linko9 wrote:A gamecube and a copy of F-Zero GX will run you under $25 on Amazon. You really owe it to yourself to get this game, it's much better than X, and thus is by far the best racing game ever made.
On topic, do try to get a N64 controller and a USB converter, especially for games where all 6 of the face buttons are used.
I haven't played either (yet) but I understand they're totally different games, so this is a non-starter. If somebody wants to play a N64 game, it's easy to say a better GC equivalent could be found in most cases...but that's not really the point of the topic.
A correction to my post earlier:
Shadowgate 64: I opened up the ROM, watched the first few seconds and realized it's not the game I described. The game I described is actually...
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage. (Didn't have to load it up to figure it out; it just seemed appropriate that Shadowgate 64 would be open-roaming instead of what looks mostly like a piece of garbage not worth the Shadowgate name.) The open-roaming aspect was the most interesting part of it - but other than that it feels very ambitious for the N64, it really isn't high on most peoples' must-play lists. If I had to choose between a Fable game or Ultima IX and Aidyn Chronicles, Aidyn loses. But I also feel that the game's unique enough that it's hard to say something else can really "replace" it.
I also rediscovered BattleTanx 2: Global Assault. Cheesy, not polished at all, but in a way it's the sort of game I remember the system for. I remember seeing BattleTanx ads in one of the Army Men games on the same system.
At the moment, playing through
Jorge Blomero's DIAKATANIYUH FOR EN SIXTYEFOUR, HURR. It's not good, but for the system - it's almost kind of average. The joke on poor Romero here is that it was finished in apparently only 3 months, and is still reasonably fun to play (sometimes, after much fiddling with DarkMan's DInput - I don't have it perfect but at least the aimpoint isn't slewing around - much mouse lifting is going on however) with new levels ("inspired" by the old ones I'd say, maybe they hacked some of the geometry up) and the ability to keep your old weapons. Big downsides: Much screen space is uselessly dedicated to a display of your current "levels," or bumps up (on a five-point scale) of your various statistics after you kill so many experience points worth of bads. After the first mission you're nearly done with leveling - the levels are noticeable for say jump height and speed at the highest level, but by the third mission end I ought to have them all completed. There is also a space for the DOOMguy style head, but it does nothing here. The sad part is that these elements have screen space around them...I think I ought to go into the menu and see if I can't turn them off because they're just wasting valuable screen real estate. High resolution mode merely makes these elements high resolution, and seems to do nothing for the textures. Of course Project64 already outputs much higher resolutions than the N64, so the higher resolution (which doesn't seem to be coming at a speed penalty) could be worthwhile.
There is a lot of bad garbage in this game, including objectives that aren't clear at all (I nearly quit the end of the first mission and level skipped because I didn't realize I had to hit a switch in a little nook I hadn't seen earlier before hitting a switch to extend a bridge later), horrendous enemy pop-up (very noticeable in corridors), first-person platforming which is totally screwed by the levels system and also if you're going at the wrong speed (I'd rather be playing Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness), and many other small issues. On the "good" (I guess) side, the hammer from Greece may need to be charged up (oh, that's another bad point, isn't it?) but you can kill enemies through walls with it, and it requires no ammo. Pretty powerful and knocks out all the low level bads right away, as long as they're on the ground. Even useful against bosses, I'm finding. Didn't I also mention you can keep weapons from previous missions? That's good, and makes ammo hoarding less of an issue (though I am finding I an squeak through levels without really having to use weapons, many of which are too slow / clumsy to use regularly anyway). I suspect the weapons all being available at once is the game making use of the game pak for instant-access memory. On the bad side, this is not a pretty game, compared to others on the N64 (like Quake II) - but you can still see some of the occasional neat textures and work of the PC original. That original PC version was heavily dated even when it came out, but after this it probably will look like a masterpiece of modernity.
Update: Well, I knew I was being optimistic on the levels. The last tier of levels requires so much EXP that I've still got a ways to go, not that it matters if I can jump much higher or "power" (there's also an "attack" stat so I don't know which is which). Also, DEAR GOD THE CUTSCENES. I'm guessing they more or less took the cutscenes straight from the PC game because they occasionally show stuff that's not actually encountered in the game - like one boss in Greece! Also, they took out some of my favorite parts of the levels (and what's left just got worse, and shorter, also uglier, way uglier even in Alcatraz).
(keep in mind I hate football in real life)
