Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
It is a time soon after the destruction of the first Death Star. Luke Skywalker has formed a squadron of hot-shot pilots to engage the still-formidable Imperial forces. You, as Luke, must lead this rogue squadron in a series of galaxy-spanning raids and rescues. To complete all your missions, you'll need good flying skills, fast reflexes, a keen eye, and a quick trigger finger.
You get to fly all your favorite ships: The X-wing, Y-wing, snowspeeder--even the Millennium Falcon. There are also some "secret" ships, such as the sleek Naboo Starfighterfrom Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace, a TIE interceptor, and, um, a '78 Buick.
The flight simulation in this game is first-rate. You'll find yourself leaning to the side as you pull a high-G turn in pursuit of Imperial TIE fighters. And the outstanding graphics and sounds are realistic enough to transport you to the Star Wars universe. Every detail is in place, right down to the individual Stormtroopers you can see running around (and trying to shoot you). One of the more impressive sequences lets you bring down Imperial Walkers by using the tow cables on your snowspeeder. Nice touch.
This is a single-player game, but you start each mission with a few wingmen from your squadron, and the well-done spoken dialogue between pilots and commanders really makes you feel like part of a team. The only significant shortcoming is the lack of a cooperative multiplayer option. With its excellent gameplay, varied environments, and interesting missions, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is sure to become a long-time favorite. --Eric Fredrickson
Pros:
- Faithful to lots of Star Wars details
- Satisfying flight action, explosions, sound effects
- Interesting missions and plot
- See--and fight over--the Spice mines of Kessel and other famous Star Wars planets
Cons:
- For some reason, you can only fly clockwise when bringing down a Walker
- No "easy" setting for those without The Force
- Voices of Luke, Wedge, and Han don't sound like the real thing
List Price: $ 47.99
Price: $ 64.99
Banjo-Tooie
- Divide and conquer! The bear and bird are back, and this time, they can split up and work alone.
- Play as Mumbo! Now you'll get to take control of the bone headed shaman himself.
- Meet Humba Wumba! She'll transform Banjo into a number of objects, such as a walking, talking statue or tightie white shootin washer.
- Four Player mini games! Play over a dozen mini games. Including five different shootout modes.
Grunty returns-and that's bad news for Banjo and Kazooie. All New Adventure
List Price: $ 58.99
Price: $ 109.99
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The second best N64 game ever created,
I think that this game is the second best game on N64 you can get. It has a lot of different levels, and great ships. I think it’s a very challenging game, and it’s enough fun to keep on playing it. I beat the game twice, and I still love it! I think that it’s a definite must have N64 game. The only thing it’s missing is a multiplayer mode!
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|The X-Wing flight sim you’ve always wanted,
First let me say that when this game came out it was everything I wanted it to be. I had played x-wing and tie-fighter on the PC and it was fun but this game has the look and feel like a properly designed flight sim – for each craft you fly has it’s own special characteristics. The voices and sounds are fantastic. The levels are varied and imaginitive. However, to be picky, I’d like to see some additions and a Rogue 2 come out. They would include: space combat, with capital ships, the ability to choose which craft you want (some levels simply insist you use the snowspeeder for example), a couple wing-commander-style wingman orders buttons to get another rogue to help kill the tie on your six, and more accurate shots on the complex polygons such as in the cloud city level where sometimes your perfectly aimed shots won’t blow up the tabana gas container you want, instead the shots hit the ones behind it, getting you in trouble with the civilian authorities. All in all, though it is one of the best games I’ve played on the N64 to date and with all the graphics, sound and voice stuffed on a cart instead of a cd, playstation style, I don’t have to see a loading…please wait sign. That’s worth every penny.
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|Great, but ultimately limited, Star Wars blaster,
The success of Star Wars isn’t based on the cheesy dialoge, suspect acting or even those dodgy seventies haircuts. No sir. Its based on the fact that people love to watch lots of spaceships shoot lots of other spaceships in, suprisingly, space. So its no suprise then that some of the best Star Wars games have seen you flying an X-wing through space, shooting down tie fighters and pretending your Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles or if your really sad, some other obscure pilot from the trilogy that no one else apart from you has ever heard of ( you know who you are ). And finally we have a game on the N64 that allows us to capture the excitement of those dramatic space battles, by flying an X-wing, over LAND! Actually, thats a bit harsh as this isn’t a bad game. It’s just that, for me anyway, Star wars is about dogfights out in the final frontier and not over a desert or a forest but oh well. Once you get over that, this does have a lot to recommend it. There’s five craft to fly plus three secret craft, the missions are all varied,challenging and fun and, providing you’ve got an expansion pak, the graphics are awesome. Combine that with the excellent sound and music that really envokes a sense of the movies and it is impressive. The main problem with this game is that it is limited in the long run. Sure there’s 16 missions but you’ll get through them without too many problems. I finished the game in just over a week and to quote my flatmate who was with me when I completed it ”Is that it?” Sure there’s the medals to get for the bonus misions and secret craft but re-flying missions you’ve already done to shave a few more seconds off your time or get that one more elusive kill is hardly riveting stuff, particuly when there’s widely known cheats to get them all anyway. In fact, the bonus missions aren’t that good, with only the battle of Hoth holding any interest as Beggers Canyon is dull and the Death Star trench actually is nothing like the trench from the film. Good but dissapointing as it could have been so much better.
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|One Of The Greatest Games Ever…,
It’s gonna be a great Christmas this year! Banjo-Tooie is without doubt one of the greatest games I’ve ever played! It’s one of those all-too-rare (no pun intended) games that constantly puts a smile on your face and a glow in your heart, and reminds you just how fun games can be. The graphics are phenomenal – each landscape is so epic and beautiful to look at that you could live there! The size of the levels is surely on the very limit of the machine’s capability and the levels themselves are supremely designed. The gameplay is a perfectly balanced blend of action and puzzles which are interspersed by some great little fun and wacky mini-games (including some hilarious 1st-person shooting sections like Goldeneye) and awesome bosses (just wait until you see the giant, snake-like welding torch Weldar – surely a candidate for most brilliantly original boss of all time). There is also a varied set of multiplayer games for up to 4 players which stand up as good games in their own right. It’s easy to pigeon-hole Banjo-Tooie as another 3D platform game but it is so much more than that. It is more like a fully-fledged adventure game as there are so many genuinely funny and charming characters to talk to and interact with. Add to that some really innovative gameplay touches and the ability to control Banjo and Kazooie independently of each other at certain points in the quest and you have perfect entertainment for the holiday season (and of course for the rest of the year too!). The structure and humour means it’s a game for kids and adults alike – just how all the best games should be. Forget PS2 and its disappointing collection of money-grabbing remakes. Banjo-Tooie is a game obviously made by people with a passion for games and therefore it’s a game the player will be passionate about while playing – which is a feeling only the greatest games can create. Surely this is Rare’s, if not Nintendo’s, finest hour.
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|A must-have game for any N64 owner,
I was a huge Banjo Kazooie fan – the dialogue was fun, the action was great, and the bizarre creatures you turned into and puzzles to solve were amazing. I wondered if the Tooie sequel could live up to the original – and it does!
The graphics are great. The characters each have their own personalities, and now each can become quite a range of other shapes and sizes in order to get through the game. It’s not just a find-100-of-this game either – there are combinations of things to do, and puzzles to solve, creatures to rescue and mazes to explore
The mini-games are amazingly fun by themselves. My boyfriend got hooked on the kickball game and kept going back for more! There are more egg varieties, more jinjos of various colors, more of everything.
Each world is nicely put together with its own theme, with all sorts of really funny things going on in it. These developers didn’t just work on honing the gameplay so it was perfect – they made every aspect, from the way the graphics were drawn to the way the characters talk to you – so funny that I was laughing half the time we played.
A great game for the N64, for all ages. Be sure to grab yourself a copy!
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