Damn right!
Yeah I liked his videos. There’s also a podcast called Ultra64 (recently renamed to Wii Universe) that went through and played every US release and ranked them. I found that a lot of fun to listen to over the past couple of years.
Nice, I need to give that a listen. I’m really digging deep into the library at this point just trying to keep an eye out for any of the lesser-known titles that are still worth adding to my collection.
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Wow, I just learned Sin and Punishment, Bangai-O, and Mischief Makers were all from Treasure. That’s insane. What an incredible trio of games, and each one so unique.
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Add in Rakugaki Showtime PS1
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Been playing some Snowboard Kids this week and going for some speedrun records on Rookie Mountain and Ninja Land. It’s actually a heap of fun being competitive in a game like that where there’s some but not heaps of players going for the records.
Here’s the Rookie Mountain leaderboard if you want to check it out (or compete) too: Rookie Mountain - Snowboard Kids - speedrun.com
What’s not fun is restarting a run like 100 times because you missed the start, missed the next bit or the bit after that etc.
I’m going by the name petpolitics there and currently I’m equal 8th for Rookie Mountain and 13th for Ninja Land (which I thought was a good lap but obviously well off the pace).
Yea they were pretty comfortable breaking conventions and coming up with new controls in most of their games, then forcing you to master them. Each one of those is a very different title.
Even titles like Alien Soldier vs Gunstar Heroes were super distinct. They never fell into the trappings of rehashing things, even with sequels they eventually made.
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Wow, didn’t know Treasure were behind Rakugaki Showtime! Is it good in single player? I remember you mentioned it’s brilliant in multi.
Still meaning to pick up Rakuga Kids too on N64.
Had a quick run through final Bowser on Super Mario 64 Shindou last night:
Otherwise in other N64 happenings…I briefly checked out my new (old) Japanese copy of Star Fox 64 too, only did training but it really felt like coming home playing it on the N64 pad. Particularly the aiming which just works so well with that tall stick, and the way boost and brake are on the C-buttons, feeling distinctly different to the main shot and bomb buttons.
Still been playing Goemon 2 as well - the race against Obisumaru is harder than I remember!
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It’s fun but a little lonely in single player.
Imagine Power Stone single player. If you’re cool with that.
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This is a fun watch, not sure how I feel about the 96 models but the reflections and RT on local area lights are cool. It would be interesting to see how this looks on a CRT as these guys mentioned.
Yeah, the best footage in the video came at 10:50 for the next minute - they run it in 240p with a (bad) scanlines filter but it looks amazing. The faux-CGI render models certainly look a lot more natural that way, and the lighting is a sublime match.
Just a shame DF Alex isn’t all that familiar with Mario 64, the basic platforming skills on display there didn’t show the game at its best when John was waxing lyrical about how important it was at the time of release.
Yeah same, the assets are really made for CRTs/CRT shaders. It occasionally shows glimpses of greatness where it captures the clean and sharp look of early 90s CGI but right now there’s a mismatch in art assets. I think it’s going to be interesting to see where this is in a few years time!
Strange they didn’t use the modern camera option where you can smoothly rotate, maybe it’s not in this build but it would have helped them show off the crystal a bit better.
Eh… I don’t like the new models. They’re too awkward looking.
Here’s an example of the game with raytracing without those awkward models:
I think it looks way better this way than what they’re showing in the DF video.
It still looks like SM64, but just more three dimensional.
Agreed.
I know they’re coming from the right place at DFretro but I think the missed the mark with this video.
FYI here’s a trailer that shows off the rest of the mod. Looks really great!
Imagine this with stereoscopic 3D per the version you showed once (if I remember correctly?). Obviously, it wouldn’t be able to run on a 3DS because it has no RT capabilities. And 3D is sort of out of style. But it would have been really sweet.
The best part about this mod is that it looks very tastefully applied. Not too subtle and not too in your face. It just looks like SM64 with modern lighting and a higher rendering resolution.
Basically looks like how SM64 looked like in my head as a kid.
Also kind of shows up Nintendo and their lazy port for SM3DA. Sure the Switch can’t handle ray tracing (I think), but a bit more polish wouldn’t have hurt.
Picked up an N64 HORI Mini Pad recently, what a cool controller. It’s interesting seeing HORI getting access to official parts - the face buttons are exactly as you’d expect, but it’s the analogue stick and D-Pad that are most interesting. They aren’t exactly the same size as their GC successors but they feel extremely similar to operate to the point where the pad almost feels like a prototype GameCube controller.
The sad news is it’s just not as versatile as the controller that shipped with the system, and it’s all down to how the vast majority of games were fine tuned around that original tall and smooth analogue stick. Nuanced movement doesn’t translate well to the tactile bouncy GC analogue.
With nuanced movement being a defining feature of many N64 games, the difference is rather stark - characters, vehicles and aiming reticles accelerate and react much faster even with the lightest operation, which fundamentally impacts how a game controls.
In F-Zero X I found my ships losing grip often despite me playing it like I would GX. In Mario 64 and Goemon it’s hard to make your character walk consistently at the same speed whilst changing direction at the same time, despite this being very easy to do on the N64 controller. Aiming reticles and sliders accelerate much faster.
The controller appears to be popular with Smash Bros. players and that does make a lot of sense, because you get very responsive, tactile movement off the analogue stick. Goemon 2, a 2D platformer, benefits from this as well, but it wasn’t a struggle to play expertly on the original controller. Speedrunners would get their mileage out of this one for sure, though.
So I’m left conflicted. It’s a beautiful controller, built to a high quality, and an interesting history piece. But despite this I am left wondering whether I’ll be sticking with it when playing the N64’s most defining 3D games once the novelty wears off.
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I think you’ve nailed it on the Hori pad.
It’s great for Smash, and 2D content, but not for fine, granular adjustment required for most 3D games.
It’s an amazing piece of engineering though.
I can confirm its good under the hood.
My kids enjoyed tinkering with them when we pulled a couple apart, cleaned all the plastic, and reassembled them.
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You guys should take a look at Gamecube controller to N64 adapter which discusses the input range of the original N64 controller and that Hori one. It’s quite interesting stuff… though personally I think, even if they had the exact same range, the difference in feel - in terms of how the shaft difference affects how they tilt, accounts for most of the awkwardness you feel when using a GC style stick. Same as you just wouldn’t want to use an N64 stick for Gamecube games really!
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Wow, that’s really crammed in! Amazing.