Topic: Episode 264: All Good Things...

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Three and a half years and 175 episodes later, Jon, James, and Greg finally get to pay their respects to the Nintendo 64 with some help from TYP.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/28186/episode-264-all-good-things

A long time ago, RFN host Jonathan Metts decided that he wanted to pay tribute to the Nintendo 64 with a special episode entirely dedicated to the platform. However, he would do so without the participation of his loyal, N64-loving co-hosts Jon, James, and Greg, as they were callously cast aside in favour of bigger names (and Evan Burchfield). Years passed; history became legend, legend became myth, but those who were left out in the cold never forgot their betrayal.

So, when Jonny made the mistake of being absent from recording for RFN Episode 264 mere weeks after the 15th anniversary of the Nintendo 64's launch in North America, the stage was set for some 64-bit redemption. But first, there's New Business, in which James and Greg both do a bit of portable role playing as sportsmen with Inazuma Eleven and Mario Golf: Advance Tour, plus James reacts to the recent Level 5 Vision event with great anticipation at the prospect of being poked in both eyes simultaneously by Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright.

It's on to the main event in segment two, when TYP joins the disgruntled trio to ensure their frustration is chanelled in the right direction: celebrating 15 years of the Nintendo 64. Our journey begins with a look back through the platform's tumultuous three year pre-release history, from its announcement in October 1993 as "Project Reality" through to its US launch in September 1996, with all the hype, twists, turns, and high profile defections (I'm looking at you Square) in between. For the meat of the discussion though, it's all about the games as we each go through our favourite 15 games for the 64-bit wonder, recognising not only Nintendo and Rare but all the other developers who helped us get through the mid-to-late 1990's with a smile on our face (and the guys who made Quest 64, for some reason).

Don't forget, River City Ransom won the recent RetroActive poll and the discussion has already started in the forums, so post your impressions and analysis in the official RetroActive #20 forum thread!

[pureval]

What is with all the Patriots bashing on this podcast lately? Just because the closest your teams will get to a trophy is if Brady lets them clean his does not give you the right. Focus on the games.

[Yoshidious]

What is with all the Patriots bashing on this podcast lately? Just because the closest your teams will get to a trophy is if Brady lets them clean his does not give you the right. Focus on the games.

Belichick got caught after systematically cheating the NFL for years, and he has never apologised for it or even acknowledged that it was cheating. The way I look at it, that gives every fan of the league "the right" to mock him and the franchise he leads, because he took the piss out of all us and would still be doing it now if he hadn't been tattled on by one of his former assistants.

So, remind me how many Super Bowls have the Pats won since they were caught cheating? Oh that's right, ZERO. Also, you chose to comment on something that Jon said that took up a handful of seconds out of a podcast that lasts more than two and a half hours--focus on the games, please.

[LittleIrves]

Oh, snap.

(Go Lions.)

[Tenser]

Top 15 N64 games? I don't think I could name 15 N64 games I liked. I was in my early 20's when it came out and was pretty disenfranchised with the hobby altogether.
 
Gauntlet Legends
Ocarina of Time
Pokemon Snap
Mario Golf
Mario Party
Super Mario 64
Megaman 64 (played it on the PS1)
Resident Evil 2 (played it on the PS1)
 
8 is close enough.

[NWR_Lindy]

Patriots bashing on the podcast lately? Man, we've been bashing the Patriots for years.  I really don't have much against them, but I'm not a fan either, and I typically pile on when I can.

[KDR_11k]

The N64 is getting a ton of retrospective podcasts lately. But with the lack of games for that thing those podcasts tend to be a bit samey...

[broodwars]

I'm listening to the podcast right now, and I have a correction already: Angel Studios did work on N64 games, 3 in fact.  I know them from their miraculous work somehow squeezing Resident Evil 2 onto an N64 cart, which was a pretty good port all things considered.  They also worked on Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest and Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.

http://games.ign.com/objects/026/026013.html

Apparently, in November 2003 that studio was purchased by Take-Two and became Rockstar San Diego, the makers of Red Dead Redemption if I remember correctly.  Huh.  Go figure.

[TrueNerd]

Can I just say how unbelievably maddening it is that all shooters these days don't have 4 player split screen standard? Both of Sony's shooters, Resistance and Killzone, don't have ANY local multiplayer. There are loads of 3rd person shooters that follow suit.  It blows my mind. Did this suddenly become something people don't care about? Did this stop being fun? Is it that difficult to include this mode when you have online multiplayer? I mean sure I'll always have time splitters 2 but this is a deal breaker for me.

[Yoshidious]

I'm listening to the podcast right now, and I have a correction already: Angel Studios did work on N64 games, 3 in fact.  I know them from their miraculous work somehow squeezing Resident Evil 2 onto an N64 cart, which was a pretty good port all things considered.  They also worked on Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest and Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.

I'm afraid you apparently misunderstood what was being said because this is not an accurate correction. Angel Studios were mentioned as not having developed any games at the point in the N64 pre-release history segment when Nintendo was assembling the Dream Team, which was in 1994-1995. So obviously none of the N64 games you mentioned had come out yet--at that time, Angel Studios were famous for producing the CG visuals in The Lawnmower Man, not video games.

[KDR_11k]

I got Shadow Man for one Euro out of a PC bargain bin, that way I could play it in high definition!

If Greg loves hard games including F-Zero did he try Shin'en's FAST Racing League on WiiWare? It got critically panned for being so hard. There's a demo for it available currently.

Can I just say how unbelievably maddening it is that all shooters these days don't have 4 player split screen standard? Both of Sony's shooters, Resistance and Killzone, don't have ANY local multiplayer. There are loads of 3rd person shooters that follow suit.  It blows my mind. Did this suddenly become something people don't care about? Did this stop being fun? Is it that difficult to include this mode when you have online multiplayer? I mean sure I'll always have time splitters 2 but this is a deal breaker for me.

Four screens take more processing power than one (being lower resolution does not make up for that). Since most shooters are optimized for pretty graphics and even sacrificing framerate for that (Rage got lauded for actually running at 60 frames per second!) there's simply no room for running them in splitscreen.

[pureval]

@John You may well have been bashing the Pats for years, I have been listening for less than a year so this is the first I have heard it. I listened to several episodes in a row so it seemed more pronounced to me than if it had been spread out over weeks.


@Greg My comment was made about several episodes, not just the few seconds of this one and was intended as ribbing between rival teams, not to truly upset you as it seems to have. I do apologize if it did. Although I would like to point out that at least one rival coach has said the footage they got was pointless and could not have been any use in their victories. True they have not won a Superbowl since then, since the Giants managed to twist the injury rules in their favor at the end of the game.


I honestly have nothing against the Bills and wish them the best of luck this season, you guys do deserve to finally have a decent run after these last few years. Now lets all focus on complaining about the games Nintendo is not bringing to the US and/or Europe.

[Fiendlord_Timmay]

Wow, what's with all the negativity in this thread?

The podcast was good, it was nice to hear the rest of the crew's thoughts on the N64.

As far as the layout of the N64 controller goes, perhaps Nintendo saw how little the d-pad was used and kept that in mind when they created the gamecube controller. But people then turned around and complained how tiny and useless the gamecube d-pad was. Can't please everyone I guess.

[Enner]

If Greg loves hard games including F-Zero did he try Shin'en's FAST Racing League on WiiWare? It got critically panned for being so hard. There's a demo for it available currently.

It's a cheap kind of hard where the AI competition rubber bands against you like no tomorrow. Also, the track design doesn't hold up well at the highest speed classes. I bumped my way through the last track on the last cup.

[Yoshidious]

If Greg loves hard games including F-Zero did he try Shin'en's FAST Racing League on WiiWare? It got critically panned for being so hard. There's a demo for it available currently.

I've looked into getting FAST because it did actually get a lot of good reviews in addition to a few that seemed offended by its difficulty, but other concerns have been raised as Enner mentioned. I'd still like to try it though--I just haven't got around to it yet.

@Greg My comment was made about several episodes, not just the few seconds of this one and was intended as ribbing between rival teams, not to truly upset you as it seems to have. I do apologize if it did. Although I would like to point out that at least one rival coach has said the footage they got was pointless and could not have been any use in their victories. True they have not won a Superbowl since then, since the Giants managed to twist the injury rules in their favor at the end of the game.

I honestly have nothing against the Bills and wish them the best of luck this season, you guys do deserve to finally have a decent run after these last few years. Now lets all focus on complaining about the games Nintendo is not bringing to the US and/or Europe.

Don't worry about it pureval, Belichick upset(s) me, not you, and I appreciate the well wishes for the Bills. The fact that Belichick has never admitted doing something wrong is the worst thing about the whole Spygate saga for me, and as long as he refuses to apologise then I'm not letting it go.

Also, the idea that he gained no advantage from his cheating (whatever anyone else in the game might say) is demonstrably false. Why do it for years if it yielded no results? Belichick has never struck me as someone who enjoys wasting his time while preparing for opponents each week. Secondly, why would the NFL punish the Pats as harshly as they did (taking away a first round draft choice and $100,000s in fines) if this was trivial? Finally, why would Josh McDaniels have been caught doing it as the Broncos HC at the 49ers practice in London for last year's San Francisco vs. Denver game at Wembley, knowing as he must have done that it was illegal and carried stiff punishments having been an assistant at the Pats when they were caught in 2007? Any attempt to minimise the significance of Spygate crashes hard against these facts.

[lolmonade]

@John You may well have been bashing the Pats for years, I have been listening for less than a year so this is the first I have heard it. I listened to several episodes in a row so it seemed more pronounced to me than if it had been spread out over weeks.


@Greg My comment was made about several episodes, not just the few seconds of this one and was intended as ribbing between rival teams, not to truly upset you as it seems to have. I do apologize if it did. Although I would like to point out that at least one rival coach has said the footage they got was pointless and could not have been any use in their victories. True they have not won a Superbowl since then, since the Giants managed to twist the injury rules in their favor at the end of the game.


I honestly have nothing against the Bills and wish them the best of luck this season, you guys do deserve to finally have a decent run after these last few years. Now lets all focus on complaining about the games Nintendo is not bringing to the US and/or Europe.

Can we get back to the games, please?

[NWR_Neal]

It's been more pronounced lately because it's the football season.

Anyway, I spent a bunch of time with the first Griffey N64 last year. It surprisingly still holds up, as long as you're okay with accepting Ken Griffey Jr. as a god among men.

[NWR_Lindy]

I mean, who doesn't?  He's the baseball game equivalent of Bo Jackson.

Don't get Greg started on Belichick or the Patriots.  I tend to stay away from both topics unless he initiates them.  I also don't make eye contact.  Just don't poke the bear...that's all I'm saying.

One thing I didn't mention on the podcast is that, even though I got rid of my N64 long ago (a fact that I regret to this day; I think I traded it in on my GameCube), I still have the pre-order bonus that I received for it.  It's this goofy laminate that has a picture of the system on it...the most pointless gift ever, like I was going to frame it and put it on my wall or something.  I believe this was the EB Games Canada bonus, IIRC.  Good stuff.

[Crimm]

Let's put it this way: I had Griffey batting in the 3, Barry Larkin in the 4, pre-roid Bonds in the 6, Aaron Boone on clean-up. We scored a fucking lot of runs.

[deadeyes]

With all the great N64 platformers discussed, I was slightly disappointed that Rocket:Robot on Wheels didn't get an honorable mention. It was one of those unique 3rd party releases that seemingly came out of nowhere, especially when I'd already filled my quota with more than enough platformers; it really was the flagship console for that particular genre. Now, Tonic Trouble....


Also, I gotta give it to Michael TYP for mentioning Quest 64 without scornful derision  - it may be incredibly flawed, but until this day, it remains to be one of my favorite game soundtracks; a Radio Trivia, perhaps? Although, i'm afraid I'd be the only one who would listen to it.  Oh well, i'll amuse myself by humming the Isle of Skye theme with a hint of nostalgia.

[ejamer]

... Rocket:Robot on Wheels ...

Good call!

[NWR_Neal]

You guys got messed up on your Griffey games. MLB featuring Ken Griffey Jr. (the one I assume James is referring to) came out in '98. Slugfest, the sequel, came out in '99, and was just a straight yearly iteration. I never spent much time with the sequel, so it might have had more of a home run fetish, but they're just two typical baseball games.

Not finished yet, but I might have to do a spot on Connectivity to go over the excellent Goemon games just because they're not mentioned.

[Ceric]

Quest 64 was not a super terrible game.  I've beaten it from start to finish.  It wasn't a forgiving game though.  When I completed I had to use a guide to simply map out what was the best way to use my little bubbles, its been a while, when I got to the last boss because I chose the right paths he literally couldn't hurt me and I whacked him to death with my staff.

I would like to see someone redo the game and fix a lot of different things.  Mainly even out the leveling curve.  I shouldn't be easily taking out everything in one zone and then being maimed like a noob in the next. (over and over again.)

Music wasn't bad.

[broodwars]

It may sound stupid, but back in the day my best friend and I never got tired of laughing at the doors in Quest 64.  Not because the doors themselves were offensive in any way, but because if you knocked your staff on the left side of a two-door entryway the right side would always open instead.

And is "Eh-Dee-Uhn" really the way you're supposed to pronounce "Aidyn Chronicles"?  I always pronounced it "Eh-Dihn".  I don't know whether to be ashamed or proud, but I did beat that game back in the day and...kind of...liked it, despite its many faults.  Maybe it was Stockholm Syndrome, considering aside from Ogre Battle 64 (which you did not mention, James, when everyone was bagging on the N64's RPGs) there really weren't good RPGs on the N64.

It's nice to hear a mention of Shadow Man, a game I owned back in the day and really liked.  I don't know if I would like it now based on the footage I've seen on Youtube, but I remember really liking how the serial killers were handled; the voice acting; and the atmosphere.  That was all stuff companies never did on the N64.

[deadeyes]

The N64 was also a system meant to re-introduce older gaming concepts with true 3D roaming landscapes. At the time, the idea of getting a 3D rendered version of Shadowgate blew my mind.