| | GoldenEye 007 is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console, based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
The game received overwhelmingly positive reviews and sold over eight million copies. It is considered an important title in the development of first-person shooters, and has become particularly well-known for the quality of its multiplayer deathmatch mode, as well as its incorporation of stealth and varied objectives into its single player missions. It is featured in several lists of the greatest video games of all time.
GoldenEye 007 was followed by a spiritual successor, Perfect Dark, also developed by Rare.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode was added late in the development process; Martin Hollis noted that the setting was "a complete afterthought". According to David Doak, the majority of the work on the multiplayer mode was done by Steve Ellis, who "sat in a room with all the code written for a single-player game and turned GoldenEye into a multiplayer game."
The multiplayer mode features all of the characters in the game, including enemies and civilians. At first, only 8 characters are available, with 25 more becoming available as progress is made through the game. A button code allows players to temporarily unlock another 31 characters, all but two of them likenesses of the programmers.
Development
GoldenEye 007 was originally announced for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System before being stepped up to the Nintendo 64. The intention for the first few months of development was for the game to be an on-rails shooter similar to Virtua Cop; it only became a traditional free movement first-person shooter later in development.
Reception
The game received overwhelming critical praise. When it was released in 1997, its stealth elements and varied objectives contrasted with the approaches taken by Doom and Quake, and its split-screen deathmatch mode proved popular. These factors contributed to the game's commercial success, selling eight million copies.
Along with Shiny Entertainment's MDK, GoldenEye is credited with popularizing the video game convention of a zoomable sniper rifle on consoles, enabling players to kill oblivious enemies from vast distances away with a single, precise head shot; context-sensitive enemy hit-locations were also pioneered by the game for console games that followed
Info above from wikipedia.com
| |
 |
|
Blast Corps is a video game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rare that was released in 1997, in which the player must destroy a series of buildings using a variety of unique demolition vehicles, in order to clear a path for a truck carrying a pair of defective nuclear missiles.
Plot
Two defective nuclear missiles are being moved to a safe location for a controlled detonation. The missiles begin to leak and the carrier vehicle transporting the missiles is automatically set onto a direct course to the detonation site. As the course takes it through many built-up areas, there are many obstacles on the way, and a single jolt could be enough to detonate the missiles and trigger a nuclear winter. The Blast Corps demolition company is given the task of clearing a safe route for the carrier and its missiles.
Gameplay
The game starts on a world map with only one accessible Carrier level (read below). Beating this level opens the "Easy" set of Carrier levels. When these are beaten, the next set of Carrier levels is opened. Bonus levels are earned by finding and activating communication devices hidden in some levels. And so, the game expands from a single Carrier level to many different levels of two types (Carrier and Bonus).
Each level is initially marked with a shadow, but this can be filled with a medal by fulfilling the secondary requirements of a Carrier mission (by destroying buildings, freeing survivors, and collecting RDUs), or by getting a good enough time in a Bonus mission. Each level is also circled in a green or red outline. A green outline means that there is at least one comm. device in the level that has not been found, whereas a red outline means that all of the satellites in the level have been found.
The first objective in the game is to clear all of the Carrier levels, but many more tasks await afterwards.
Vehicles
- Ramdozer: The Ramdozer is a fairly ordinary bulldozer.
- Backlash: The Backlash is a fairly slow-moving dump truck.
- Skyfall: The Skyfall is a small and fast dune buggy, with a booster.
- Thunderfist: The Thunderfist is a very large human-operated robot.
- Cyclone Suit: The Cyclone Suit is a robotic powered exoskeleton.
- J-Bomb: The J-Bomb is the third of the robotic demolition vehicles, and slightly smaller than the Thunderfist.
- Ballista: The Ballista is a motorcycle that destroys obstacles by firing missiles at them.
- Sideswipe: The Sideswipe is an articulated vehicle that destroys its targets by using extending rams on the left and right sides of its rear section.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| | |
| | Wave Race 64 is a racing game for the Nintendo 64 that was released on September 27, 1996 in Japan and on November 5, 1996 in North America. In Wave Race 64 the player races on jet skis in many different weather conditions, on a variety of different courses. The game was sponsored by the Kawasaki Heavy Industries brand.
Gameplay
The objective of each race is to not only to beat the other racers but also to successfully weave the jet-ski through various buoys. There are two types of buoys: red colored, which are signified by an R on them and must be passed on the right side, and yellow buoys, which are marked with an L and must be passed on the left side. Each time a buoy is correctly passed, a power arrow will light and the jet-ski will gain speed. Up to five arrows can be lit in order to obtain maximum power.
Failure to do either of these will result in a loss of power (though the arrows can be lit again) and missing five buoys over the course of a race will result in disqualification. Leaving the course (either by leaving the area limited by pink buoys or by leaving the water altogether) for more than ten seconds will also result in disqualification.
Gamemodes
- Championship: the player must beat a series of tracks and win the first place.
- Warm Up: In this mode, the player trains to use the jet-ski in a special course known as Dolphin Park.
- Time Trials: the typical time-attack mode in order to perform the best times, which are recorded in the game's data.
- Stunt Mode: In this mode the player plays solo in order to earn points by executing stunts and passing through hoops.
- 2P VS: A versus mode with a second player.
Development
Wave Race 64 was originally developed as a racing game featuring futuristic speedboats that changed forms by retracting or expanding itself, as shown in footage from the 1995 Nintendo Shoshinkai show. Because of its similarities with the then still-in-progress F-Zero X, the game took a drastic turn in its concept. Shigeru Miyamoto once stated that Wave Race 64 "taps 80% of the N64's power" and remains one of the most advanced N64 games ever released. The game features accurate wave physics, which are notorious for being difficult to program. Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of the Dead or Alive series, included a jet-ski mode on the game Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 because he is a great fan of Wave Race 64. Kazumi Totaka, song composer for the game, has a hidden song in many games for which he composes the music, but it is unknown whether or not it appears in this game. Ryota Hayami appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, though the trophy depicts him in his Blue Storm outfit.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| |
|
|
1080° Snowboarding , often reffered to as just 1080°, is a multiplayer snowboard racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and first released in Japan on February 22, 1998. The player controls one of five playable snowboarders from a third-person perspective using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks over eight levels.
Gameplay
The player controls a snowboarder in one of six modes. 1080° has two trick modes (trick attack and contest), three race modes (race, time attack, and multiplayer), a training mode, and an options mode. The objective of the game is either to arrive quickly at a level's finish line or to receive maximum points for trick combinations.
Develpoment
1080° was programmed by Englishmen Giles Goddard and Colin Reed, developed and published by Nintendo, and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. Goddard and Reed had previously programmed Wave Race 64, which sold over a million copies and was a huge commercial success. Its sequel, Wave Race: Blue Storm, would feature characters from 1080°.
When developing 1080°, Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons composing the characters. Their programming used a combination of standard animation and inverse kinematics, creating characters whose appearance during collisions is affected what object is hit, what direction the collision occurs in, and the speed at which the collision takes place. Tommy Hilfiger outfits and Lamar snowboards appear throughout 1080° as product placement. 1080°'s soundtrack of "techno and rappy beats" with "thrashy, foozed-out vocals" was composed by Kenta Nagata, who also composed soundtracks for Mario Kart 64 and other Nintendo games.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| | |
| | Paper Mario, known in Japan as Mario Story, is a role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 game console. It was first released in Japan on August 11, 2000, in Europe on October 5, 2000, and in North America on February 5, 2001.
Paper Mario is set in the Mushroom Kingdom as the protagonist Mario tries to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. To do so, he must locate seven "Star Spirits" to negate the effects of the captured Star Rod, which grants invincibility to Bowser. The player controls Mario and a number of partners to solve puzzles in the game's overworld and defeat enemies in a turn-based battle system. The battles are unique in that the player can influence the effectiveness of attacks by performing required controller inputs known as "action commands."
Gameplay
Paper Mario combines traditional role-playing game (RPG) elements with concepts and features from the Mario series. The player controls Mario for the majority of the game, who can jump and use his hammer to overcome physical obstacles placed in the game's overworld. Many of the game's puzzles and boundaries are based upon the abilities of Mario's partners, who each have a specialised skill required for progression in the game.
Plot and Setting
The game is set in Mushroom Kingdom, beginning as Mario and Luigi are relaxing in their house when suddenly the mail Koopa arrives with a letter. Mario sends Luigi to fetch the mail, which turns out to be an invitation from Peach to a party. Mario and Luigi then head to the castle, and as Mario is about to have some quiet time with Peach, Bowser appears. After Bowser's invasion and victory over Mario, the Castle becomes attached to Bowser's Fortress, which serves as the location for playable side quests of the kidnapped Peach. In the main quest, Mario tries to retrieve all of the Star Spirits on land, where most of the locations are linked to the central Toad Town, which acts as the game's hub area. The story's main conflict arises when Bowser invades Star Haven, the residence for the seven Star Spirits, and steals the Star Rod.
Development
Paper Mario was developed by Intelligent Systems. The directors were Toshitaka Muramatsu, Takahiro Ohgi, and Hironobu Suzuki. Kumiko Takeda and Kaori Aoki wrote the game's script and Naohiko Aoyama was the art director responsible for the game's distinctive graphical style. The game was initially called Super Mario RPG 2, and was first revealed at Nintendo Space World '97, a video game trade show hosted by Nintendo. Critics compared the game's 2D character style to PaRappa the Rapper. Shigeru Miyamoto, who consulted on the project, stated that the game was being developed with beginning and amateur gamers in mind.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| |
|
|
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is a multi-award winning platform video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants and published by GT Interactive. It was released in 1997 for the PlayStation video game console
The game centers on the titular Abe, a Mudokon slave working at the RuptureFarms meat processing factory on Oddworld. When he discovers that he and his friends face death at the hands of their desperate master, he decides to escape and aid as many enslaved Mudokons as he can along the way. The player assumes the role of Abe, and must escape from the factory before embarking on a perilous quest to restore his once noble people.
Abe's Oddysee was widely acclaimed for having innovative gameplay, good graphics and engaging cut-scenes; however, its large learning curve and system of saving only at checkpoints received criticism.
Gameplay
Abe's Oddysee is a two-dimensional platform game. The game is split into screens; when the player moves into the edge of the screen, the environment is replaced. Most screens include various puzzles that must be solved through the use of player-character Abe's unique abilities: GameSpeak, possession, activation or deactivation of mines or levers, and rocks, grenades, or meat chunks that can be picked up and used in a variety of situations. Normal abilities include creeping, walking, running, rolling, hoisting, jumping, and crouching, all of which have a specific application and make up a necessary arsenal of moves.
Gamespeak
While the focus of the gameplay is surmounting screens, there is a secondary focus on rescuing enslaved Mudokons. GameSpeak is a pivotal ability in this respect; at the press of a button, the player character will utter short phrases that can be used to control allied non-player characters-to pull extra levers, to follow the player character, to attack enemy characters in the current screen, or simply to wait.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| | |
| | Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game was developed and published by Rare, creators of the multimillion-selling GoldenEye 007, an earlier first-person shooter with which Perfect Dark shares many gameplay features. This game is also considered the spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007. The game was first released in Canada and the United States in May 2000, where it was greeted with critical acclaim.
The game features a single-player mode consisting of seventeen missions in which the player assumes the role of special agent Joanna Dark, an operative for the fictional Carrington Institute, as she attempts to foil a conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. It also includes a range of multiplayer options, including co-operative and "counter-operative" modes in addition to traditional deathmatch settings. Technically, it is one of the most advanced games developed for the N64, with optional high-resolution graphics and Dolby Surround Sound.
Development
Martin Hollis, the director of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, described the development of the game in an interview with Retro Gamer magazine. He explained that Rare rejected the prospect of working on the GoldenEye sequel Tomorrow Never Dies "without hesitation", as the development team felt they had spent too much time immersed in the James Bond universe. The decision to make the central character a woman was part of Hollis' belief that there "should be more games centred on women". To this end, the team created Joanna Dark, influenced by a number of other fictional heroines: Kim Kimberly from Level 9 Computing's text adventure Snowball, the seductive spy Agent X-27 in the 1930s film Dishonored, the eponymous femme fatale of the film Nikita,[20] and FBI agent Dana Scully from television series The X-Files. The name "Joanna Dark" was taken from the French pronunciation of Joan of Arc as "Jeanne d'Arc".
Game Engine
The engine includes a number of graphical enhancements, the most conspicuous of which is the option to play in hi-res 640 x 480 graphics. The Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak is needed to access the solo player levels and most of the multiplayer features, although a limited subset of the Combat Simulator options are available without the device (around 35% of the game is playable without an Expansion Pak, as estimated on the game's box and Instruction Booklet). The lighting system was improved so that gunfire and explosions illuminate areas dynamically, and lights can be shot out to create darkened areas. Further progressions from GoldenEye include weapon-specific reloading animations, and more elaborate gore effects which allow gunshots to project enemies' blood onto nearby walls and objects. Another graphical novelty is the "dizziness" effect; if a player is punched, poisoned by a throwing knife or shot with the Tranquilizer gun, their nausea is represented through a motion blurred view. The degree of blurring increases with dizziness, and a badly stunned player may have difficulty seeing anything at all.[25] Both NTSC and PAL N64 systems run the game in full screen, without the "letterboxing" seen in many PAL releases, and there is a 16:9 option for use on widescreen televisions.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| |
|
|
Knockout Kings is a series of boxing games that were produced by EA Sports for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Color and GameCube yearly between 1998 and 2003.
Knockout Kings gives the user a chance to compete against 32 real fighters, such as Muhammad Ali, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar de la Hoya, Larry Holmes, Jake LaMotta, Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, and Ray Mancini. In the game's "slugfest" mode, fighters can knock each other out at any given moment of the fight, or suffer 6 or 7 knockdowns and still last for the whole fight.
There are several differences between Knockout Kings and real-life boxing careers. Championship bouts are only for 10 rounds and not for 12 as in real life. In the career mode of Knockout Kings, a fighter is made to retire right after winning the title and defending it for only the first time. Also, Knockout Kings does not have women's boxing. The exception being the Playstation version of Knockout Kings 2001.
Quote
Quote from a review on gamespot.com
"Overall, Knockout Kings is the best representation of the sport of boxing in a game so far. Although it is missing some of the little nuances of real boxing. It's easier for a die-hard boxing fanatic to see all of the little things it could have done a touch better; like parrying, working the angles, and punching power balance. The casual boxing fan probably won't notice and will think that it's the best boxing game of all time. Which is true, though it's still missing a few things that keep it from being the perfect boxing sim. Any boxing fan will love Knockout Kings, and being one myself, I just hope that Electronic Arts continues the series and keeps making it better."-Ryan Mac Donald.
Info above from wikipedia.com
| | |
