Anyway my gaming was somewhat lacking of due to my time restraints and my lack of good internet. God I missed my xbox. I spent a lot of time on steam. But when I lost internet I withdrew back into my emulators.
I started playing Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Kazooie, and Jet Force Gemini, Iggy's Reckin Balls, etc etc. I started looking up the reviews for these games and wondered "are these particular game reviews still valid today?" So in a method that answers that question and boosts my own ego at the same time, I analyzed them again.
Diddy Kong Racing
Original Score: 8.4
My New Score: 8
Diddy Kong Racing was the first game that I owned for my N64 and was considered one of the best games for N64 in 97'
Diddy Kong Racing is your average 90's cartoony nintendo racing game. Very much like Mario Kart but with a tiny animal makeover. All playable characters were represented by animals, a few of which spawned their own games.(Banjo, Conkur) DKR has some beautiful animations. The tracks are all very well designed and are all very unique. But does it still hold up today? Overall yes it does. As aged as DKR may be (the original review praises their use of polygons) it retains it's childish, nintendoesque humor that we all love. Under the campy tunes, and ridiculously hokey characters lies a good racing game. The challenge is still there, as racing against the 5 bosses still manages to frustrate and the rewards are still very satisfying. The few shortcomings that DKR has are not enough to drag it down, but might be enough to make some people retreat back into Blur. The AI is of course rather under developed and seem to either let you win, or give you very little chance. DKR was one of the first games that I can think of that offered multiple vehicle choices, unfortunately not all of the vehicles were not as well developed as one would help. The plane and the hovercraft could definitely used some work, especially for those characters that already had terrible speed and control ratios, the difficulty of managing a hovercraft did not help
Jet Force Gemini
Original Score: 8.1
My New Score: 9
Jet Force Gemini was my personal first experience with any kind of shooter. Not so much FPS but TPS. Jet Force Gemini was an N64 game not to be missed, and in my opinion one of Rare's finest.
Jet Force Gemini puts you in the arms of Juno, Vela and Lupus. Three space bounty hunters on a mission, to defeat the evil Mizer and rescue the peaceful Tribals. JFG is is not your usual campy nintendo game. JFG is HARD. Most levels consist of your single character fighting hundreds upon hundreds of alien drones. You are supplied with a ready arsenal of space age weapons to assist you and none of them fail to impress. Weapons like the Tri-Rocket launcher allow for maximum damage to the bigger baddies while regulars like the Machine Gun help you take out many enemies at once. Some weapons do seem to be more for show than anything, the plasma rifle looses its luster in the later levels when the enemies get smarter. The weapons get the most use in multiplayer. Mutliplayer takes the form of a deathmatch between 2-4 characters. You have a selection of using light, medium, or heavy weapons and just go at it till someone gets bored. Places where JFG shine are most obvious during the single player mode. Doors are opened by finding keys, and killing all the drones. Certain areas present you with the challenge of hitting enemies that are either flying high above you or specifically trying to avoid you. JFG gives you the ability to transfer from a third person view to more of a first person. Your character becomes transparent and the camera zooms in making it easier to specifically target hard to reach baddies. One thing Rare tried very hard to do when making JFG was put as much replay value into it as possible. This works in terms of revisiting levels with other characters to access before unreachable areas, but they might have taken it a bit too far with completion. One of your goals in the game (which is actually mandatory) is to rescue the cute fuzzy bears known as Tribals. The problem? you need to collect all of them, the bigger problem? If you miss one you have to go back and collect them ALL again to make that one you missed count. Yea it's a bitch. This does not however take away from the game so much to warrant only one playthrough. Jet Force Gemini is an amazing game that has not aged with time. The graphics hold their own on the N64 with only minor frame rate problems. The gameplay is extremely satisfying with completely epic boss fights. Squashing bugs was never this hard. In my opinion Jet Force Gemini was and still is one of the greatest N64 games ever made and is completely playable today. (and a great soundtrack to boot)
Iggy's Reckin Balls
Original Score: 6.9 (hehe)
My New Score: 5
Iggy's Reckin Balls is a weird fucking game. You are Iggy (or one of his eclectic playable friends) a group of animate wrecking balls with a fetish for racing. At it's core thats what Iggy is, a racing game. You jump, roll, and swing your way across the usually circular 3D, colorful tracks while picking up items to help you along the way by speeding you up or by dispatching your enemy. Iggy is fun, Iggy is funny, Iggy is repetitive, Iggy isn't for a solo gamer. Iggy really shines in it's multiplayer. Battle mode with four people is Iggy at it's best. The main reason for my lower score is that unless you happen to still have an N64, and unless you happen to find a copy of Iggy's Reckin balls sittin around, and unless you feel like actually paying money for it, this game is only really worth a few minutes of cheap camp filled N64 thrills. Anyone playing Iggy on an emulator isn't going to get the experience out of it that the game deserves.
Banjo-Kazooie
Original Score: 9.6
XBLA: 8
My New Score: 9.5
Banjo-Kazooie remains to this day my favorite N64 game and the only really great spin off to come from Diddy Kong Racing. Banjo-Kazooie is an incredibly imaginative adventure game that follows Banjo a honey bear and his eccentric friend Kazooie, a witty bird with attitude. Banjo's sister Tooty is kidnapped by the evil Gruntilda so that she may transfer Tooty's beauty to herself using her "pretty girl, ugly witch beauty switching machine" The game follows the pattern of the rest of the N64 adventures, making Banjo traverse 9 unique and deadly worlds to find puzzle pieces (Jiggy's). Finding enough jiggy's in one world opens up the next. Jiggy's are collecting ala mario 64 style, complete quests in each world which can involve races, battles, fetch quests, secret locations, collectables, etc. The worlds are very well designed and a joy to explore. Throughout the game you will learn new attacks and techniques that will allow you to access places unreachable before in the previous worlds. Banjo's strongest point is probably it's personality. The game is chock full of wonderfully fun characters to interact with that help you on your quest. Pretty much everything in Banjo-Kazooie is alive. Mumbo Jumbo is a shaman who after collecting enough jumbo skulls will turn banjo into something based on the world you are in, a walrus, a pumpkin, a bee, and my personal favorite, a washing machine. Brentilda, Gruntilda's sister who gives you personal (Sometimes too personal) information about Gruntilda that comes in handy toward the end of the game, and Bottles, an almost blind mole who teaches Banjo new moves and has an ongoing feud with Kazooie. Banjo-Kazooie is ultimately one of the most replayable games I've ever experienced. The only thing keeping Banjo from a perfect 10 is it's accessibility. Banjo is definitely more fun when you've got a controller in your hands, and more specifically an N64 controller. It is very hard to perfect on an emulator due to the lack of a control stick and the complications of using the C-buttons. Banjo Kazooie is however still available on the Xbox Live Arcade, although I will admit the XBLA one feels to me like it's a somewhat diluted version, edited to make the game easier.
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