#223. Robotron 64
January 5, 1998
Player 1
Crave Entertainment
Only $374.97 on Amazon
The N64 era is kinda fun because you’ve got games evolving into a more mature, narrative-based form while at the same time, you’ve got games like this that are firmly designed so that the only incentive to keep playing is to get a higher score for bragging rights. If you couldn’t get enough of Robotron in Midway’s Greatest Arcade Hits – Volume 1, here’s 200 more levels of Robotron, now with a weird, Jimmy Neutron-esque art style. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to put a game famous for its use of two joysticks onto a system that only has one, but moving with the stick and shooting with the c-buttons never quite feels right. If you could somehow get this game running on a system that isn’t the N64 where you could magically map those c-buttons to another stick, well, now we’re talking. Unfortunately, it is physically impossible to play an N64 game on anything other than the original hardware, the Wii Virtual Console, the Wii U Virtual Console, and the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass service. And that’s all I have to say about that! — S. Finkelstein
#222. PGA European Tour
June 15, 2000
Infogrames
$329.99 on Amazon
While this game is by no means very good, it’s the clear-cut recommendation on Nintendo 64 for realistic golf enthusiasts, if you ever find yourself in that hyper specific scenario. It looks like shit and you’ll hear more birds than humans, but I’ll be goddamned if it ain’t the licensed PGA tour, sure to impress the die-hards that saw through Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics’ blatant interest in promoting a single golf course or the dark menacing presence Wario brought to their beloved sport in Mario Golf. It’s golf with all of the pesky fun stripped away from it, a full length Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge. — M. Roebuck
#221. Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
May 25, 1998
Angel Studios
Nintendo
$49.99 on Amazon
The Ken Griffey games lost some of their charm that set them apart on the SNES when they came to the next generation. The games aren’t great and they’re not really terrible, they’re just kind of there. MLBFKG, Jr. feels emblematic of an era where games couldn’t quite keep up with some of the ideas being put forth. For example, giving batters different stances sounds like a great idea and a perfect touch to not let all of the at-bats in a baseball game start to feel same-y. However, this just leads to a series of comical postures as a game progresses, with players’ bizarre approaches ranging from crouching as low as they seemingly can to holding the bat up over their head like they’re trying to keep it dry in a flood. Does something like that make this game overall good or bad? No, not really, but I don’t know what else to talk about. It’s a baseball game, man. You’re gonna hit a lot of foul balls and the computer is gonna score and piss you off.
On the SNES, the Ken Griffey games are standouts, some of the best sports games on the entire system. All of the teams and players in Ken Griffey Presents Major League Baseball follow themes, meaning while you don’t get to play as Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan, or Cal Ripken, Jr., you can play as Werner Herzog, Joey Ramone, or Aretha Franklin. I’m not sure if we’ll do an SNES one of these or not, so I wanted to tell you guys that while I had the chance. — M. Roebuck
#220. Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers
TNS Co., Ltd and Infinite Ventures
Kemco
May 31, 1999
$119.99 on Amaznon
Shadowgate 64 takes the classic gameplay of a point-and-click adventure game and answers the question “What if we added an extra challenge by making you navigate it with borderline unusable first-person controls?” It also answers the question “What if the lore was generic, forgettable, overwrought, medieval-adjacent pablum?” It also answers the question “What if you spent the vast majority of this game wandering around a big empty castle, clicking blindly on every object and set piece, hoping some text will spell out what the hell you’re supposed to be doing?” It also answers the question “What if you could instantly die at any moment because sometimes a little gap in the ground is actually a bottomless pit, and if you haven’t manually saved in an hour, you’re fucked?” Ultimately, there’s just one question it fails to answer: “Why would I play this when I could play literally any other game in this genre?” — C. Dean
#219. NHL Breakaway ‘98
September 30, 1997
Iguana
Acclaim
$14.99 on Amazon
Games like NHL Breakaway ‘98 are ultimately put in a pretty unfavorable spot when considered decades later. The game’s three dimensional polygon skaters and arenas were certainly necessary for video games’ continued advancement. However, being on the forefront of 3D console gaming means titles like this don’t offer much replayability today, and instead serve as a sort of memento to this phase of gaming that often felt like one step forward, two steps back. This game offered some innovative ideas, like earning points for in-season victories that you could spend on hiring coaches and developing players, but it also made some befuddling decisions. C-right for check, while A and B are occupied by blocking shots and poke checks? In the parlance of the extreme ‘90s, this hockey game has no balls! — M. Roebuck
#218. WCW Backstage Assault
December 12, 2000
Kodiak Interactive
Electronic Arts
$30.59 on Amazon
Backstage Assault is a game that could’ve been a great rental but probably was a real bummer to own. It’s a fun idea: “What if a wrestling game consisted ONLY of the backstage hardcore stuff we all loved to do whenever we played wrestling games?”
It was a unique premise, but despite incentives like unlocking new backstage areas and moves for your create-a-wrestlers, the lack of a bread and butter wrestling mode (you know, with a ring and stuff) makes Backstage Assault feel shallow. It’s undeniably fun to throw your buddies around in the locker room and boiler room (both very important rooms in wrestling history), and having the GOAT Bobby “The Brain” Heenan announcing is a delight, but this is ultimately like if they made a whole game out of one of the Street Fighter II bonus levels or something. Kind of fun, probably shouldn’t be a whole game! — M. Roebuck
#217. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
November 8, 1997
Midway
$49.99 on Amazon
What’s better than racing? Extreme racing. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing brings arcade action to your home on the Nintendo 64. And if you can manage to handle an N64 controller just as well as an arcade racing wheel, then by all means, more power to you. Controls are a bit janky, as there isn’t any easy way to power slide around the game’s tight turns. I often would find myself smiling as I coasted down a San Francisco cityscape, and then in the blink of an eye my car would transform into a flaming wreck as I crashed headfirst into a wall in Chinatown. It’s just like the end of that movie, Chinatown. — K. Podas
#216: Tigger’s Honey Hunt
September 29, 2000
Doki Denki Studio, Disney Interactive Studios
NewKidCo, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive
$37.49 on Amazon
Tigger’s Honey Hunt is startlingly competent for a spin-off of a child’s television show made by mercenary developers who only do other kid’s games. You can jump and collect honey jars, interact with mechanics like wind or bouncy spider webs, and play a couple mini-games. I’ve been through the trenches and I promise you, the bar is THAT low. When Tigger jumps, you can see a shadow beneath him that indicates your position when you land, which is a great sign that the creators had played a video game at some point.
While Tigger’s Honey Hunt is an actual video game unlike some of its branded peers (looking at you, Elmo’s Letter Adventure), you will quickly find that Tigger rarely goes beyond the minimum. Some sort of wind blowing abomination shows up mid-game which varies gameplay slightly, but otherwise the entire game is basic platforming. I don’t expect a decades-old children’s game to play like Celeste, but ultimately there’s not much to the gameplay for the middle-aged nostalgia addicts that are emulating N64 games. Self-own!
One glaring flaw is the total lack of voice acting. Normally I wouldn’t criticize a N64 game for skipping out on voices, but most people buying a Winnie the Pooh branded product want to hear the familiar voices of Winnie saying “Oh, bother,” or Eeyore saying “I crave death.” Now that I mention it, Tigger’s Honey Hunt lacks Eeyore, the only good character from Winnie the Pooh. Fuck all that. — R. Fleishman
#215. Mike Piazza’s Strike Zone
June 18, 1998
Devil’s Thumb Entertainment
GT Interactive
$21.88 on Amazon
One might hope that the name and endorsement of one of the most famous catchers of all time would mean this game has some emphasis on the position, which would probably be bad, but would at least make this game more original than what it is, which is the 40th stiff MLB recreation that I’m sure was just fine if you were into baseball in the year it came out, but isn’t really compelling in any way in 2023. I know, brave stance. Bumping it down a few spots for one of the absolute worst menu tracks on the system. They literally have a sample of an umpire yelling “Strike!” over some EDM music. No, you’re right, it does sound awesome, but it’s also very grating. — M. Roebuck
#214. Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck
August 2000
Paradigm Entertainment
Infogrames
$300.00 on Amazon
Kids love Buck Rodgers parodies, right? This 3D platformer is based on the Duck Dodgers shorts from Looney Tunes and pits Daffy Duck as a space ranger up against Marvin the Martian. The game nails the Looney Tune aesthetic. The N64-standard flat textures and bright colors do feel like the cartoons it’s based on, and the amount of voiceover is impressive. But there just is nothing interesting going on here. The way you interact with the world is a dinky little kick and the occasional ACME gadget, but you’re mostly just walking around collecting doo-dads. Give this duck a gun, for Pete’s sake! Go play the Bugs Bunny platformers on the PS1. Now THOSE are some good games. — S. Finkelstein
#213. Supercross 2000
October 31, 1999
MBL Research
Electronic Arts
Cashing in on the extreme sports boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, EA’s Supercross 2000 brings motocross racing to the Nintendo 64. The pop-punk soundtrack and (limited) trick system are obviously trying to ape what was popular for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater at the time, but does it work here, though? I mean… kinda?
You can either compete in races or freestyle rounds. The races are a bit rough, though. Turning around corners requires a lot of stopping and starting, and crashing into other racers. Thankfully they are pretty liberal with that, so you don’t get penalized for knocking an opponent 15 feet off the race course. Speaking of, freestyle mode is where tricks can really shine. It can be a little tough to get enough momentum to pull off wicked and/or gnarly tricks in mid-air, but if at first you don’t succeed, you will at least ragdoll into an unsuspecting crowd. — K. Podas
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