The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[Serguei2]

Any metroidvania games on n64?

[DragonGrafx-16]

21 minutes ago, Serguei2 said:

Any metroidvania games on n64?

There's Castlevania 64... but it's a mixed bag.

[Tanooki]

5 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

Any metroidvania games on n64?

No.  The closest in some vague way would be Bangaioh a Japanese release as you have the 2D play, large map, corridor style play where you attack moving and stationary targets but the similarities end there as they're little alike.

[Asaki]

On 11/27/2022 at 6:48 PM, Reaperman said:

Since this thread's getting some recent love, anybody got any recommended hacks (or homebrew) that run on real hardware?

I haven't tried all of these, but:

Duke Nukem 64: 4-Player Coop: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7350/

 Mario Kart 64 - 4 Player Grand Prix: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6711/

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Gamecube to N64: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2962/
There's one for OoT too, but it must be somewhere else...

GoldenEye X: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/788/
This one ports GoldenEye's multiplayer into the Perfect Dark engine.

 

On 11/27/2022 at 6:48 PM, Reaperman said:

I've been hearing rumblings of a hack to improve the FPS of mario 64, but when I heard about it a year or so ago, it hadn't been released yet. Sounds worth a try, even if it's not my favorite game.

 

Not a HUGE framerate improvement, but still a great hack (well, technically it is compiled from reverse engineered source):

Super Mario 64: Shindou Improvement: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5755/

It's based on Shindou Version, so you get Rumble Pak support

 

[Reaperman]

5 hours ago, Asaki said:

GoldenEye X: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/788/

Now THAT is a heck of a good idea for a hack. I'm in.

 

 

[Asaki]

56 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

Now THAT is a heck of a good idea for a hack. I'm in.

IKR?
I haven't been able to try it with humans yet, but I played it with bots for a bit, and it's pretty cool.

[SlidellMan]

Tetrisphere's Puzzle Mode:

Still one of the best on the system, and Puzzle games are in dire need of a revival.

[Asaki]

I've been going through a few games lately, but too lazy to dig out my memory pak for "those" games... ¬_¬

 

Making decent progress on Super Mario 64 (hack with Rumble Pak support). We never had this one growing up, but we did get the remake for the DS, and I've beaten that one before. The original is a little bit different.

 

Just beat Star Fox 64 the other day. I was never a huge fan of the original, but this one's mostly decent. It is a lot like Star Fox 2.

 

Played Ogre Battle 64 for a few hours the other night...wow, that is one pretty game O_O I'm not very good at strategy, but I was doing alright.

[Tanooki]

I had been lightly scratching it in the last 30 days, Quest pops up as I've got a guide for it now to make map muddling easier, but also there's the other I got in a cheap bundle in November I tinker with a bit (the unique quake 2, blast corps, and a few others.)  Problem is, I've got some quality SNES and GBA things going at the moment, time can only be spread so thin.  Makes me hate and like what I have, hard to stick to it.

[SlidellMan]

Kaze Emmanuar's latest development:

 

[Senneman]

It seems like a short/ small game, but looks pretty fun to me 🙂.

Overall, just nice to see a new physical release for the N64!

 

[SlidellMan]

Enjoy!

[SlidellMan]

Densha de Go 64:

Taito actually made this one, whereas the two N64 Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble games were outsourced to Acclaim and Probe.

[SlidellMan]

Aero Gauge:

I like this game, but the higher speed classes seem ill-tailored for the tracks. If there is one game worthy of a hi-def remaster, this would be it.

[SlidellMan]

All of the Tetris games on the Nintendo 64:

As an added bonus:

By the way H20 (or was it H2O) also was respsoncible for Aidyn Chronicles, which I heard was terrible.

[Tanooki]

It's not bad, it's more on the misunderstood side.  People begging for RPGs on the system, they didn't want a western more style RPG, they wanted the sorry final fantasy they were denied and got pissy.  If you're more into a RPG with consequences more like you'd find on a PC or even book/pencil/paper then perhaps you would find some fun in it.  It's not badly done, just badly dumped on by those who didn't get what their want list projected onto it and failed to meet.  No it's not an A game, but it's not some C- or worse either.

[Wayler]

Oh boy, I have forgotten how rough the 3D games could look on N64. The gameplay also looks like a clunky mess. And whoever decided to add that parchment sound effect to the menu needs to hear that every time they close their eyes.

This is probably why I took a pause on consoles and moved to PC for a while after N64.

 

8 hours ago, Tanooki said:

People begging for RPGs on the system, they didn't want a western more style RPG, they wanted the sorry final fantasy they were denied and got pissy. 

 

Well of course, the SNES was the promised land of JRPGs. Then we get to N64 and you get nothing, you lose, good day sir.

 

[dudeguy]

Has anyone here played/beaten Aidyn Chronicles? I like the game even though the combat is brutal (in a bad way) and its not the most straightforward but the cutscenes are interesting enough that it keeps me coming back for more. one of these games I play because I feel like it needs some love, not because its actually good

Edited February 14, 2023 by dudeguy

[Tanooki]

It's not great, but it's fine.  Quest 64 is the better game, that one was done quite well more than not.  I guess the only RPG that really would top it, kind of at least is one given the way combat works specifically is Hybrid Heaven from Konami.

 

Aidyn is strange, clunky I guess it could be, but really most 3D games in that period were as it was a time of learning and largely most 3D environment games had a few problems or were utter garbage since some people just don't learn even working on the stuff which explains things on the soon to come mass failures and mergers of the 00s.

[SlidellMan]

@Tanooki Glad that I'm not the only person who thinks that Quest 64 was legitimately good. Sure, the random battles may lampshade it at parts, but overall I enjoyed it. I will say that it and Aidyn chronicles would be good remake candidates, but only with a judicious amount of QoL improvements on the gameplay front that don't tamper with the originals' souls.

[Wayler]

What's the opinion here on Blast Corps?

 

I think it's the best game by Rare for the N64 and still holds up quite extremely well because of the inventive and fun gameplay, that has not been replicated since (that I know of).

Blowing stuff will always be a blast (hehe) with the tight and responsive controls. It's quite a challenge also if you want to go for gold and I remember hammering away at the stages just to better my time because it was so much fun.

And the soundtrack is one of the best the system has to offer in energy and head-boppin' melodies.

 

It received huge critical acclaim at the time, so it's odd that the concept hasn't been revitalized but I guess when something is forgotten, it's forgotten. And then there's always the pesky sales figures, it only sold a million copies.

 

[newtmonkey]

Blast Corps was one of the first games I got for the system, and I absolutely loved it, though I never completed it.  In a way, it felt like a throwback to "simple" arcade games, where the real goal was to get better and improve your scores. It felt like a nice breath of fresh air to play something on a console that wasn't a plaformer.

 

It's such an amazing idea, to just have to run/drive/fly around destroying things with various vehicles, all of which take some skill to really master.  I'd love to see a modern take on the same idea.

Edited February 15, 2023 by newtmonkey

[roots.genoa]

I suspect it was far more popular in the US than in Europe, because I have never played it and don't even remember seeing the cart. Apparently it was released for Christmas in Europe, which is not necessarily a good thing to get noticed, but I'm not sure it got raving reviews here anyway (in France at least). I don't remember reading about it back then, and I mostly heard about it in recent years, especially from American players that consider it a sleeper hit.

[Asaki]

On 2/14/2023 at 8:09 AM, dudeguy said:

Has anyone here played/beaten Aidyn Chronicles?

I never got the chance to play it, but I wanted to.
I liked Quest 64 a lot back in the day, but I tried replaying it a couple years ago, and had a lot of trouble getting into the battle system.

 

BTW, pretty sure there's a revision for Aidyn Chronicles that's supposed to fix some crashes.

[Tanooki]

@SlidellMan I bought it when it came out.  I read up on it with the early days of IGN64 and Nintendo Power and was surprised by it.  I guess you could say semi-triggered with todays meme level catch words, but I get near there when people shit on that game without actually having given it a blank slate honest play.  I finished the game a couple times over the years, last year I found another copy of it, then got a guide too, largely not to miss the wisps for elements and just ease of navigation.  The lore around the scottish stuff is a really nice touch too not often seen in games.  What really got me was that unlike where Square peddled FF7 as a legit 3D RPG, it's not, Quest though, it actually is and I enjoyed it for that.  Turn based sure, but also you determine largely your own evasion and attacks connecting among still the chance of a basic miss.  They throw magics, move in a way to evade, not just some random crap roll of the dice, and basically same in return dropping something on them.  Then there was the mergers of elements for unique better spells, not common then either.  One thing I adored, years of playing JRPGs where people know you're saving the world, yet F U pay full price at the shops inns etc... this one?  Wow our savior, here, free room and board, free items... you don't get saddled with dumb crap.

 

The only truly legit gripes are real, it's why I'd never call it better than a B/B- game, and are easy to call out.  You can just grind levels and thump anything to death like a caveman with your club(staff.)  The camera is not always friendly, but can be mitigated by just keeping a button pressed to auto center behind, yet still can cause slight issue trying to line up a projectile (like the popular boulder) to hit an an enemy, and finally the game feels as bit sparse in place because it was clearly moved along perhaps if it ran behind schedule so it has cut stuff in areas that's kind of obvious.

 

@Wayler  Blast corps...bought it when it came out, largely cleared it, did see the ending.  Some of it just utterly obnoxious how picky it is to clear a space before the nuke ends up getting triggered.  Around that huge pile of aggravation is a really fun and unique game based around destructible environments which in that era were pretty new for 3D games.  Usually stuff just was what it was, here though, everything largely can be leveled and tears down the collision as well so you don't get pissy invisible wall hang ups.  The visuals are pretty solid for the year, as is the music, and then the variety of weapon cars/bots are pretty fun too.  I'm a little surprised but not it never had more come of it, even in todays dumb instant gratification needs I think it would make a non IAP buy and be done badass mobile game where you can swipe to wreck stuff--even ported/adapted as is.