#159. Monaco Grand Prix
Ubisoft
September 1999
$104.99 on Amazon
It’s not a racing game, mom, it’s a racing simulator! Monaco Grand Prix is one of those games I can’t help but feel would be more fun with a racing wheel, because a Nintendo 64 controller doesn’t exactly capture that same level of driving simulation. That being said, once you get the hang of it, it can be a weirdly soothing game. There’s enough on the surface to just enjoy racing around the different courses in various countries, but there are also a lot of customization options, too. It’s very realistic- there’s weather conditions, a gas tank, and your “tyres” even get grass and dirt on them! Seriously, this might actually be one of the best looking games on the Nintendo 64. — K. Podas
#158. Rampage 2: Universal Tour
March 31, 1999
Avalanche Software
Midway
$62.69 on Amazon
Unsatisfied with mere world destruction? So were the developers at Midway games. Rampage 2 brings new monsters, maps, but not gameplay to the series. While a small step above the original Rampage, mainly due to the fun new maps that take you literally out of this world, it falls short of being a true upgrade or sequel. Leaving you wishing that there were more to do, or any kind of shake-up to the gameplay loop. However, since this was released in the glorious year of 1999, you can in fact destroy the World Trade Center in the New York level. So that’s gotta count for something. — G.Porter
#157. Mortal Kombat Trilogy
November 4, 1996
Williams
Midway
$77.99 on Amazon
This was like the fifth game to come out for the system and people were rightfully pretty excited. The notion of a Mortal Kombat game that encompassed the entire series thus far was the stuff of dreams, and the legendarily violent brawler appearing on the Nintendo 64 had to seem strange. This game is bloody as hell! The system has a very wholesome catalog overall, which makes it fun to remember that there’s shit like Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Resident Evil on there too. Trilogy, however, falls short of both those twisted contemporaries’ N64 offerings, as well as the promise of the game in the first place. There’s less characters and stages than other versions, and while it’s still packed with over 30 selectable characters, none of them play with the smoothness and realism you recall, partially due to misplaced nostalgia that told you these games were perfect, but mostly because of the lackluster animation found on this port. These shortcomings make it even more shocking that game came out costing $80 in 1996, a fact far more disturbing than any of the fatalities found within it. — M. Roebuck
#156. Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls
August 27, 1998
Iguana
Acclaim
$59.99 on Amazon
Someday there is going to be a wonderful documentary about the influence of psychedelic drugs on video game development. Because I simply can’t imagine the initial pitch of this game coming from a sober mind. “So there’s this iguana. No, not a whole iguana, just the head. He’s racing non-animalian spheres. And they all use industrial hoists or their tongues to jump.” And yet somehow it all comes together into a decently fun party/racer game. But the glaring issue with Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls is the short length of each level. While the gameplay is fun and frantic, the whole experience is over too quickly. Now excuse me as I drop some acid in order to write a review of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. — J. Danek
#155. Madden NFL Football 2000
August 31, 1999
EA Tiburon
EA Sports
$18.01 on Amazon
The differences in the five (five!) Madden games on this system are obviously marginal, but the line between ‘99 and ‘00 might be the most significant. There is a real sense of momentum at the line of scrimmage for the first time in this installment, for example. Also making their long overdue debut are different models for different sized players! I realize first wave 3D video game technology wasn’t going to render 22 different physiques, but previous entries featured entire squads of identical looking players battling it out on the field, which one could argue undoes certain strides made towards realism. There is a noticeable jump in graphics in this installment, however, with edges getting smoothed, and stadiums feeling a lot like their real life counterparts. Are you going to mistake these chunky polygons for the real thing anytime soon? Yes. Yes, I think you just might. — M. Roebuck
#154. Earthworm Jim 3D
October 31, 1999
VIS Entertainment
Rockstar Games
$199.99 on Amazon
Ah yes, the theory of evolution: species change and adapt over time to better suit their environments. When 3D games became all the rage in the mid-to-late 90s, most 2D side-scrolling series took the plunge into this extra dimension and either sank or swam. But like the theory of evolution, natural selection determines which games will continue on, or go the way of the dodo.
Earthworm Jim 3D is the third game in the Earthworm Jim series. Don’t you just love it when that happens? The “3” in “3D” also indicates that it’s the third game in the series! Ahem, anyway, the entire game takes place inside Jim’s head after suffering an injury (a cow fell on him) and he has to go through levels to collect doo-dads and regain his sanity. The platforming itself is honestly a very mixed bag, but by far its biggest detractor is the camera controls. I would find myself rapidly tapping the C-buttons to get the camera to swing behind me as needed, in an act that made me feel like I lost my marbles. The humor is generally irreverent and silly, if not a little “random XD” at times. The boss fights are honestly terrible, but the one thing that got me through it all was hearing Dan Castellaneta’s wonderful screams. — K. Podas
#153. Forsaken 64
April 20, 1998
Iguana Entertainment UK
Acclaim
$34.19 on Amazon
Forsaken 64 has a plot – a plot that I frankly could not make head nor tail of. Something about fusion reactors and robots on a dead planet and I think there was religion involved somehow. Look, it was just a mess. It’s not surprising since this was still in the era when most first-person shooters still had to have most of their story explained in the manual, but even that taken into consideration it was confusing to say the least.
Besides that, the game is fine. The controls are relatively fluid and 3D exploration works well, although the graphics and sameness of the environments can make it confusing as to exactly where the fuck you are or supposed to go. But if you let yourself get into it and lower your expectations of story structure you will likely find yourself actually having fun from time to time, albeit in a nostalgic “I wish I was reviewing Quake II” kind of way. — J. Knapp
#152. WWF WrestleMania 2000
November 15, 1999
AKI Corporation
THQ
$52.99 on Amazon
Never before has the fast, exciting, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sport of professional wrestling been closer to a crawl than in WWF WrestleMania 2000. Pioneering the prolific genre of 3D wrestling games was sure to come with expected growing pains, and this certainly would scratch an itch for some, but going back to this from a post-Benoit world is like banging rocks together to start a fire for nostalgic purposes. Between faces that look like they’re smushed & obscured by pantyhose and moves that feel about as smooth as a robot-dancing street performer, it’s hard to cut this thing some slack. But it all had to start somewhere? I’m gonna give it at least that. That’s the bone I’m gonna throw. Mash some buttons with the homies if this thing gets dug out of somebody’s basement before promptly doing anything else. — W. MacDonald
#151. NFL Quarterback Club ‘99
November 10, 1998
Iguana
Acclaim
$14.54 on Amazon
Additions like the ability to play past Super Bowls, NFL Europe teams, and pretty solid mo-cap make this a standout entry in the clear 5th best NFL franchise of its era, behind Madden, GameDay, 2K, and Blitz, the same way longtime QB Club cover boy Brett Favre was merely the fifth best quarterback of the 90s, after John Elway, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, and Jim Kelly. — M. Roebuck
#150. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
March 4, 1997
Iguana
Acclaim
$49.99 on Amazon
It’s easy to take for granted the standardization of controls for first-person shooters until you play a game like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. I can’t stress enough how bizarre this game feels. To move forward, you press C-up. Strafing is C-left and C-right. The left stick aims. The R button jumps. If none of this makes sense to you, I promise you it didn’t make much more sense in 1997. There is a fun, even groundbreaking game in here somewhere. The graphics could be great if the fog didn’t obscure all visuals farther than 10 feet away. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter looks like it takes place in 1940’s smog-addled Pittsburgh. Maybe someday the Steel City will take care of their rampant raptor problem, too. — J. Danek
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