Vampires Suck, but Castlevania rocks

Vampires. A hapless group of soul-bound individuals with an unquenchable thirst for blood. Countless tales have been told of their superhuman strength, speed, and agility as well as their horrific acts of terror and unholy rituals. For many years they ruled the nights, shunning the light of day, sucking the life out of helpless victims and binding them to their eternal curse. But amongst the race of vampires there was one foul being whose name stood out amongst the rest. A being, so relentless, so evil, so powerful that all bowed before him and swore their loyalty to him. Count … Continue reading Vampires Suck, but Castlevania rocks

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil uses N64 memory expansion to fullest

Acclaim’s Iguana team has pulled off yet another great blood-chilling, action-packed, first-person shooter as the sequel to last year’s highly praised Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. This one will leave you nothing less than impressed. Turok 2 is the first of many games designed to work with Nintendo’s new 4 megabyte expansion pak, a hardware add-on used to enhance graphics, sound and gameplay of titles designed for its use. This new expansion pack takes Turok 2 to a higher plateau of gaming as it increases resolution, enables smoother animation, heightens artificial intelligence and tweaks the sound of the game. Though Turok 2 … Continue reading Turok 2: Seeds of Evil uses N64 memory expansion to fullest

Rogue Squadron will woo Star Wars fans

A few years ago LucasArts released Shadows of the Empire as one of the flagship Nintendo 64 titles. It was a mixed bag, consisting mostly of mundane corridor shooters. However, there was one stage which stood out among the rest: the snowspeeder battle at Hoth. Critics such as myself wished that Shadows could have been more like the first stage, nothing but exciting ground-level flight sequences. LucasArts took our ideas to heart, and incorporated German based developers Factor 5 (known primarily for the Turrican series on the 16-bit systems) to create Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron takes place right after the … Continue reading Rogue Squadron will woo Star Wars fans

NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC is a brick

Now I love basketball as much as the next gamer. But what I don’t love is a completely re-hashed, re-done, re-packaged version of a game we’ve seen a thousand times before. Everyone wants to be like NBA Jam. NBA Showtime: NBA On NBC represents one of the worst trends in console gaming today — take a successful idea (NBA Jam and arcade-style basketball play), make a game that looks, feels, and plays just like it, slap a famous name to it (does NBC and Shaq ring a bell), produce it on every game system you can (the game will be … Continue reading NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC is a brick

WCW/NWO Revenge will bodyslam the competition on N64

Last year THQ bought exclusive rights to the WCW license until January 1999. Since then they’ve produced two top-seller wrestling titles. "WCW Nitro" for the Playstation and WCW/NWO World Tour for the Nintendo 64, both helped put THQ on the map in terms of gaming. Now with their contract almost up with WCW, THQ has been hard at work trying to push out more killer titles into the wrestling world. The newest member to the THQ wrestling library is WCW/NWO Revenge for the Nintendo 64 platform, the sequel to WCW/NWO World Tour. Packed with 128 Megs as opposed to its … Continue reading WCW/NWO Revenge will bodyslam the competition on N64

Zelda levels console market, aims at Metal Gear’s dominance

Zelda 64 is the most anticipated game on the N64 platform. For months we’ve seen it plastered in all the major gaming magazines and read about its progress at the most popular Internet Web sites. Its ratings have even earned it a segment in NewsWeek. There have been what seemed to be hundreds of canceled release dates on this title. N64 fans have tossed and turned in their beds for over 40 days and 40 nights. We’ve stared blankly at our clocks from sunrise to sundown waiting for some sign of it’s arrival. Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock. They tried to send us "Quest … Continue reading Zelda levels console market, aims at Metal Gear’s dominance

Rainbow Six is red hot sniper action

I’ve always liked the suspense of sneaking through an installation, catching terrorist forces off-guard, sniping them without warning, rescuing hostages and disarming explosives. But still, even with all that Metal Gear has done, I’ve always wondered how it would be done in a first person perspective, borrowing elements from Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, plus adding the ability to plan out my operation among fellow teammates before sending them out in combat. Thanks to Red Storm Entertainment, my thoughts have become reality as their release, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, takes these elements and executes them in the right way. Rainbow … Continue reading Rainbow Six is red hot sniper action

Wetrix: no love at first site, but love none the less

If you thought Tetrisphere was a mind sweeper, wait until Wetrix splashes home on your N64. Wetrix is by far the most challenging 3-D puzzle fighter I’ve ever played. If you don’t have the patience or the I.Q this game will leave you soak and wet! Congratulations to Ocean for developing a game that has originality and will nearly burn all your brain cells before you master it. Wetrix isn’t a "love at first sight" type of game, but you gradually grow more and more addicted to it. Don’t even think about trying any of the other modes until you’ve … Continue reading Wetrix: no love at first site, but love none the less

WWF Warzone is a kick in the pants for other wrestling games

As I am writing this review, I am currently watching an ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) pay-per-view, and with watching this, I can see how professional wrestling has become more hardcore, more aggressive, and best of all, more entertaining. Likewise, wrestling video games have been definitely getting better over the course of the last few years. I still remember playing the original Pro Wrestling on my Nintendo Entertainment System, and remembered how enjoyable it was. Unfortunately, with the later pro wrestling releases, they have averaged from pretty good (as in WCW vs. nWo: World Tour) to average (WWF Wrestlemania) to just … Continue reading WWF Warzone is a kick in the pants for other wrestling games

StarCraft was worth the wait. Enough said

When I hear that a game that I look strongly forward to is being delayed, it puts a chill in my spine. That’s because when a game is heavily delayed, it usually means that something is seriously wrong and the final product will be a total disaster. Take Battlecruiser 3000, for instance. Here we have a product that was supposed to be the ultimate in space exploration; something in the likes of Privateer, Elite, etc. After who knows how many years of delays, what was brought to the public was an unfinished disc, complete with bugs, crashes, incomplete manuals, and … Continue reading StarCraft was worth the wait. Enough said