Earthbound and Dune 24.01.17

I've spent a few months investing and foraging screens, machines and games and now find myself in the blissful state where I have a space at the end of my garden where I can play old games whenever life allows me. The cold winter hasn't made this the most inviting prospect lately but this week I popped down there to play a couple of old N64 titles. First up was Doom 64, at the time of its release this title seemed dated, it still used sprites,had fixed aiming and lacked any form of multiplayer. Now though this title strangely has held up a lot better than the Turoks or even dare I say Goldeneyes of the era. By sticking with sprites it still looks pretty decent and has all the grim sounds you'd expect from a Doom game. I got through four levels, which are typical Doom fare, secrets and red and blue keys and a range of demons to shoot. Its also pretty tricky in places, it all came to a head when I basically couldn't be bothered to think out the solution to a puzzle and got crushed by falling celling's. 

I moved onto Rogue Squadron, and spent more time with this game than I thought I would. With the bit more power the expansion pack offers the N64 it looks alright, the controls still feel a touch more sensitive than other flight games on the N64. Dogfights are a bit more chance than skill, with the dreaded fogging the console seems to excel in making Tie Fighters pop up out of nowhere. Apart from these small issues its more fun than I remembered, the levels are brisk with simple enough tasks. Sometimes they rely a bit too much on dubious AI as most of the early levels involve protecting something. All the levels played avoided space combat, rather taking place on some generic looking terrain I guess this helps with making it a more linear experience but hopefully at some point it delivers on the promised "star wars". Beyond all this is cool to play an N64 title with a lot of dialogue and voice acting.

Finally I played the Star Cup in Mario Kart 64. In my opinion the perfect selection of Mario Kart courses, opening with the epic Wario Stadium a lengthy course which weaves and bumps and has the bastard jump near the end which a well timed lightening bolt can ruin everything. Then Sherbet Land, with its abundance of penguins. One in particular with cabin fever, just walking in circles on an iceberg. Besides penguins its got corners that can be cut with well timed jumps adding a risk/reward as if and when I mess up i'm sent into the icy ocean. Then onto Royal Raceway, a proper racers race, lush green fields and a few corners which can lead into falling into a lake, near the end theres a massive jump which can be used (albeit rarely) to cut off a massive section of the race. It all comes to a head with Bowsers Castle, which thwomps still cause mayhem and a few looping sections near the end complemented by some tricky jumps and staircases. Mario Kart has progressed massively, the courses have got bigger and look amazing these days but I don't think the balance of these four has been matched.