Get N or Get Out! The N64 thread

[BrianC]

Ninty just need to clean up a bunch of their N64 stuff and put it out as one collection for Switch, like Rare did. As if

I heard that collection had emulation issues on the games that weren't already ported to 360 and input lag on the NES games.

[KAI]

N64mini whens

[cave hermit]

Did anyone here get one of the brawler 64 controllers from Retro Fighters? I'm quite intrigued by them, but I previously bought a Tribute 64 from Retrobit (basically a Hori mini pad clone), and I couldn't get to grips with how sensitive the stick was on that. Plus I bought the Brawler gen controller from Retro Fighters for my Saturn, and I was quite underwhelmed by it.

[FinalBaton]

After watching MarioKart 64 speedruns history-videos, I really wanna try to pull off shortcuts on Rainbow Road and Choco Mountain. Busting dem tracks wide the fuck open!

Problem is I don't have controllers (only a loose system a buddy picked up for me in Japan for 3$). So the answers to Cavehermit's query above, will be very useful to me as well. as those gamepads sell lower than OEM 64 controllers over here (generally $45 CAD each for OEM)

[cave hermit]

I actually ended up ordering a brawler 64 because... Well...

I tried some preventive maintenance on my childhood N64 controller, applying some rubbing alcohol and silicone grease to the stick. Well that caused mild drifting. So then I tried opening and disassembling the stick, only to realize I'm too stupid to actually put it back together again.

[Blinge]

N64 analogs turning to dust is such a huge problem

i tried to buy some 3rd party stuff a while ago and it was fucking terrible.

[Austin]

I'm sure I've said it somewhere else in the thread, but yeah, I agree that the third party sticks are terrible. I've tried multiple new replacements.. all crap. Dead zone is huge on all of them, completely negating the point of the stick all together. Very little finesse allowed. Good luck playing F-Zero X well with them.

Curious myself as to how the Brawler controllers are in comparison. Might consider picking one up. Though knowing me, I probably asked about them last year and forgot. I still have two OG controllers with good original sticks that still work well.

[scrilla4rella]

Ogre Battle 64 seems to get some hate but I really enjoyed it back in the day, played it all the way to the end. I didn't know about the morality system so a lot of my units were OP towards the end, but damn it was fun. I don't believe Matsuno was involved but it still has that Ogre Battle (and Tactics) feel, which is a precious thing indeed.

The Treasure games are great of course, as has been mentioned.

The Goemon games always looked fun, especially the second one as it's a 2.5 platformer.

My 64 collection is basically just the Treasure games. It's pretty much all I need, thinking about getting an Everdrive and selling the lot but damn the Japanese boxes look real nice

Edit: Oh fuck, forgot about F-Zero X, that's god-tier IMO

[Udderdude]

Some good JP games that have translation patches available

Bomberman 64 - Arcade Edition
Choro Q 64 II - Hacha Mecha Grand Prix Race
Custom Robo
Last Legion UX
Puyo Puyo Sun 64
Wonder Project J2 - Koruro no Mori no Jozet

[Austin]

Edit: Oh fuck, forgot about F-Zero X, that's god-tier IMO

True story.

Whenever I bust out my Nintendo 64, F-Zero X is mandatory playing, period.

[Blinge]

Body Harvest, anyone ?

[tacoguy64]

Did anyone here get one of the brawler 64 controllers from Retro Fighters? I'm quite intrigued by them, but I previously bought a Tribute 64 from Retrobit (basically a Hori mini pad clone), and I couldn't get to grips with how sensitive the stick was on that. Plus I bought the Brawler gen controller from Retro Fighters for my Saturn, and I was quite underwhelmed by it.

I'd say the Brawler 64 is serviceable. I prefer both the original and Tribute 64 over it, but games do feel fine playing with it for the most part. I'm glad it exist and there are other alternatives. Shame that after all this time there still isnt a good way of replacing the stick on a stock controller.

As for fame box cover art, the japanese version of f zero is amazing. So many good covers on that system.

[XoPachi]

Think this console has my favorite sound and music.
I love how so many sound effects in N64 games were so overdone.
What on EARTH is the sound of breaking a box supposed to be in Mario 64??? I love it.

[To Far Away Times]

The N64 is exhibit A for Quality over Quantity. It's the system that laid the groundwork for modern 3D gaming.

Mario 64 was a mind blowing experience back in '96 for 10 year old me. Jaws were dropped and bricks were shat.

Ocarina was a bona fide classic and so ambitious for its time.

GoldenEye blazed the trail for the console FPS craze.

StarFox 64 with the rumble pak.

It was so cool to see games evolve at a breakneck pace.

It felt like Nintendo was paving the way for everyone else and teaching 3D game design.

[Udderdude]

Suppose I'll post this here .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz8mW7DrOxY

The N64 has such a small game library, but a lot of quality. Out of it's 388 games, I'd say about 120 are worth checking out. That's pretty damn good.

[Sumez]

Which 120? That's a lot higher than I'd think.

[Koa Zo]

N64 analogs turning to dust is such a huge problem

Is that to say they are simply deteriorating due to age? like are the sensors just dying sitting in storage?
Or are you referring to how the heavily used ones just get beat-up and worn out?

The N64 is exhibit A for Quality over Quantity. It's the system that laid the groundwork for modern 3D gaming.
It felt like Nintendo was paving the way for everyone else and teaching 3D game design.

It sure may look that way if you are ignorant of the rest of game design history.

[Blinge]

Or are you referring to how the heavily used ones just get beat-up and worn out?

Yeah

[Udderdude]

Which 120? That's a lot higher than I'd think.

I think it depends on how much you like racing games, because the N64 had a ton of them.

Anyway, pastebin time I guess. https://pastebin.com/eTtqZ6aj

As usual, YMMV and my list isn't yours, so you might include games I wouldn't and vice versa. Plz no bully.

[Sumez]

my list isn't yours, so you might include games I wouldn't and vice versa. Plz no bully.

I'm just asking out of curiosity, not expecting our lists to be the same at all.
And for the record, I don't enjoy racing games at all XD

(do people seriously like Bomberman 64 though?)

[Blinge]

the '64 did have some utter shite on it though.

Iggy's wreckin' Balls anyone? I was a dumb kid who'd soak up any sham review/advertisement in a magazine and ask for that shit.

[Blinge]

Edit: No Mercy would be amazing without the glitch.

That fucking glitch!!! arrrghh.

The save-wipe glitch right? utterly heartbreaking.

[cave hermit]

I do actually remember Iggy's Wrecking Balls, I rented it at least once and was utterly baffled by it.

I actually managed to get my N64 controller back together correctly on a second attempt, although the z button feels a bit... dense(?) now. The little silicone thing probably didn't fit snugly onto the contact point when I put it back together. Also I may have used too much silicon grease, the control stick assembly is slick with it now.

I also got my Brawler 64, and I like it more than the Tribute 64 but less than the original controller. That said I'm probably going to use the Brawler 64 as my primary controller now just because it feels so ergonomic and the analog stick feels so comfortable, even if it is a little too sensitive for my liking.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Perfect Dark was a cool and ambitious game for its time but was utterly plagued by slowdown; a great game that needed to be made on a more powerful console, basically. Or maybe some of it was programming inefficiencies; I don't remember the port of Quake 2 having those kinds of issues. Is the Xbox 360 remake worth playing instead?

Turok had an unusual arena FPS (think Quake III) for the N64 called Turok: Rage Wars that was pretty fun that I don't remember hearing anyone else talk about.

(do people seriously like Bomberman 64 though?)

Bomberman 64 is amazingly fun in the multiplayer battle mode. I remember playing it a ton, only having two controllers and a steering wheel, so I always volunteered to play it with the steering wheel!

The story missions are more gimmicky; you can't use any of the costume pieces in story mode, so all the ones you find are limited only to dressing up when playing the battle mode. And unless you have a memory pak and a save file on it, you can't use them either, so usually only player 1 would get to even use them. The story missions have gold cards you're encouraged to collect which unlocks an extremely hard additional level, and eventually additional costumes as well as 4 new battle mode maps (you can unlock these levels using a code). The most ridiculous thing is the Gold Armour set which requires beating Hard Mode with all 120 cards obtained under 3 hours. There's at least one or two levels in Hard I never figured out how to get the target time on and apparently involves complicated bomb climbing tricks. And this is where the actual difficulty of the game comes in; unlike traditional Bomberman games where it's more about dealing with the enemies, the real challenge in Bomberman 64 is solving the complicated physics puzzles where you have to build bomb bridges and such to get across gaps, usually finding the remote bomb item first then working on figuring out how to bounce your way across gaps using bomb bridges. There's entire guides dedicated to just how to build bomb bridges: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/19679 ... faqs/31423

It's a fun game, but if you want to get all the content unlocked in the game it's a far more grueling challenge than other Bomberman games. You have to run all the standard levels twice; once to get the gold card for beating it under par time, and once to get all the hidden gold card items. Learning how to get all the gold cards is a massive undertaking since bosses require doing specific gimmicky things which can be tricky even when you know what to do, and to get the special Hard Mode unlock requires knowing how to do all this fast enough to get everything in under 3 hours. You pretty much have to play Hard Mode once to figure out where things are, then replay it for speed with a plan in mind to get the gold cards. I think it's impossible to locate everything on a 1st playthrough and be able to get all the gold cards in under 3 hours, it's all too easy to spend lots of time getting lost in some of the larger, sprawling levels so if you're aiming for the Gold Armour, you've pretty much got to speedrun the game while knowing how to get every single collectable quickly. I've never 100%'d the game but I imagine it'd be extremely upsetting to come close to getting 120 cards only to go over the 3 hour mark.

[Udderdude]

Wow. Going to be honest, I didn't think Bomberman 64 was going to be the most contentious thing on the list.

[BIL]

Which 120? That's a lot higher than I'd think.

I think it depends on how much you like racing games, because the N64 had a ton of them.

Anyway, pastebin time I guess. https://pastebin.com/eTtqZ6aj

As usual, YMMV and my list isn't yours, so you might include games I wouldn't and vice versa. Plz no bully.

I ain't see Virtual Pro Wrestling 2. IMMA KILL U CTRL+Ving from elsewhere

There's probably something of value for me to wring from the multiplayer or even just the brutal fights.

Absolutely. AKI were basically former Human Entertainment staff who branched off to continue the Fire Pro tradition of excellence. The VPWs are strikingly Technos-esque, actually, with the emphasis on beating down the enemy before landing the killer blow. Go for the big moves early and you'll only get shrugged off.

They're perceived as button-mashers by some, probably due to the woefully mistaken belief that hammering your controller will create miracle throw escapes/reversals. LOL NO. The only button involved is "R," and the most leisurely of tap-tap-tapping during the grapples will get you the escape - assuming you've got the Spirit meter, the remaining good health, and a bit of luck.

Luck's influence will range from overpowering to imperceptible, depending on your Spirit and condition. Serious drama when two bloodied, half-dead rivals are desperately trying for that big momentum-turning slam. Meanwhile, if you've just force-fed the enemy his own ass cheeks, you can be 99.9% sure that DDT is gonna hit square.

As for strike reversals, the timing-based system ensures nothing but icy-cold skill will work there. And on the flip side, mashing out strikes (or grabs) willy-nilly is a really bad idea! Mash on a pro and before long, you're gonna be picking up your teeth with a broken arm.

Like any series that saw yearly/biennial revisions, it looks convoluted from the outside... basically, just go for VPW2 (it's still pretty cheap even brand new). It came out right at the end of the series' core refinements, before the Western-only finale No Mercy basically added a ton of backstage "hardcore" fluff. No Mercy is totally fine - even the furniture-chucking hardcore is done to AKI's typical high standards - and it's probably along with Wrestlemania 2000 the next-best alternative. But I prefer the purity of VPW2, which also has its wickedly intense MMA mode - basically an entire game unto itself, FO FREE. You can even mix/match the Puro and MMA styles, creating a hybrid game type.

The earlier games (pre-Wrestlemania 2000) suffer from silly balancing... their enormous rosters don't even try, really, especially on the critical matter of strike reversals. Some grapplers have unstoppable submission holds, others are stuck with easily-caught counterstrikes. WM2000-onward let you totally sidestep this with Create-A-Wrestler. Just clone a wrestler into a vacant slot and tweak up/down as needed. In my little groups, we like to go either/or... either everyone has instant reversals, for viciously punishing and likely brief bouts, or nobody does. I recommend the latter; reversal volleys can go on for hilarious lengths, until someone finally botches their timing and eats a knuckle sammich! The SFX of a successful catch will stick in your mind... *BAP!*

TLDR: they're genuinely really well-done head-to-head brawlers, with pitch-perfect party/hardcore appeal. Don't be fooled by the biennial updates and silly pro wrestling gimmicks; a ton of heart and expertise went into these games.



A CORNERED FOX IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN A JACKAL (｀ω´メ)

Spoiler

EVEN NINJA APPROVES OF THIS BONE-CRUSHING WRASSLIN (・｀W´・)

Spoiler

[Obiwanshinobi]

I saw a real-life fox the other night, always a pleasant sight in the city!
(I used to see one's corpse, apparently run over by a car for quite a while before, so this was a nice change.)

[BIL]

<333 rough out there for little furry chaps. 3;<

[Blinge]

AKI engine wrestlers were fucking sick.

I loved how much skill went into the playing honestly. fond memories of 4 player royal rumble with all 40 wrestlers to come

Real OGs know about this jam https://youtu.be/Rtjl8NBin2g

socko!

[BIL]

Was moved beyond all comprehension to see this awesome dude cover Revenge's Starrcade BGM, Mega Drive style ^__^ (he also has a head-stomper of a Rising Blue Lightning, and this Konami 8bit gem, and a million other goodies)