Rare Replay

[DisturbedSwan]

So, I started playing this yesterday, I pretty much grew up on Rare games on the N64 so the studio will always have a special place in my heart and memories, so buying this collection was a no brainer.

Some of the games though, I'd barely heard of, then others like Conker, Banjo 1, 2 and 3, Perfect Dark 0 etc. I've already played through, and I don't replay games, so I narrowed down my 'must play' list of the collection only including games I haven't played, and games I've heard are decent.

So, first off I started with Battletoads, now, as this is a NES game I wasn't expecting too much, but the gameplay holds up surprisingly well and it is pretty addictive to keep going back and trying to get through a level again, definitely played this the most today, put in over an hour at a guess and get upto the Speedster section of Level 3 before throwing in the towel, this was before I discovered Rare have put in a rewind mechanic to make things easier, so I may go back and see how far I can get with the rewind next time.

Next up was RC Pro Am 2, have to say I didn't really get on with it, it just didn't seem to hold up today, I can see how it could've influenced something like Mario Kart but I just couldn't get on with it at all, after this I just started from the first game in the collection chronologically (Jetpac) and went through each one periodically just to get the 15g gamerscore per game.

Didn't really get on with a lot of Rare's older games, they haven't aged well in my opinion and they just felt completely alien to me, a bit before my time I think (Jetpac, Lunar Jetman, Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf, Underwulde, Knight Lore, Gunfright, RC Pro Am, Cobra Triangle, Snake Rattle 'n Roll, Solar Jetman, Digger T Rock) I had a bit of fun with Slalom though before returning to try Battletoads Arcade, feels much more forgiving and easier to pick up and play than Battletoads NES, graphics are much better and its got more of a Streets of Rage vibe about it, pretty cool, and managed to make some decent progress by using the Rewind ad nauseum

So, yeah, I may go back to Battletoads and see if I can make some more progress tomorrow or I may make a start on Grabbed by the Ghoulies, I know it's not meant to be great but I've never played it so I want to give it a go, after that, Perfect Dark.

[AndyKurosaki]

Battletoads Arcade is excellent,and surprisingly violent for an arcade game.

Good luck getting past that bike section in the NES version though. Its almost impossible. The SNES version,Battlemaniacs had it too. Never got past it. And if you try it in 2 player? Then it really is impossible.

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah, I definitely want to go back to Battletoads Arcade, it seems more accessible and more to my tastes than Battletoads NES, saying that, I did play 2 and a half hours of Battletoads NES today, it's hella addictive, got upto Level 11 (using Rewind ad nauseum) before getting to a section which was nigh-on impossible and throwing in the towel.

Then made a start on Grabbed by the Ghoulies, so far its not been as bad as everyone makes out, I mean it's not great, but the music and sound effects are still upto Rare's usual quality, but whoever thought mapping all attacks onto the right analog stick would be a good idea should be shot in the face, it's just so unintuitive it's unreal, I've only played 30 mins but so far I want to continue on with it, it seems like this may of influenced Luigi's Mansion quite a bit, some of the music, ambience and ideas seem quite similar to Nintendo's gem.

[AndyKurosaki]

So how does the Rewind feature work then? Does it let you skip parts you're stuck on? That would be invaluable on the bike section.

Battletoads Arcade is the only 'Toads game I completed. Its a lot of fun.Me and my mate Neil completed it quite regularly in our all day game sessions of '96.

[DisturbedSwan]

You just press the left trigger and you can rewind when you fuck up, I've no idea how much time it rewinds but I think it's at least 15-20 seconds of gameplay.

[AndyKurosaki]

Cant see that helping much with that speedbike section that. Its pretty much Death City every second ?

[DisturbedSwan]

It definitely got me through it, there's no limit on the amount of times you can use it, so everytime you fuck up and hit a wall just hit the left trigger and rewind back to when you were still on your bike, you have to rewind a shitload of times to get through it but eventually you'll make it, that section is absolutely crazy-hard though, anyone who finished that section without rewind back in the NES era deserves a firm handshake.

Played a bit more Grabbed by the Ghoulies yesterday, it's such an anomaly for Rare really, it just seems such a bizarre game to make. It just seems like a series of challenge rooms pretty much where you have melee a bunch of differing enemies, sometimes with a time-limit, sometimes with a set amount of enemies to kill and then a door opens and you go right into another room where you do pretty much the same thing again, only with ever increasingly difficult enemies and numbers of enemies, it's such a simplistically-bizarre game to play in 2015, I really don't understand why Rare chose to map all the melee controls to the right thumbstick and not put any combos and stuff in there, the protagonist literally does the same moves over and over to defeat enemies and there's nothing else to it really, it just seems incredibly shallow.

Saying that, the music, sound effects, enemy character design and charm in the game are definitely upto Rare's usual quality and that's what has kept me involved so far, and I am strangely quite enjoying it, it's just so different to anything I've played really, there's definitely some Luigi's Mansion influences in there but the enemies and how you fight them are a lot different than LM, really want to see it through, it's only meant to be 6 hours long and I'm 2 hours in so it shouldn't take me too long, I've always been curious as to what's actually like and now I know I guess, Rare have done a fantastic job in 'remastering' GbtG as well, everything looks very nice in HD, a lot of graphics look to of been updated and it barely looks like a game that came out 12 years ago on the original xbox.

[Jimboxy]

So how does the Rewind feature work then? Does it let you skip parts you're stuck on? That would be invaluable on the bike section.

Battletoads Arcade is the only 'Toads game I completed. Its a lot of fun.Me and my mate Neil completed it quite regularly in our all day game sessions of '96.

Wouldn't that be fast forward?

[AndyKurosaki]

That's what I was thinking ?

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished Grabbed by the Ghoulies today, have to say I really enjoyed it and it's strange to see why it got all the shit it did back in the day, but maybe it has just aged well or something I don't know, the remaster helps, the graphics look amazing (even by today's standards).

I mean the game is incredibly linear, and is essentially a series of increasingly-difficult challenge rooms, but with the superb music, character designs and charm that Rare sprinkle onto almost every game they've made, it gets elevated above the ordinary to something that's just incredibly fun.

Its got its issues though, for sure, the camera can be absolutely appalling at times, for example, but I definitely think it's worth a play and holds up well today.

Onto Perfect Dark tomorrow

[DisturbedSwan]

Been making my way through Perfect Dark for what feels like forever, I am so ridiculously bored of that game, I've almost given up on 3 different occasions but just mustered enough enjoyment to continue on to the next day, keep getting utterly lost on a lot of the levels, not being able to find any of the objectives and having to watch a youtube video to get me on the right track, hella annoying.

I just think that everything seems a bit old hat these days, I know it's meant to be a classic, and some of the Goldeneye vibes got me feeling nostalgic at times but the level design, graphics, AI and just general gameplay just don't stand the test of time at all.

[Hendo]

I had the same feeling when it came out on XBLA.

We've come a long way in level design. My memory of Zero though is that they went the exact opposite way and put great big fucking neon arrows everywhere to guide you.

[AndyKurosaki]

I played Perfect Dark back in the day.Tried it on XBLA,found it utterly tedious.

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah I agree Hendo, in PD0 they definitely went too far with the whole massive arrow throughout the level, I guess they thought it would be a compromise of sorts, keep the early 00s level design (not a great choice to start) but to make it easier for a 2005 gamer put in a big fucking massive arrow to show them where to go when they get lost...great idea that was really don't think Rare will make another FPS again, I read on the Wikipedia page that if PD comes back it'll be in a different perspective (maybe TPS?) altogether, which would definitely be the right approach, not sure if there's the demand for a new game after PD0 though.

Not sure how long its taken me, but I finally finished Perfect Dark today, it feels like I've been playing it for eternity, but, finally, the nightmare is over, only had 3 levels to do today and managed to finish them all off with the help of a YT walkthrough so I didn't get hopelessly lost and waste time wandering about aimlessly. The last level gave me a lot of aggro, switched the difficulty down to Agent and finished it on that, once I realised how to defeat the final boss it was a breeze really. Needless to say, my opinion hasn't changed at all, tedious shite, I can see how the level design was probably considered ambitious back in the day and a few ideas are a bit ahead of its time I guess, but most of it has just aged terribly, definitely doesn't stand the test of time and I'd have to recommend to avoid this one like the plague.

I swear 1 out of 2 enemy soldier designs had Peter Molyneux's head on as well

Now onto Blast Corps tomorrow, but I must say PD has dampened my excitement for going back to any other N64 Rare era games.

[illdog]

I have this, the first thing I did was go straight to Blast Corps. I managed get all golds when I first had it on the 64 in 97 so I had my 20 yesr old self as inspiration to pound on.

Anyways, i still love this game, it's sooooo much fun. How could you not be entertained by smashing the shit out of everything? Im not sure if they've tightened the controls up but I was surprised at how responsive the game felt. Yes the little three wheeled bike thing that shoots missiles is annoying, yes the truck that you have to skid around in is annoying as fuck but the robots are fucking super aces.

The music annoyed me this time round, it's fucking odd but that means nothing, that's what volume down is for.Anyways, all golds done on all levels done. And Oyster Harbour caused me just as much grief as back in the day.

Ive gone through Battletoads arcade, I thought that was only ok. Next I shall play either Snake Rattle and Roll or Conkers Bad Fur Day as I never finished either when they originally came out.

[mfnick]

Some reason I suddenly wanted to really play Blast Corps so fired this up. You know what? It’s still a Hell of a lot of fun!! I’m having a great time on it. So weird having a good frame rate and good controls on it! Making getting golds a breeze so far.