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30 |
Mischief Makers |  |
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| Treasure make another appearance here, this time to deliver what has to be the systems best 2D platformer. Mischief Makers is a unique, and interesting game that's full of ideas, humour, and some of the most memorable boss battles ever conceived. The game focuses on the mechanic of manipulating objects by shaking, throwing, and pulling, this, added to the sheer variety of levels really makes the title a breath of fresh air for the genre. All in all just the sort of fun you'd expect from Treasure. | |||||
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29 |
Rocket: Robot on Wheels |  |
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| Here's another objective based 3D platformer a la Mario 64, this time from newly formed developer Sucker Punch (who went on to make the excellent Sly Cooper games). Unlike some of the other pretenders to the throne, the developers here really tried to think outside the box, creating a game filled to the brim with puzzles that are clever, and innovative, and a general design that is smart and imaginative. Definitely one of the lessor known "must plays" of the N64, Rocket even manages to give Banjo, and Mario a run for their money. | |||||
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28 |
Shadow Man |  |
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| This is an excellent action adventure game throwing you into a fully formed world of grim horror, violence, and intrigue (think of the Ocarina of Time with blood, gore, chains, and axe wielding maniacs!). Like most action adventure games this is non-linear, with your character having to explore hell (the literal one) collecting lost souls to increase his health and open up areas, as well as accumulating new moves along the way. The game is fairly tough, with little hand-holding along the way (make sure you get a copy with a map), but its a well crafted game for those who like to fully explore, and get completely immersed in their games. A word of caution, avoid the horribly rushed Playstation port, its a bit of a mess unfortunately (the Dreamcast version on the other hand is excellent). | |||||
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27 |
Spider-man |  |
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| I don't think anyone really expected this licence game to turn out quite as good as it did, but the great platforming action (that included all of Spider-man's signature moves), and inclusion of cool stealth elements, all held together with high quality programming created a real winner in the sea of licensed dross (Superman 64 anyone?). The porters did a very good job here, with the graphics maybe looking a little better than in the PS1 version, and the only real omission being the lack of FMV (but to be totally honest that actually kind of sucked on the PS1 anyway). | |||||
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26 |
Body Harvest |  |
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| One of the most ambitious games of its generation, Body Harvest was DMA's (the company who would go on to be Rockstar North) first foray into the 3D open world sandbox genre, and was the spiritual precursor to the famous Grand Theft Auto III. Body Harvest had a very tumultuous release. It was originally planned as a launch title, but the original publisher, Nintendo kept sending it back on the grounds of it being too violent. Eventually Nintendo dropped it entirely and DMA had to search for a new publisher, the game ended up getting released two years late! Body Harvest, at its heart is a 3rd person shoot-em-up that has you trying to stop an alien "harvest" of the human race, you go back and forth through time shooting the bug-like aliens and trying to shut down their human-mulching operations. The thing that makes it so original is the sheer freedom of choice involved, you get to explore the huge levels however you feel, procuring a multitude of cars, tanks, boats, and even aeroplanes to fulfil your objective. Outside of that though, the game is full of good puzzles, fun weapons to use, and whilst not that graphically great, has a lot of atmosphere, with a sinister, sometimes melancholy feel to it. Body Harvest takes time to get going, and is quite a tough game due to some very spread-out save points, as such its probably a game for adept players who want something challenging, casual players may find it frustrating. | |||||
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25 |
Turok 2 |  |
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| Another stand-out first person shooter for the N64, Iguana Entertainment (the spiritual predecessor to Nintendo's Retro Studios) made a lot of changes to this sequel from their earlier hit, with numerous changes to both gameplay, and general theme. Turok 2 was packed with big, non-linear levels to explore, some of the coolest weapons ever to grace an FPS, memorable set-pieces (such as riding on the back of an armoured Triceratops), impressive graphics, and loads of over-the-top gore. The game is slow to start, and has a high difficulty level, but perseverance pays off and reveals a meaty adventure with lots of serious FPS action. Turok 2 is a little dated by today's standards, with an unreliable framerate often causing problems (stick to Letterbox Mode), but even now it remains a unique and worthwhile gameplay experience on N64. | |||||
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24 |
Excite Bike 64 |  |
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| Coming very late in the N64s lifespan, Excite Bike shot out of nowhere and managed to be one of the finest dirt bike racing games of its time. The game carries on Nintendo's high pedigree of polished, in depth terrain- focused racers, competing very favourably with the likes of Wave Race and 1080. Like those two classics Excite Bike contains an excellent physics model, and intuitive controls that leave a lot of room for mastery, and finesse. Its a shame so few people got to play the game as sadly most had moved on to newer consoles by the time it was released. | |||||
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23 |
Ogre Battle 64 |  |
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| Unfortunately, unlike it predecessor the SNES, the N64 always struggled to provide RPG fans with enough games to play. Happily, when Ogre Battle 64 arrived it didn't disappoint the genre starved N64 fans, and the game serves as the system's primary serious RPG. Ogre Battle's gameplay is focused on tactics, it gives you large numbers of units and classes each with a variety of uses and strengths, and the main crux of the gameplay is in growing and managing these units into an effective army through careful formation positioning, general experience accumulation, and purchasing weaponry and armour. The game has a lot of content, is very long, and has an in-depth plot which branches off to provide multiple different endings. | |||||
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22 |
Tony Hawk's Skateboarding 2 |  |
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| This is a good port of the Playstation classic. The Tony Hawks games essentially have you placed in an environment with a set of objectives, such as reaching certain points thresholds by doing tricks, or collecting certain objects etc. The games are very rewarding to practice and learn, with tons of moves and opportunity for flair. This port is well done, the sound quality is slightly lower than the PS1 game, but the graphics are smoother, and there's a new additional area. | |||||
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21 |
Mario Kart 64 |  |
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| The Mario Kart series has to be one of the premier multiplayer game experiences ever devised, and the N64 iteration happens to be my favourite of them all. For anyone who's not familiar with the series, players race around courses vying for first place whilst picking up a variety of weapons to mess with their opponents. Mario Kart 64 has some of the most memorable courses of the series, with a well balanced selection of choices available, ranging from simpler courses such as Luigi's Raceway, all the way up to tricky ones like Banshee's Boardwalk, or the hectic mirror mode of Toad's Turnpike, there's even some out and out odd ones like the anonymous, multi-pathed Yoshi's Valley to add variety. MK64 also doesn't baby the player as much as subsequent releases, with each course promoting a plethora of tactical thinking, as well as many containing decisive shortcuts. It was a hard decision for me to leave this out of the top 20, but in the end I just can't overlook the poor single-player mode, which feels like an afterthought to the (admittedly) amazing, and timeless 4-player experience. | |||||
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