Category: Game Reviews

Developer: HAL Laboratory, Jack and Beans Publisher: Nintendo Released: July 26, 1999 8/10 Rated: E Pokémon Snap contains within it a number of the unique skills Nintendo has for turning numerous small factors into an overall successful project. We start with turning established genres with unconventional framing — in this case, the turning of what Read more

Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka (KCEO) Publisher: Konami Released: April 16, 1998 Rated: E 8/10 It’s common to look at great games and series that we missed out on in the West and wonder why they never got localized. Platformers, fighting games, puzzlers – things that can be brought over with minimal translation are always Read more

Developer: EA Canada Publisher: Electronic Arts Released: March 31, 1997 Rated: E 3/10 EA’s efforts on the N64 would drop off gradually as the years went on and the console ceded ground to the PlayStation as the destination for sports gamers. They were, however, pretty quick to get involved in the system with their first Read more

Developer: Factor 5, LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts Released: December 8, 1998 Rated: T 9/10 There are a lot of supposed “technical marvels” on the N64, from its first declaration of intent with Mario 64, to the compression wizardry of Resident Evil 2, the expansive world-building of Majora’s Mask, and, in its own way, the peripheral tango Read more

Developer: Camelot Publisher: Nintendo Released: July 21, 2000 8/10 Rated: E Before going into detail about the flavor of the Mario branding and the success Camelot continues to have in handling the IP, I feel it’s important to highlight the foundation of Mario Tennis and its tremendous quality and replayability. Even for aficionados of pure Read more

Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Released: April 1, 1998 Rated: E 7/10 From the days when every company needed to try its hand at an extreme sport to stay on the cutting edge of culture and technological advances, 1080 Snowboarding comes straight from the top team at Nintendo to prove the hardware’s power and the Read more

Developer: Crystal Dynamics Publisher: Crave Entertainment Released: September 28, 1999 Rated: T 6/10 Gex heads back into The Media Dimension for another series of small-screen parodies, rife with wisecracks and janky platforming. Though not the most deserving based on the quality of his previous efforts, the ability of Gex to market himself successfully and uniquely Read more

Developer: Nintendo Software Technology Publisher: Namco Released: February 14, 2000 8/10 Rated: E Nintendo probably didn’t need another racing title in its library by early 2000, with the genre easily being one of the most prolific on the system, both for its good and bad titles, and offering up just about every interpretation of the Read more

Developer: Rare Ltd. Publisher: Nintendo Released: November 25, 1996 Rated: T 7/10 Alongside Cruis’n USA, Killer Instinct Gold was one of the N64’s earliest releases that faced a lot of disappointment on release as an arcade port that simply underwhelmed. Hype building and previewing for a home port of Killer Instinct 2 date back to Read more

Developer: Syrox Developments Publisher: Crave Entertainment Released: December 14, 1999 Rated: E 5/10 I’m always interested in the progression of the arcade-revival genre that picked up a lot of steam in the fifth and sixth generations. As storage limits increased at home, compilations became more extensive while ports became less compromised, but some of the Read more