Topic: A Decade of PGC/NWR: 1999

[NWR_Lindy]

This Talkback thread is for discussing the year 1999 as presented in the PGC/NWR 10th Anniversary special.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=17898

[Crimm]

Jon and those PD girls got real personal... with a crop.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

We're just getting started, folks! Those are some old school pictures, Lindy! WHOOOOOOOO!!!

[Stratos]

I still have Super Mario Bros Deluxe. I'll have to pull that out an play it. I almost want to play all of the past GOTY games in a marathon of the ages. Maybe once all the articles are released I'll see if I can get some other members to join in for gameplay and discussion.

Nice to see the memories and pictures. Nice launch to what sounds like a great feature series. Thanks for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated and noticed.

[Jonnyboy117]

Those E3 photos are GOLDEN.  Is that Lindy with... hair?

[TJ Spyke]

I will post a brief comment, but I would first like to point out that you listed Pokemon Snap twice on the list of notable N64 games.

Great review. I wasn't visiting the site in 1999, I had no idea how primitive it appeared to be (although you already pointed out that there wasn't much news to talk about as almost nothing was known about the GameCube yet).

[ShyGuy]

I am really looking forward to the upcoming years. Those pictures of Lindy with the E3 models are creepy.

[NWR_Lindy]

Thanks

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Do do you guys agree with our GotY picks (then and now) for 1999? Disagree? Are there any other games released in 1999 that you remember (either fondly or with contempt)?

I suggested Conker's Pocket Tales for this list because I remember getting this game, being really excited, and then forcing myself to play through that entire sh*tfest for no justifiable reason. I have to suspect other Nintendo/Rare fans did the same....

[NWR_Neal]

I was super pumped for Goemon's Great Adventure and I got it and my copy was broken out of the box. When I finally got a working copy, I enjoyed it a lot.

I played a lot of Super Smash Bros. and I don't disagree with the GOTY pick. I do remember DK64's multiplayer mode, which was fun. I borrowed it from a friend of mine and enjoyed about the first 20 minutes of playtime.

Jet Force Gemini was a rental, I think. I just remember playing that game almost to completition, and then I saw all the bullshit you had to collect and put it down. A friend of mine recently played it to completition, or at least to the final boss, which is fricking impossible. I tried my hand at beating the boss, but I kept on getting lightning'd to death.

I played through Pokemon Snap with a friend of mine. I love that game, but I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it. So, I snatched it up when it came out on VC because that's a good enough price for me.

Game Boy-wise I was probably still playing Pokemon Red/Blue. I would've been in like 5th/6th grade and Pokemon was the **** then. A bunch of my friends got Super Mario Deluxe, but I don't remember too much of it. Pokemon Pinball was fun, IIRC.

I think I really wanted Conker's Pocket Tales and then heard about Conker's Bad Fur Day and was like "I want that." Then I read up about C's BFD and I was kind of dumbfounded. Still wanted it, though.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Wow, DK64 as Game of Year? I thought the game was painfully average when it was new (it was pretty disappointing). That wasn't an amazing year though.

[Arbok]

Wow, DK64 as Game of Year? I thought the game was painfully average when it was new (it was pretty disappointing). That wasn't an amazing year though.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Smash Bros game of the year in the article?

Furthermore, any year that saw SSB released was an 'amazing year' for the N64... period.

[NWR_pap64]

Yes, 1999 was an amazing year for gaming...
- The Dreamcast launch
- Pokemania on the GBC!
- Final Fantasy VIII
- Blockbuster N64 releases of Smash Bros., Mario Party, Pokemon Snap, Jet Force Gemini, Rayman 2, Rocket and more!
- The announcement of Majora's Mask

It was an amazing year for gaming.

[DAaaMan64]

DK64, i liked it a lot. Had great multi. I'm not sure collecting really bothered me yet.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jet Force Gemini though. Love it.

[ShyGuy]

I was into PC games during 1999. Probably playing Quake 1 2 or 3.

[Dasmos]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jet Force Gemini though. Love it.

Yeah it's my favourite N64 game. Absolutley perfect.

[Stratos]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jet Force Gemini though. Love it.

Yeah it's my favourite N64 game. Absolutley perfect.

I loved it as well. Very well done I thought. I never felt it was a collectathon a la DK64 (ha! on a random note spellchecker thinks I should spell collectathon collectivization. Great word to describe the evolution of the platformer from Mario 64 to DK64 and beyond).

Do we have a timeline for when the successive articles are releasing or is it one of those 'they come when they are done' things?

[Kairon]

Jet Force Gemini had 2-player co-op in the single player mode with player 2 controlling Floyd. That's why I loved it.

Also, it had jiggle physics. That's why my brother loved it.

[DAaaMan64]

I'm nominating it for RetroPodcast..  Actually there was collecting in JFG. Before you could get the last ship part, you had to rescue all the Tribals.  Ya it was kinda bad. But I didn't mind so much since I was in love with that game.

[Stratos]

Jet Force Gemini had 2-player co-op in the single player mode with player 2 controlling Floyd. That's why I loved it.

Also, it had jiggle physics. That's why my brother loved it.

LOL, that's why my friend liked it. He'd always want to play it and make her run towards the camera. I swear it was Tomb Raider that gave him the idea.

[Djunknown]

I was into PC games during 1999.

Same here. Though still played console/handhelds when opportunity came. I never understood the whole PC vs Console debate, since back then, they offered offered complementary experiences. Today, the lines have blurred a little bit, but the two...instruments still do their own thing.

1999... Didn't have an N64, but all my friends did, so we played Goldeneye, Smash Bros after cross country/track practices from time to time...

The nearby blockbuster had an N64 unit with no time limit, so many a days was spent there. Heck, me and some of the employees took turns, just kicking it.

[NWR_pap64]

1999 was the year I broke away from my hardcore Nintendo fanboyism and finally accepted other consoles into my life.

While I owned a Genesis when I was a kid and loved Sonic I was still a Nintendo fanboy through and through. After the SNES I started getting into discussion and debates regarding gaming and decided to be the Nintendo fanboy.

How bad was I? I hated the PSone and its crappy looking games with terrible load times. The Saturn I bashed to no one and I actually wrote angry letters to magazines regarding their reviews of N64 games.

But in 1999, a local videogame store brought the Dreamcast right near launch. Not only was this store near my high school (like a few blocks) there was always a DC game going on. I experienced the rush of Sonic Adventure, the thrill of Power Stone and even Ready to Rumble was great!

It was so amazing that during Black Friday I bought myself a Sega DC with Sonic Adventure and didn't look back. Months later, I asked for a Sony PSone for Christmas and despite the graphics I was hooked with the games I played (FF VIII, RE 3, Unjammer Lammy and many more).

1999 was also the year I got addicted to Pokemon! A friend of mine started playing the game and told me about the stats, the character types, the Pokemon themselves and it all sounded so fascinating. But it wasn't till I saw an episode of the Pokemon show on Kids WB that I finally caved in and got "Pokemon Red" and a link cable. Man on man was it a blast being a Poke-kid. Best of all, despite my senior status in high school a lot of guys and girls were into either the series or the games, so I always had someone to engage conversation with, and thanks to the Pokes I made a lot of friends!

There was also "Super Mario Bros. DX" on the GBC which is easily the best remake of Super Mario Bros. yet. I became obsessed with collecting every printable icon and such. To this day I still have my best records saved on the cartridge!

Once more 1999 was a great year for gaming.

[GoldenPhoenix]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=17898

Unless I'm misreading it, it seems like DK64 was GOTY.

[BeautifulShy]

When is the next article coming up.I want to see the year 2000.

[NWR_Lindy]

We're going to keep posting these on a daily (as possible) basis.  I posted early Sunday morning (for me) so I figured I'd let it sit out there and let people read it.  Whet the appetite, so to speak.

[Justin Nation]

Hehe, if people are getting on what he deemed "GoTY" for 1999 I can only imagine the $#!tstorm when my 2000 one gets posted. Consider that for 1999 and 2000 it was before we had a formal decision about these things on the site so you're left instead to look at what other people picked and go from there... I called mine the "Consensus Game of 2000" but even with that there is a matter of interpretation. I actually picked a game I disliked (and tried to politely say so) as what people seemed to consider the best game at the time and then instead complimented one that was highly regarded but at the time seemed to have more caveats around.

Though DK64 represented the beginning of the end of my love affair with all things Rare I think on a mainstream level a lot of people liked it. If you aren't looking to beat the game but just run around and have a good time it was a more impressive title to a degree. Though having to revisit the same level as 2 - 3 different characters got highly annoying to probably everyone. Still, you could do a hell of a lot in the game and there were moments where it was really fun. I think the start of the bad taste then has gotten to full funk these days since you can see the full evolution of the "Collect-a-Thon" genre that it was a major player in... but you now see it much more clearly and have more disdain for it.

But just throwing a word out there that before we had real staff consensus all we have is what is out there and rather than guess what "staff" would think it was easier just to get a feel for what seemed to qualify.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I've always though DK64 was considered less then stellar by quite a few people even back in 1999.

[Pale]

Do you think it's less than stellar GP?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Do you think it's less than stellar GP?

Yes, I found it extremely dissapointing actually considering I was a huge Rare fan.

[Justin Nation]

Hehe, not to poke the bear but I recall people defending successful "casual" games like Carnival Games though many would consider it "less than stellar" as well.

I actually probably knew many more people that liked DK64 than despised it by a good margin, though for all of my love of Banjo-Kazooie I was annoyed with it by about the 6 hour mark. That said I also tired pretty quickly with Jet Force Gemini though I see a lot of praise for it here. Rare really lost their luster for me that year. This is from the guy who finished the entirety (including a few impossibly hard platinum medals) of Blast Corps in a single weekend in a crack-induced state and who re-played Banjo-Kazooie probably 3 times (I loved the Grunty challenge ending, so sue me).

Anyway, I look forward to all scorn once my 2000 highlights go up tonight! *puts on flame-proof boxers*

[BeautifulShy]

Great! Can't wait till tonight. I suspect Majora's Mask will win some awards.

[NWR_pap64]

Do you think it's less than stellar GP?

Let's give the game some credit now...

While I am one of those people that thought the collecting was too much I did enjoy DK 64. The graphics were stellar (a trademark for Rare). The mini games were also fun and the boss fights were enjoyable.

Had it been just one or two characters people wouldn't have minded the collecting. But since this was 5 different characters with different techniques and different areas it got quite bothersome.

I also didn't like the music. I LOVED it in the DKC games, but in DK 64 it sounds too much like left overs from Banjo-Kazooie.

[Justin Nation]

As long as your criticisms of the music don't include... the DK Rap. For whatever reason that sucker can't get out of my head once it starts... it is evil. Loved playing it in Donkey Konga. Hysterically bad like a train wreck but a classic.

[ThePerm]

DKRap sounds like runDMC

[NWR_pap64]

As long as your criticisms of the music don't include... the DK Rap. For whatever reason that sucker can't get out of my head once it starts... it is evil. Loved playing it in Donkey Konga. Hysterically bad like a train wreck but a classic.

Heh, I think the intro and the song are classic. Fans have bashed it to hell and back, but I thought it was MEANT to be bad. That's what makes it so funny!

I am just talking about the musical score. Maybe its unfair to compare it to the DKC songs, but even then it just sounds too much like B-K.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Hehe, not to poke the bear but I recall people defending successful "casual" games like Carnival Games though many would consider it "less than stellar" as well.

Carnival Games shouldn't be game of the year either. It wasn't a stellar title but it was a solid title, a category I'd probably put DK64 in (OK it is probably a better game then Carnival Games but you should see my point).

[Jonnyboy117]

I love the DK rap.  It's definitely bad on purpose.  The remix in Melee is even better/worse!

[Mop it up]

Super Smash Brothers... Bought it the month it was released, still have the lovely box and manual. This game really left an impression on me, I found it to be very imaginative, creative, and enjoyable. To this day I still pop this game into the N64 every now and then, despite that I can't get anyone to play N64 games anymore. It is quite a bit different than Melee and especially Brawl, it is like the purest form of Smash and would be the best if it had more content.

I got pretty far into Donkey Kong 64 but got to a point where I just couldn't stand it anymore. It's a real shame just how much the abundance of collecting ruins the game, because it would be an ABSOLUTELY AWESOMETASTIC game otherwise. A game which I'd have probably played through a few times by now has become a game I switch off in disgust.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

I got 100% (101%?) in DK64, but I believe it's because I played DK64 before Banjo-Kazooie.

[Stratos]

"C'mon Cranky, take it to the fridge!"

[NWR_Lindy]

For 1999 and 2000, Justin and I tried to kind of "project" what we thought the games of the year would have been back then.  Then, we went back and polled the staff to determine what we all thought were the REAL games of the year, retrospectively.

I figured it would make for some interesting discussion, because games like Super Smash Bros. and Majora's Mask are universally loved through the lens of nostalgia, but at the time they may not have been such cut'n'dry GOTY picks as they seem today.

[Stratos]

For 1999 and 2000, Justin and I tried to kind of "project" what we thought the games of the year would have been back then.  Then, we went back and polled the staff to determine what we all thought were the REAL games of the year, retrospectively.

I figured it would make for some interesting discussion, because games like Super Smash Bros. and Majora's Mask are universally loved through the lens of nostalgia, but at the time they may not have been such cut'n'dry GOTY picks as they seem today.

I think Majora was frowned upon back then for being too short. Now not as many people seem to ding it quite as much for that feature.

[vudu]

For 1999 and 2000, Justin and I tried to kind of "project" what we thought the games of the year would have been back then.  Then, we went back and polled the staff to determine what we all thought were the REAL games of the year, retrospectively.

Any specific method to your madness, or did you just take a shot in the dark?

[Justin Nation]

For me I literally did searches looking for sites that listed top 10 games on those consoles those years. There weren't all that many out there actually. Once I got into those I then went through the reviews to see what the vibe was around the game beyond the scores since you would have several in the same score range. In the end for me it was probably easier, people uniformly salivated over PD and Pokemon Gold/Silver and then with Majora's Mask people liked it but showed reservations more commonly over it. Simple for the most part but now I and others I talked to on staff saw it as a mistake looking back now at the two games.

[NWR_Lindy]

Any specific method to your madness, or did you just take a shot in the dark?

Old age.

But seriously folks, like Justin I definitely researched the Games of the Year for 1999, and came to the same conclusion - there just isn't much information out there.  I looked at Metacritic and a few other sources, pretty much anywhere that had even a whiff of a review or recommendation.  You have no idea how much coverage of the video game industry has changed since 1999 until you actually go back and try to find some online information from that year.  There isn't any.

That's why I ended up digging up my own photos and transferring them to digital format...there aren't any photos of E3 1999 available!  It's the same with year-end awards.  They didn't really kick in until 2000, and that was for only a few sites like IGN and maybe Gamespot.  In 1999, video game coverage on the internet was still an uncharted frontier.

[MegaByte]

Nintendo's own website (through Nintendo Power) used to have a lot of good stuff, but you have to use the Wayback Machine to even have a glimpse.  It's too bad they didn't keep their site going like NCL, where they've never deleted any content, still having web pages up for Game Boy and Super Famicom games.

[NWR_Lindy]

What really disappoints me is that even their press site doesn't have anything.  It only goes back to the GameCube and that's it.  Here we are trying to give retrospectives on their games and we can't even go to their own website for screenshots to PROMOTE THEIR PRODUCTS.

/director rant

[MegaByte]

GameCube?  What's that?

NEW PLAY CONTROL!

[Mop it up]

The solution? Buy old issues of Nintendo Power magazine from eBay! Printed content can't be deleted!

[MegaByte]

Printed content can't be animated (cost effectively, yet).

[Mop it up]

Animated? Why does it need to be animated? We don't need anything fancy, just looking through the old issues is a great stroll down memory lane.

[ThePerm]

Any specific method to your madness, or did you just take a shot in the dark?

Old age.

But seriously folks, like Justin I definitely researched the Games of the Year for 1999, and came to the same conclusion - there just isn't much information out there.  I looked at Metacritic and a few other sources, pretty much anywhere that had even a whiff of a review or recommendation.  You have no idea how much coverage of the video game industry has changed since 1999 until you actually go back and try to find some online information from that year.  There isn't any.

That's why I ended up digging up my own photos and transferring them to digital format...there aren't any photos of E3 1999 available!  It's the same with year-end awards.  They didn't really kick in until 2000, and that was for only a few sites like IGN and maybe Gamespot.  In 1999, video game coverage on the internet was still an uncharted frontier.

hmm in 1999 there was Tendobox, Nintendojo, ign64, the magic box, PlanetN2000, OpN2000, Dolphin Cove(maybe), Daily Radar, Gamespot, Cloudchaser, nshooters, nintendorks, zhq, there was a japanese website i used to read through a translator, but i have no idea what that was called anymore...the computer that had the bookmark is around somewhere. The best way to find it would be to scrounge up an old ign affiliate page, back when before they started eliminating the game news competition

edit: damnit i went to nintendorks, and apparently their stuff got corrupted in 1999, so they had to start all over again. If i ever for soem reason create some website, theres going to be a monthly dvd burn

[NWR_Lindy]

Show me this magical treasure trove of people's pictures from E3 1999 and I'll gladly consider myself debunked.  Until then, I stand by my statements.

[Stratos]

edit: damnit i went to nintendorks, and apparently their stuff got corrupted in 1999, so they had to start all over again. If i ever for soem reason create some website, theres going to be a monthly dvd burn

I've actually considered burning the entire archive of Radio Free Nintendo to DVDs for history's sake. Especially... was 103 the infamous one where they went crazy? I loved that one.

[ThePerm]

* corrupted in 2007  oops