Nofi’s ode to Mario 64 the other week got me feeling all nostalgic, but left me with a niggling feeling in the back of my head (that might have been the beer though). We all know about the N64’s big hitters – Mario, Zelda, GoldenEye 007; but what about the great games that never really get mentioned anymore? The N64 was far from a three horse race, so here’s my top five list of classic ‘alternative’ N64 games.
Space Station Silicon Valley
Space Station Silicon Valley landed on the N64 in 1998 and became an instant classic – which hardly anyone played! Brought to us by DMA Design (who went on to become none other than Rockstar North) the game revolves around the reappearance of a space station filled with animals that had gone missing 1000 years ago. Danger Dan and his robotic sidekick ‘Evo’ are sent to check it out, but unfortunately crash land – trapping Dan and reducing Evo to a crawling microchip.
It’s then we find out that all the animal inhabits have merged with the station’s technology – creating some interesting abominations (think jet powered fox). The central theme to Space Station Silicon Valley is the fact Evo can hijack any animal and use their abilities to solve puzzles and progress. A steam powered Hippo blocking your way? That’s cool, hijack a motorized Polar Bear and have a fight; or subsequently lure over a wheeled dog to distract it. Sure it didn’t look great, and had a number of glitches – but it had the foundations of something great, and a remake would be something very special.
Blast Corps
Nukes eh? Pesky things and the main threat in Rare’s 1997 classic ‘Blast Corps’. Two defective nukes have been scheduled for destruction, but in transit they develop a leak, causing an emergency protocol to kick in on the transport vehicle meaning it will go directly to the detonation site – the only problem is the buildings and people in the way, and that’s where you come in. Taking control of various vehicles it is your job to smash these buildings down – clearing a path for the nukes.
The range of vehicles is impressive; from super powered dumper trucks, to dune buggies, to huge mechs with jet packs; all with different special abilities to master -destruction has never been so much fun. The game was also incredibly tense, as the nukes were normally not far behind you – and when they appeared on screen you knew you were in trouble. Good job Rare.
Beetle Adventure Racing
During this previous Nintendo based article I bemoaned the lack of good racing games on the N64. Oh how foolish I was – I completely forgot about ‘Beetle Adventure Racing.’ The big stand out point of this game was the fact all the cars were VW Beetles. Sure there were different stats, but they were about as useful as a condom with air holes.
It sounds like a recipe for tedium, but it was incredibly good fun, and well remembered for its ‘shortcuts’ that actually took longer than going the normal route (hence the ‘Adventure’ in the title). The tracks were big, varied and enjoyable – and two player split screen racing and four player arena deathmatch sealed the deal. A real hidden gem.
Forsaken
Set on a post apocalyptic Earth, you play as a scavenger desperately trying to survive whilst harvesting as many goodies as you can before your rivals get them, or the Earth’s automated defence weapons get you. The game allowed full 360 degree movement, meaning attacks literally could come from anywhere as you piloted your jet-bike around large arenas.
Every weapon had three levels of upgrades, giving a noticeable jump in power – which is great because the game was rock hard with insane enemies and limited ammo. Forsaken also featured one of the best four player deathmatches on any console, with bots filling in for any missing friends.
Wrestlemania 2000
In my opinion this is still the best wrestling game ever created, and one that absorbed my younger years. Featuring 50 WWF stars, the game allowed you to edit them to your heart’s content, or dabble in one of the best ‘create a wrestler’ modes in existence. I’m fairly sure this was the first wrestling game that let you perform ‘The People’s Elbow’ as well – an important detail to any wrestling fan.
As it was based on the WCW vs. NWO Revenge engine the game had some horrendous collision detection, and none of the wrestlers’ arms/legs seemed to join to their bodies properly. This was offset by some amazing animation and the inclusion of taunts, allowing you to ‘flip the bird’ to the crowd. This was the golden age before wrestling games became stale and over complicated – I’d take Wrestlemania 2000 over its modern equivalent any day of the week.
So there we have it – my list. I’m aware there are some awesome games that have been missed (Body Harvest anyone?) but that’s where you come in – let me know your top five alternative N64 games.
DrNate86
Conker’s Bad Fur Day was the greatest game ever made!
xHeatherx
Oh and Conker! That game was awesome!!!! :D
Dunks
I lost a LOT of time on Adventure Beetle Racing… great game…
Also loved Shadowman although it was crazily frustrating at times…
Dan Lee
Ah Shadowman – forgot about that!
BalramRules
lool me 2
m61726b
Forgot all about Forsaken. Awesome game. Have fun playing that on my Voodoo 3DFX cards.
BalramRules
personally, da only gamez i liked on da N64 waz golden eye & dat game made by sucka punch (i cant rememb da name).
i felt it waz even better than golden eye, i think sony agreed, and datz probably why Sony purchased em too X)
Person678
Da innit. Starting to think you do it just to annoy people.
Mikiyaru
i prefer to think that his keyboard has only vowels and Z’s on it… zzzzzz
Ryan1991
This is how you type.
Personally, THE only gameS I liked on THE N64 waS Goldeneye and THAT game made by Sucker Punch (I can’t remembER THE name).
I felt it waS even better than Goldeneye, I think Sony agreed, and THAT’S probably why Sony purchased THem too X)
aerobes
I think the name of the game you are looking for which was created by Sucker Punch is Rocket: Robot on Wheels.
A superb but massively overlooked platformer which despite the title, Rocket had only one wheel.
It was nothing like Goldeneye though so I’m unsure why you’re comparing them and to my knowledge Sucker Punch have never made a FPS.
colossalblue
@BalramRules – Please stop writing like that. Use proper words and spelling as much as you can. We understand that not everyone who comments on our content is going to have a perfect grasp of the English language but you’re clearly not even trying and it’s clearly annoying a large number of our other commenters. Write properly or don’t comment at all, thanks.
Kronik76
Oh come on! It’s not like he’s posting anything derogatory or degrading to anyone! The English language has evolved over hundreds of years by people using slang, making tweaks and changes to words, and a large percentage of the words we use today are as a result of this. I’m sure that the purists of hundreds of years ago would have said ‘Thou should not speaketh in that manner!’. I think it’s far more ridiculous that people are actually letting themselves get wound up by this. It’s not like people can’t understand what he’s saying. A lot of people talk exactly how he’s spelling, and maybe he’s just trying to express this. Would he get banned from establishments for speaking like that? Only if said establishment was too snooty for its own good. Is that what TSA is? Like I said, he’s doing no harm in what he’s saying, so telling him not to comment is way over the top.
SpikeyMikey23
but hes doing it on purpose, its been established in another set of comments that he can write properly from other times hes visited and comments hes made when he first signed up, now hes just spamming articles with text speak shite.
colossalblue
It’s a matter of good manners. Writing like that might be easier for whoever is doing the writing but it makes it ten times more difficult to read. So we try to discourage it.
End of story.
Kronik76
I think it’s a slight exaggeration that it makes it ten times more difficult to read. Also, trying to discourage and telling them they can’t comment are two different things. It seems to me sometimes that you’re just trying to create a community whereby if someone is a bit different, or doesn’t quite fit in they’re not welcome.
AG2297
@Kronik76
I think this community is one of the most diverse there is, and definitely one of the most welcoming to newcomers. People speak different, we all recognise that, but this is taking it a bit extreme and words like gamez is no shorter than writing games so its pretty pointless. Balramrules can type perfectly well as we have seen on previous posts so people are just asking that he does that to prevent his comments looking pretty horrible visually and possibly ruining the flow of a conversation.
bunimomike
@ Kronik
One of the very reasons I enjoy TSA is that we all have a fairly decent grasp on English. When I see the chronic spelling and shorthand (keep in mind we all have full keyboards 99% of the time) I find it hard to read. Sometimes to a degree of deciphering and it also goes hand-in-hand with a real lack of respect to a community that has asked politely; asked firmly; then finally warned.
You’re absolutely right about the evolution of the language but how Balram types isn’t an evolutionary step. It’s a jarring step into txt speak and trying to look cool.
A little more effort on parts is all that’s been requested.
Hazel was kind enough to separate her paragraphs with a line break as I said I kept ignoring them and not out of spite. It was just too hard on the eyes and I felt myself skipping them subconsciously, which was a shame, as Hazel had some genuinely good input in the posts in question.
3shirts
The English language evolved the same way as anything else, better words survive and less useful/outdated ones die out. How exactly is spelling things with zs and vs any kind of improvement?
Kronik76
Hold on a minute, I never implied that it was any kind of improvement! But I totally disagree that text shorthand isn’t evolution. It’s commonplace in our society today, particularly with youngsters, and whether we like it or not I think it’s here to stay. Ultimately the next generation will decide how the language evolves.
@ Bunimo
I think it’s extremely rude of you to ask people to write in a style that you can be bothered to read. This is a gaming website to speak about gaming related issues, it should not be turned into an English lesson!
spooner_22
Come off it kronik, you’re just trying to be controversial, you know full well that people who use this site don’t like it when people use text talk…most of it isn’t even shorthand it’s stupid.
Quit defending him and find something creative to do.
Kronik76
I do plenty of creative things already, thank you. I’m a very creative person. Perhaps that’s why I don’t find myself getting hung up on how people choose to express themselves. Maybe Balram is just trying to higlight how petty it can get on here at times, in which case I applaud him.
Trying to be controversial? Not at all. Just trying to stand up for what I believe in, and I believe in this case that telling someone that they should stop spelling in a certain manner or they can’t comment anymore is wrong.
spooner_22
Then you’re as bad as him.
Dan Lee
I will get this back on topic, even if it means shouting random N64 games at you all!!
Iggys wreckin balls!!
Wipeout 64!!
Castlevania 64!!
BioFreaks!!
Clayfighter 63 1/3!
aerobes
I was literally about to post something along those lines, Dan. Nicely done. :)
Might I add,
Goemon’s Great Adevnture!
Glover!
Chameleon Twist!
Mischief Makers!
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards!
I can see myself purchasing an old N64 soon, such is the dearth of awesomeness on the machine. I’m loving these Nintendo articles. :)
Dan Lee
Funnily enough my first draft had Goemon and mischief makers in it!
spooner_22
my fave was pilotwings
CNWLshadow
My IQ drops every time I read your comments
spooner_22
dat wz funy as fuk dat m8…
wow my IQ dropped so much that I just started writing like a 15 year old girl for a second too there
retro_
Seriously, you need to go back to school.
xHeatherx
Haven’t played many of these games, but Forsaken was pretty good. The games I loved/love the most are games like Zelda Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye etc. Such a great console.
Chris0292
Banjo Kazooie and Mischief Maker were my top two games! I was so addicted to them when i was little!
Blimey.. all these memories.. i might have to dig out the box and plug it in…
Mikiyaru
Where the feck is Lylat Wars?!
dirtyhabit
+1 pulsed wars was ace. As was F-zero X and pilot wings ……. Good times :-)
dirtyhabit
Pulsed!? Lylatt! …. Stupid iPhone.
Oh and yeah forsaken was great too
freezebug2
Haha, I spent sooo much time completing Super Mario 64, and then started the game again straight afterwards(that’s how good the game was) that I had no time for any other N64 games, although I know that there were some great titles released.
freezebug2
I was telling porkies of course as I had a great time playing Donkey Kong and Ocarina in between Mario frustrations.
tactical20
Erm…
Goldeneye
Mario Kart
Zelda – Ocarina of Time
Mario 64
Tony Hawk 2
GhostViper
Read the article and you’l discover that this is an alternative list.
tactical20
Thanks GhostViper!
Ok, here’s my alternative list…
Tomb Raider
Cabbage Kingdom
Cillit Bang
Anorak Wars
Operation Pluto
TSBonyman
I completely forgot about Forsaken, i really enjoyed that game!