The Video Game Critic

The two Quake reviews are new, having languished in my "queue" for years.  Super Smash Bros. is a re-review.  The original grade was a C-, so I guess I softened up on it a bit.  Let's hear what you have to say.

Of all the Smash Bros. games the N64 version is the only one I can see falling into the C range.  The game is solid for sure, but its certainly not one of my favorites on the system.  Not to mention that the game is very difficult to go back and play after trying the GC and Wii versions.  It just seems so slow and clunky compared to the silky smooth sequels.

The Quake reviews were really well done.  I remember wanting to play those game back in the day because my PC couldn't handle them and they looked wicked sweet.  Sadly my tolerance (read: motion sickness) for FPS when I was younger was quite low.  Looking at a N64 FPS for longer than 5 minutes would result in me feeling sick.

You know, I am not experienced with the N64 version so I can't complain much, now that you've given the review a much needed polishing.

Still, to knock a game for its internal logic (jumping on air) seems silly in the grand scheme of videogaming. All games have something that "doesn't make sense" in the real world. The save moves in Smash Brothers add tension and necessary gameplay balance.

-Rob

"Condusive to button mashing"....

sigh....you're still not playing it right.  A person could make Street Fighter a button masher if they wanted to, but would miss the point of the game.  Kinda the same for Smash Bros.

Oh well, at this pace, it'll be an A by 2015.

[QUOTE=voor]"Condusive to button mashing"....

sigh....you're still not playing it right.  A person could make Street Fighter a button masher if they wanted to, but would miss the point of the game.  Kinda the same for Smash Bros.

Oh well, at this pace, it'll be an A by 2015.
[/QUOTE]
Any fighter can be a button masher if you don't know how to play it right. Still, he promised a re review, and he delivered with a more in depth look of the game, so my complaints for the original review are now less valid.

These are some good reviews.


Quake 1-   Its been years since I played the n64 version of Quake.   I liked it at the time because I had a crappy computer and polygonal shooters were a new thing. I dont remember the 10 second load times though, wow thats pretty pathetic.    Now that I got a much better PC I went back and played it in glorious 1024x768 resolution.    Even if the N64 version is a C game, the original PC version was amazing once I got the proper hardware for it!   I love the gothic horror theme of it, as very few FPS's have it.

But I notice something wrong with your review.   You say " The monsters aren't quite as mindless as they were in Doom. They'll fall over and get back up when shot, and sometimes they even turn on each other!"    You seem to suggest the monsters in doom don't turn on each, but in fact they do (at least in the PC version)   In fact its a strategy in the game when you're in a room with several enemies to trick them into fighting each other.

See this link

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_infighting

Quake 2-   By the time this game came out I had a good PC so I never played the N64 version.   Even though critics raved over it, I wasnt a big fan of it.   I didn't like the robot futuristic setting.   It looked like ever other FPS.   Why did they change it?   You say the N64 version has stood the test of time well, so Im gonna give it another chance.   I see the game is selling pretty low on amazon so Im gonna try it out, considering the N64 has different levels.

Super Smash Bros -   I guess this game isn't for every one.   I find it to be a very fun party game, but I could see how someone wouldn't like it.

A well deserved grade for Quake II on the n64. That game provided a solid rental period of multiplayer greatness. I later bought the psx version several years later and I must recommend that version as well. Considered impossible, the psx version was very faithful to the pc version, had solid graphics, quick load times and a great frame-rate even with gasp four player multiplayer!

Super Smash Bros: Keep in mind I only said it was condusive to button mashing, due to the chaotic nature of the gameplay.  If you lose track of your character, or find yourself catapulted off the platform, button mashing is actually not a bad option!

Edward: I will fix the sentence about the monsters fighting - thanks for correcting me.  Also, I kind of agree that the futuristic setting of Quake 2 is less appealing in some ways than the dungeons.

In terms of the review of the original Quake, I have some corrections:

1. Although the PC version of Quake was released in 1996, it didn't come out on N64 until February or March of 1998.

2. Quake 64's multiplayer supports only 2 players, not 4 (it was originally going to have 4 player support, but the developers claimed that they were hamstrung by technical limitations).

The reviews were dead on as usual and remind me why I visit this site for gaming info. N64 Quake was great in its day but not so hot anymore. I don't remember the high difficulty, though. I actually beat Quake 2 on the original Playstation before I tried the N64 version. Needless to say, the PS could not handle that game. Smash Bros. is definitely overrated. Even in its heyday, none of my friends liked it or were willing to play. Heck, I'm a pretty big fan of Nintendo and I couldn't stomach it either. Then again, I hate fighting games (the only genre I despise, actually) so I'm biased as far as that goes.