The Nintendo 64 brings back fond Christmas memories. It was the first video game system I received as a Christmas gift. You see the N64 came out earlier that year and it was a hot ticket item. Nintendo launched in with Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, and some other great games. I remember playing it at Blockbuster at one of those kiosks. I was completely enamored by the 3D graphics and the unique controller. As a Mario and Link fan, I needed this system.
Christmas Day comes and there isn’t a system. I wasn’t bummed out by this. I went to my room to put away my new acquired clothes and there was a box on my bed. I knew what it was because I had seen that shape before. I took it downstairs and unwrapped my Nintendo 64. My father put a hold for it at a local Toys ‘R Us and they called him a few days before Christmas saying that they had them in stock. Unfortunately they didn’t have Super Mario in stock. I spent Christmas playing Mortal Kombat Trilogy and I played the hell out of it.
As time went on that year I got Super Mario 64. A year later on Christmas I got WCW/nWo World Tour and Ocarina of Time followed later.To this day I still have the system that had one of the best Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox games.
I love wrestling. Why yes I know it’s fake but on some weeks it still entertains me. Video games have been a natural tie in for wrestling due to the demographics who watch it. WWF Raw for the SNES is the last game in LJN series, which means it’s arguably the best one. Featuring a wide roster containing 12 wrestlers, it’s still has better replay value than WWF Warzone.
The game modes featured are a standard 1 on 1, tag team, Bedlam, Endurance, singles or tag team tournament mode, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series match. One on one and tag team modes are self explanatory. A Bedlam match is match where instead of pinning or making your opponent submit, you reduce their life bars to nothing and then the match ends. Think of it as knocking your opponent out. Endurance mode is where you take on every wrestler in the game on a continuous basis till they are defeated. John Cena would really like this match. Tournament modes are like endurance except taking on each character in separate match. Royal Rumble starts off with two grapplers in the ring and gradually gets to six in the ring. The only way to win is by tossing people over the top rope. Survivor Series lets you pick up to four wrestlers and compete against four others.
Move sets don’t really change much wrestler to wrestler. Each combatant does have their own finishing move and a Mega Move. Mega Moves are like the type of unrealistic moves that you would see in a fighting game. For example: Yokozuna does a cannonball in the ring that knocks everybody down and Bam Bam Bigelow flies across the ring like M. Bison.
Graphics: Each sports entertainer looks close to their real life counterpart except for Shawn Michaels who lacks the hearts on his tights. The moves are animated pretty well. Also, you can spot Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler in the background reacting to the action in the ring.
Sounds: Every wrestler has their theme music synthesized because a cartridge wouldn’t hold a WAV clip. The themes sound good considering it is essentially a MIDI file playing. There is no commentary in the game and during the matches all you hear is grunts and the crowd going wild when big moves are hit.
Controls: When your life bar starts depleting it makes it hard to pull off grappling finishing moves which is frustrating. I’m not a big fan of grappling and mashing as many buttons in order to pull off a move. Some of the Mega Moves are hard to pull off. The controls are responsive most of the time.
Other thoughts: I like Survivor Series because you can switch between all of your partners instead of what WWF Attitude did and only load one partner at a time. Sadly current gen games don’t do these matches. I like this game because I’m a lapsed wrestling fan. If you have a multi tap, you can play up to four players. A non wrestling fan will just say wrestling is fake and I would say aren’t video games fake, too.
Final score 75/100. Not too much wrong with but it does have limited replay value because of the small roster and lack of modes.
Sad fact: 4 wrestlers in this game are deceased.
Have you ever wanted to destroy buildings, fences, and metallic bouncing balls in a virtual world? If so Blast Corps is the game for you. Blast Corps (BC) was created by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The plot of the game is simple. A truck carrying nuclear materials has lost control. If it touches anything, there will be nuclear fallout. So the powers that be declare all these places to be abandoned in order for a path to be cleared. On your way to clearing the path, there will be extra goodies like additional stages where you can destroy more stuff or be able to race in cars.
If you able to get past a stage, you have the ability to go back and destroy more stuff. Also, there are lights on the ground that can be activated. (The game says it’s to prevent the nuclear radiation from spreading.) You can also find the survivors. If you are able to do all this, you can get a gold medal and 100% completion. There are satellites on the ground in many stages when activated cause more levels to be unlocked.
On your path of destruction, each stage will provide you with vehicles such as a bulldozer, a dump truck, and the Zords from the Power Rangers. Well not quite that. There are three unique machines: one where you can flight and hover and drop down on buildings, the second machine will do a roll and an uppercut, and the third will do a cartwheel that will bring down buildings. Also, you use cars to go between points in a stage and a crane, train, and tugboat to move machinery.
Graphics – They are okay for a 1st generation Nintendo 64 game. The buildings aren’t that detailed and the same sprites pop up in later levels. The machines look nice and shiny. The dump truck has a nice yellow coat and grey rear. The stages share similar environments such as the sea, rural area, and mountainous place. It gives a good variety to the game. When you destroy buildings, colorful explosions appear and you can see parts of the building fall down.
Music – Again it’s okay for a first generation Nintendo 64 game. There is handful of different background music for the entire game. It varies from really tense music to easy listening. The music goes at a fast pace as the nuclear carrier is about to head into a building as screen flashes “Warning! Warning!” Voices are featured in this game. If you complete a level, a CGI woman will tell you good job. If you get a warning, a man in army fatigues will tell you to get working.
Controls – The controls are good for most machines. You’ll be cursing out the dump truck in one of the last stages though. When I was child I rented this game and I could get past one the stages. The way the truck works is that you have to power slide backwards into building to destroy them. This can get frustrating as the television is yelling at while you’re panicking. Sometimes it feels like the controller isn’t being responsive. All the other machines work wonderfully.
Other things – It’s a short game if you play the levels and do bare minimum. If you do the additional goals, it adds more to do but it’s still short game. I assume there hasn’t been a sequel because Rare really doesn’t make games anymore and because September 11th happened.
I’ll give it 70/100 because it’s a short game and using the dump truck is extremely frustrating towards the end. It is a fun game and I hope it gets released on the Virtual Console or gets a HD remake.
