro I posted a few days ago and bigger cap between the GameCube to now then the NES that if Animal Crossing New Horizons had retro games they'd be GameCube games.

"Retro" isn't like a historical measurement of time, it's just an aesthetic or a vibe. Stuff is retro when it feels too old to be modern.

Balladeer wrote:

gjones wrote:

Nintendo Official Magazine ... Fony GreyStation

Oh gawd, I remember when it used to do this. It also had the bit where people could send in their 'GreyStations' or Mega Drives to be smashed by Mario's Mallet, didn't it?  Cripes...

I'm sorry, is Balla "Big Black Boxes of Power waaaah" Deer trying to look down his nose at console fanboyism and Nintendo superiority?

I do think some time does have some bearing on it based on some of my colleagues in work would say 360 is retro now, as they were shocked I was buying PS2 games as that's ancient.

gjones wrote:

There's good and bad points to the size of modern system catalogues. Nobody in their right mind would review every Switch game, but I do miss "bad games" because they could be fun in their own right.

How popular games are as whole these days plays a big factor I think as for me it's not uncommon to see a game I think looks bang average to gain crazy momentum from youtube videos/live streams and actually get high scores than they may have got 10 plus years ago.

That's it, because I played a bit of Fortnite and thought it was a janky mess. I have been playing Roblox with my daughters online and that isn't just janky, but completely disregards game design and logical user interfaces. Yet it's wildly popular - kids aren't too fussed about jank as long as the core gameplay loop is fun and addicting. Which I get, and considering these games are free to play, the threshold for accepted jank has definitely lowered.

Seriously, Roblox is horrendous.

I'm well out of touch with what's popular these days. I work in a school, and I sometimes get asked if I'm into Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox and stuff like that. Naw. 

Speaking of "when stuff feels too old to be modern", here's a game that felt ancient when it was new:


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N64 Magazine said: “The conversion of the age-old arcade classic is fun but, ultimately, it’s expensive and limited”. 54% in Issue 16, 0/5 in Issue 59.
Arcade said: “Provides short-term enjoyment - especially in three-player mode - but it doesn’t last long” 3/5 in Issue 7.

Rampage World Tour was the last retro game I completed, it’s the 1998 N64 remake of the old 1986 Midway ‘classic’. This came out at a time where other decrepit arcade coin-ops like Frogger and Pac-Man were being revamped and repackaged, sometimes making the preliminary move into 3D. Yet in this case, it sticks a lot more closely to it’s source material. In fact, it didn’t really move on from its source material at all. No joke, I think the only thing World Tour adds is Rumble Pak support. But perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing though; after all, Rampage was a very fondly remembered game in the late ‘90s. It still is even today, getting a film with The Rock a few years ago.

Rampage World Tour is the same as every other game in the series, which has you taking control of one of three deformed mega-monsters and climbing on and battering buildings for points. You can get extra points for total destruction – not just for wrecking the buildings, but throwing vehicles, eating townspeople, smashing aircraft out of the sky, that sort of thing. You start off in Peoria (for some reason), and destroy all buildings to advance across the globe. Some of the more famous locations are set apart in obvious ways (the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, Gayfield Park in Arbroath), but not all the time. For example, I couldn’t tell the difference between, say, Copenhagen and Istanbul. So, the variety only stretches so far in it’s settings…which is still a lot more than you can say for its mind-numblingly dull gameplay.

This is such an incredibly repetitive, unvaried and shallow game. In fact, you’ll have pretty much experienced the whole thing in the first few stages. Even with dozens of levels, it has no staying power. I had to break my play sessions into chunks, just to try to stave off the complete and utter boredom. I played it while I was doing other things, just demolishing these cities while on mental autopilot and completely disengaged from what I was pressing and seeing. I actually brute forced about fifty levels during one of the recent RKG quizzes that some of us did, while having a few cans and hurling abuse at The Jaster while he was offline when his Discord connection dropped. I don’t even see how Rampage World Tour would come to life in multiplayer either, as there’s absolutely no imagination on display whatsoever, and nothing exciting to see or feel.

There’s some legitimately awful stuff on the N64 that’s far less technically accomplished than Rampage World Tour, but even the likes of Superman 64 and Carmageddon 64 have a bit of variety. This doesn’t. I don’t think there’s anything on the N64 that’s as unimaginative or uninspiring as Rampage World Tour. Apparently the N64 sequel – Rampage Universal Tour – is even worse, but I wouldn’t know. I was bored out my gourd playing World Tour, so bollocks to a second round of that. Like the developer, I don’t really know why I bothered to be honest! 3/10.