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"Nintendo 64"

Here a question.

How long do people think the N64 has left to live?

With games like Perfect Dark, Zelda: The Continuing Sage, Turok 3, A Resident Evil game, Top Gear Rally 2, and a bunch of other wicked games this year. How long will the N64 live for? Specially with the PS2 and Dolphin on the horizon how much longer can the N64 last?

Cooky

Chicken tag and the inflator.

Anything else worth seeing in the game?
Does there need to be for £8?

That's a point. What if you get the chicken's health up high with medipacks then take the inflator to it? I'll have to try that one.

Fact: The playstation is a lot easier to program for than the N64.
Fact: This is not necessarily good.
Why?: Devoted and keen game makers work hard to make games for the N64, so dedication to work is needed. Playstation on the other hand, have coders that will produce hundrads of pointless games. There are a lot of good games on the PSX, but they are swamped with really bad games.

Yeah, I remember. The dance of the seven veils. Thats all I remember...

I suppose with a light gun it would be easier to shoot with a giant screen tv, because you have more to aim at.
I love house of the dead, and games like that in arcades...
There is this great game, where you use a basooka (sp), God that was fun, big robots coming towards you, and blowing up bridges and cars.
Greeeeaaaaaattt fun.

The logic 3 controller is a very well built controller, The first thing that struck me was the looks (as is usually the case). The controller is clear so you can see the internal workings and is very tastefully crafted. The joystick is longer than in the regular Nintendo ones and it tapers down to the connection area, it doesn't get too thin though so I wouldn't worry about it breaking under stress. The middle handhold is normal length, but the outside two are nubbed off. I found this to be a little unsettling in the beginning because my hands didn't fit fully on the holds, but I got used to it and now I have started to like it.

The controller features all the normal buttons and slots of the N64 controller, but the people at Logic 3 added two extra buttons. There is a turbo button and a slow motion button. I thought that the turbo function was a little wierd to activate, but it worked fine in my experience with it. To tell you the truth, I couldn't get the slow motion function to work, all the games I tried it with continually paused and unpaused, so I can't give you a report on that feature. Judging on the quality of the product itself, I have no doubts that this feature works fine.

Well, after the initinal inspection, the real fun began. I plugged in my copy of NFL Blitz 2000 and my brother and I battled it out for four quarters. I'm happy to report that the controller did fine under the test. The analog stick moved smoothly and I had no problems while beating my brother into the dirt. That wasn't the end of it for that day though, I tried out Jet Force Gemini also. Once again, no problems were encountered while I strafed and blasted my way though the bug drones. But the real torture test was yet to come. I turned it over to my siblings for them to try, and the results were the same. Although my littlest sister (9 years old) said that it was hard for her to grip. It was said that they liked it better overall than the normal controllers. (:

The only bad things that I could find were the outside handgrips take some getting used to, I couldn't get the slow motion to work, and one thing I haven't mentioned until now is that sometimes when I turned on a game it would say "controller one not detected", the problem could be corrected by turning the game off and on a couple of times, but it's something that annoyed me anyway.

Overall I found this controller to be very high quality and functional. I would recommend this item to anyone testing the N64 controller waters.

Yes, it's true. Mario and his cast of friends are back onto the Nintendo 64 console, quickly rebounding from the success of Super Smash Brothers. But this time, the developers felt the whimsical bunch needed to conquer something more powerful to truly be mascots who have gone through such peril to finally be called heroes (or super-villians for that no-good Bowser). If you were thinking Mario and his pals had to cross the lava-filled rivers of Koopa again, you're wrong. Are you that slow not to say that golf was next on the list? Guess so...
The game opens up with a vibrant look at the main mascots for the game. Mario, Peach, Baby Mario, and Yoshi all hit perfect shots...but who gets a slap in the face from Nintendo? None other than Luigi, who hits a terrible shot into the woods. Is the 64 just a mocking machine towards Luigi by his Nintendo executives? Seems that way, but watch out...he'll have revenge someday.

Anyway, back to the review. The first thing that really impressed me in the game was the selection of so many game modes! There's a training option for all you beginners, a normal stroke game, skins game, tournament mode, "Get-a Secret Character" mode, ring-shot challenge, and everybody's favorite; mini-golf. This title just engulfs you with so much gameplay, you don't know where to start.

After choosing your first character (out of 4), you begin the gameplay. Learning how to play the game is quite simple; move the grid where you want to hit it, let the wind come into play, and the old "hit the button, stop it at the rectangular mark, and stop it where you started." Quite easy, as this technique is in just about every other golfing game for any system. Quickly completing a normal round of golf, you most likely want to do the "Get-a-Character" mode, so you can earn better, quality players that can drive the ball longer.

Speaking of playing an actual game, the course really plays into your game. First off, the graphics are flush and vivid, giving the player a cool mixture of colors and a calm atmosphere. The wind blows, trees are present, annoying sand traps, hills, mountains, etc... All these elevations of the field must be thought out, or you could be down 3 strokes on a hole real quick.

This game, plain and simple, forces out a challenge to any player, being experienced in golf videogames or not. The AI is incredibly smart, quickly knowing where to lie the ball or how hard to hit it in a case of a bout between you, the human player. Of course, the more characters you earn, and the new ones you want, the harder the computer players get. Getting your skills down really takes some practice and concentration.

Sound in this game is normal. Crisp, calm tunes put your golf mind in thinking. The whoosh of the golf club and the thud of the ball hitting the ground are all there. Either way, most gamers will probably zone-out the music as they try to concentrate on making that ever-so-important birdie putt.

The one major thing I found "annoying" at first was the putting controls. There are 3 settings: short, medium, and long. Say you have a distant shot, and it's your first time playing; the game automatically has you on a medium setting. So you putt, miss the hole. So you plan to putt again with the same strength, and it literally goes 2 feet, and barely reaches the hole.. What the hell happened? Well, if you didn't notice (like myself), the putting mode changed to "short," which means more force must be exurted. It might be a nuisance at first, but you do get the hang of it real fast.

Overall, Mario Golf is a great game for any Nintendo 64 gamer to own. Great gameplay, loads of modes and replay value, and a great game for 4 players makes this game superb. If you have doubts of a golf game, rent it, and see if you like it. If you want some multiplayer action and competition, definitely look to this game as a purchase. The choice of clubs, and payment to your retailer, is your free will.

Rare has quite a history of coming out with cutting edge games and Banjo-Kazooie is no exception. This game definitely carried on the tradition set by the Donkey Kong series.
You are Banjo, a loveable bear who would like nothing more than to just sit at home and play around with your best friend, Kazooie, a Red-Crested Breegull that hangs out in Banjo's backpack. But Banjo's peaceful world is shattered when his little sister Tooty is kidnaped by Gruntilda the evil witch. Her evil plan is to steal all of Tooty cuteness and transfer it to herself, and you are the your sister's only hope.

This game boasts 16 moves for you to use in you fight against the ugly witch, most of them you must first learn from Bottles the mole before you can use them yourself though. Basic moves you learn at the beginning in the training grounds, after that there are one or two in each level that you have to get Bottles to teach you. All you have to do is find his mole hill and he will pop up and talk to you.

An extreme amount of items await you, some you collect, and some you use to progress into the level farther (such as feathers to help you fly and eggs to shoot at bad guys). There are literally thousands of items waiting for you. Eggs, feathers, notes, jigsaw pieces, jinjos, the list goes on. In case your wondering, jinjos are colored animals that Gruntilda has captured, you have to find five in each level and they reward you with a jigsaw piece.

Maybe a little explaining is needed about the items. Eggs you can collect to shoot at baddies and to solve puzzles, red feathers let you fly and gold ones make you invincible for a while, there are one hundred notes in each level that you use to open note doors so you can go into more areas of Gruntilda's lair, jigsaw pieces let you complete jigsaw puzzles so you can access levels, 10 of them come in each level.

In some levels there is a witch doctor name Mumbo-Jumbo who (for a certain number of tokens) will transform you into another animal for that level, or until you go to get changed back. Some of his visits can get expensive, but they are worth it, so save up your tokens, also you only pay for your first visit, all others are free.

Because of the huge number of moves, the controls are a little confusing, but they are easy to adjust to and remember. One thing is when the camera swings around, you might get confused, but I didn't find that to be a huge problem. Graphics are very sweet, they are everything that you've come to expect from Rare, this game boasts nice 3D backgrounds and very nicely rendered characters. You could spend hours just wondering the huge levels and exploring (which you usually do so you can find a way to solve all the puzzles), speaking of puzzles, they are well thought out. Not too easy but not so hard you spend hours on it then quit playing the game.

This is an extremely nicely put together game, another score for Nintendo. I would recommend it to everyone, this game will keep you in front of the TV for hours figuring out all the tricks and puzzles. Nice.

Red Storm Entertainment, fiscally unnoticed until the release of their super-PC game, Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six brings a more strategized approached to the first person shooter genre. A game where body shields aren’t plentiful, and usually one shot kills. You have to plan, strike and attack, in an espionage-esque title, where stealth is the key. Most of the fun lies within the intricate detailing, included in panning missions, escorting hostages, and picking outfits for every singe player.
Rainbow Six has its crests and troughs, but overall, Rainbow Six proves to be a massive amount of espionage fun. I’ve seen better graphics, but the pop-ups are few and the fogging isn’t applied on in a viscous manner. Dull atmospheric buildings, not a very whimsical color scheme aside, its an espionage game. It wasn’t built for its illustrious eye candy, it was built upon a sturdy engine, and genuine merriment gamestyle. If you wanted an overcrowding of visually-pleasing polygons, rent Banjo-Kazooie!

Now that we’ve explored the crests, of course the troughs await us. One of rainbow Six’s biggest flaws is in the musical department. From the corny, melodramatic scores when a dear team-mate dies, to the poor in-game music, Rainbow six lacks musically. I know it’s a cartridge based-game, and music can’t be set at that high of a standard, but we’ve heard a lot better.

Maybe another category that leans more towards the mediocre-poor section of the rating system is the control. The camera system has a few bugs within it, one noticeably being its hyper-sensitive fluidity. meaning, that whenever you slightly touch the analog, it jerks in a direction leaving you a little deranged and perplexed as to where you are at or where your going. The game uses the same type of directional system as the Turok engine, using the yellow C buttons as a D-Pad. And as we learned in the Turok series, and as we’ll learn now, that probably isn’t the most efficient style. To say the least, its a bit hard to be at your stealth-best, trying to strife walls and creep around corners, when your stuck with such a 2-dimensional (no pun intended)directional system.

After the first hour (most likely when you’ll first place the capacious controller down), you’ll most likely realize that Rainbow Six is a fun game. One worth a definite rental. It’s efficient, well thought out approach to your bland FPS style shooters, is a fresh breath of air. And its complex options and missions will keep the replay value peaked out. Your gonna most likely want to add this one to your library...

The game that follows the most anticipated movie ever is worth a look.


Following right on the heels of the new Star Wars movie comes the game that will put you in the cockpit of some of the fastest vehicles in the show. Star Wars: Episode I: Racer puts you in the drivers seat of a podracer that travels at speeds of over 600 miles per hour. Very cool.
Unlike in the movie, you aren't Anakin racing for your freedom, you are whoever you want to be racing for fame and fortune. There are four game modes for you to choose from; tournament, free play, time attack, and two player. Free play allows you to race on any track you have unlocked in tournament mode, you can pick the number and intelligence of the AI players, time attack give you the track all to yourself to see how fast you can really go, two player pretty much explains itself so I'll tell you about the tournament mode. Here is where you really begin your game, you start off with the beginning racers until you unlock the more powerful ones (or you get enough money to buy upgrades) on any track you choose. I'd advise you go with the amateur circuit first so you don't get ripped a new one right off the bat, though you can play the circuits in any order you want. You must place fourth or better in order to move on to the next race and the higher you place, the more truguts (or money) you get. A nice feature on this game is that you can control the way the money is distributed, there is fair (the way to go if you feel generous), skilled (this favors the first place finisher a little more), and if you feel lucky, winner take all.

In all the races there is a track favorite, if you place first in the race, you unlock that racer. There are 23 total racers and 25 tracks all for your racing delight so you will keep entertained for awhile. If you are the loyal kind and prefer to stick with one racer, you'll have to upgrade sooner or later and to do that you'll have to win some money. Once you build up enough truguts to buy what you'll need, there are two ways to go about it. You can either go to Watto's shop (for those of you who have no clue who Watto is, he is an alien who runs a parts store) and find it or go out back to his junkyard where you can buy used parts for less. One thing you should buy ASAP is pit droids, these guys fix your pod in between races. You'll need them so buy them. I found that the game lacked in three categories, replay value, after I beat it I didn't really feel like coming back to it unless it was to play a friend, but it is extremely fun while it lasts, music, you don't even hear anything until the last lap, and length and difficulty. About a week after I got the game, I beat it and all I was left with was that "is that all?" feeling. As usual with Lucas Arts, the graphics are very nice and detailed, even though you really don't have much time to look at them when everything is a blur. Control I thought was a little touchy, of course, this depends on your upgrades.

All in all this is a nice game, not the greatest racer in the world, but really true to the movie. It was nicely thought out and put together except for the few flaws I found, but those shouldn't stop you from buying this game.

the fact is the gamecube is tiny and the playstation 2 is huge. gamecube LOOKS chunky from the pics but in reality it will look more sleek than the playstation.

the clock speed for the gamecube is 400+ mhz
that for the playstation is less than 280mhz

the gamecube is easier to develop for and also less expensive

the controller is better
nintendo makes the best games
end of story
nintendo made mistakes with the n64 but the gamecube seems to be a success story in the making

later