thanks bro. sorry bout the misunderstanding. Prob could give a less in depth bout them. god knows ive played many many old games. new not so much. again. sorry to all I mad angry. wasnt my intentions at all

if im doing something wrong please correct me. honestly this is my 5 year olds thing and he wanted a arcade game bad. i looked through announcements and seen that games needed reviews on them. just trying to let my boy play "my barts" (simpsons). not really trying to harm or make anyone angry. was not my intentions.

Duke Nukem 3D is supposed to be great fun, another awesome production by ID. Duke Nukem has always been the classic shooter back in it's 2-D side-scrolling days, only to return in the much more vulgar 3-D guts, blood, and sex. Well not so much sex, but plenty of unnecessary innuendo and references. Siding with Quake, it was yet another success in the FPS lineup. This was true until the Mega Drive had its own port. Only here is how poorly games can really be, especially 3D on 16-bit. It should have went to the 32x with its counterpart Doom right? Maybe. Or maybe it shouldn't at all. Here's why.

Graphics-2/10
What looks like the innards of a refrigerator is actually a moon base. With its extraordinary gray floor, wall and ceilings, its enough to make you puke. They do eventually change it up a bit with real design, but not good enough to actually fit next to each other.

Sounds-4/10
From the mellow beat of its "music" to the lasers and pistol shots, machines blowing up, and aliens making a quick Aaaugh!....not much to actually like.

Story-2/10
Stop the evil aliens from overcoming you and taking over the Earth. Simplistic and to the point, which makes it very brief.

Gameplay-2/10
Now this is where it gets really bad. I find the easiest difficulty to be downright obscured because of the controls. They flat out suck. Killing the very first enemy I'm subjected to be 30% health down. Having an incredible experience of playing FPS, the controls in movement completely ruin the enjoyment for the player.

Buy/Rent
I don't recommend either or. Any other port will do just fine.

This game was doomed to begin with. So late in the system's life, and with newer games already in the 64-bit, Duke never had a chance. It's very surprising to see a port of a 3-D game especially on a 16-bit console. How it was ever done is beyond me, but it does exist for some people. Being in Brazil only in 1998, a very limited amount was probably made, so it should retain some value on it. As advised, the graphics have been severely stripped to having any sort of realism, difficulty is at a maximum, and controls have diminished to the point where the games appropriate use is in the trash. Definitely not something to recommend anybody, unless your after to insult the person.

Acclaim managed to make plenty of lackluster video games using popular Marvel licenses (X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and let's not forget that Fantastic Four game for the PS1), but to this day Sega is the only company to make a great X-Men game (in fact they made two; this game and it's sequel X-Men 2: The Clone Wars). X-Men manages to catch the spirit of the comic allowing you play as Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Gambit while getting assistance from Iceman, Storm, Rogue, Archangel, and Jean Grey. You go through a number of huge levels, ranging from the Savage Land to a Shi'ar ship to Excalibur's castle to a ravaged Sentinel filled future to Asteroid M where you confront Magneto. You are thrown against hordes of generic looking enemies, but X-Men is surprisingly difficult and features some great boss battles (including Juggernaut, Deathbird, Sabretooth, Ahab, and finally Magneto among others) and the game effectively uses each character's different mutant powers such as Wolvie's berserker attack and Gambit's kinetic laced cards. The graphics are sharp, colorful, and surprisingly full of detail, while the controls are easy enough to pick up. All in all, this is one of the best Marvel licensed 16-bit games ever, but it would only be topped by it's sequel X-Men 2: The Clone Wars.

Originally released on the Genesis in 1991, Streets of Rage was Sega's response to the still-burgeoning popularity of side-scrolling arcade-style beat-'em-ups. Capcom's Final Fight was the game to emulate at the time. In a lot of ways, Streets of Rage felt like little more than a Final Fight also-ran, right down to its three playable characters and comic-book-gritty urban setting. Now that Streets of Rage has arrived on the Wii Virtual Console, you can be reminded of the great music, though the beat-'em-up gameplay doesn't hold up quite as well.

In Streets of Rage, you play as one of three ex-cops--Alex Hunter, Axel Stone, or Blaze Fielding--who are determined to clean up the apparently rage-filled streets of their fare city. As was the fashion of the time, they'll exact their brand of vigilante justice by walking to the right and brutalizing anyone that crosses their path. The three characters feel ever-so-slightly different, though the basic controls are the same, giving you a jump button and a single attack button, which, depending on the context, can be used to dish out a few different types of attack combos. You can also walk up to an enemy and automatically grapple them, and from there you can pull off moves like shoulder throws and suplexes. Enemies can also grapple you, though it's easy to get out of, and if you do end up getting thrown, a well-timed tap of the jump button will have you landing on your feet like some kind of bare-knuckle cat. There's also a cooperative angle to the grappling in the two-player game, as players can toss each other at enemies as a high-powered ranged attack.

You can also call in for backup, which comes in the form of some heavy artillery launched by a sleek-looking police cruiser sitting several screens away. It's great for dealing with large crowds and especially obnoxious bosses, and it's one of those things that defines Streets of Rage. Also, accidentally calling in for backup at the very start of the game, assuming that the button you're pressing will produce an attack or a jump, is truly one of those hallmark Streets of Rage moments. The novelty of the police backup and the grappling business help stave off some of the monotony inherent to most beat-'em-ups, if at least for a little while. Still, for what it is, Streets of Rage is a pretty well made beat-'em-up. It's not a bad-looking game, with plenty of changes of scenery, parallax-scrolling backgrounds, and good-for-their-time animations, though it's hard not to be bothered by the pervasive pallete-swaps you'll see in the enemies you'll face. Really, the saving grace for Streets of Rage is the music, which is varied and catchy, and it makes good use of the Genesis' sound synthesizer. This was really some of the best music to be heard on the Genesis at its time, and the actual compositions stand up rather well. It's not quite as catchy or intricate as what would end up appearing in Streets of Rage 2, but for some folks, the music will be worth the price of admission here.

It's tough to get excited about side-scrolling beat-'em-ups in 2007. The standards for depth in a fighting system, regardless the genre, have been raised to the point that actually playing Streets of Rage is just boring. There's no denying the quality of the soundtrack, but at 800 Wii points, it's a tough game to wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who doesn't already have built-in nostalgia for Streets of Rage.

im not following it? alot of these lack reviews and are empty. its much needed

The story was probably the best for the Contra series, which doesn't say much regardless. That's like winning a beauty contest in a burn ward. Still, the story is decent, and gives a little bit of ''cool'' to a game that really doesn't need any more cool than it has, but more never hurts anything.

You play as either lovable cursing robot Brownie, typical Contra playing-dude Ray, new Amazon-type girl Sheena, or the cyborg-werewolf Brad. The group is the ultra-elite ''Hard Corps.'' Get it? Like, said ''hard core'' if pronounced? GET IT? HAHAAHAHAHH! Okay, bad pun and all, but the title really does speak a little too much about the game: hard core!

The first event that happens is that you're called into a city on the brink of collapsing from massive structural damage, which happens to be in the process of being attacked by a large unmanned robot, as well as a medium-sized manned robot, and several small to medium sized unmanned robots. Quite a variety of robots once you get there. As soon as your APC gets to this town, it crashes and you fly out the window, guns blazing. The rest of the game immediately follows suit. There's really no reason not to shoot everything in sight.

However, at the end of the mission, a character named Deadeye Joe is revealed to be piloting the *manned* robot, and flies away at the same time that you get a call saying that the research lab is under attack and you need to haul ass over there. So, you're left with the choice of stalking Deadeye Joe's cyborg self down or going and helping out the Doc. After that mission, you go after a hacker, then Joe again, and then the game turns out differently based on which mission you went after in the beginning coupled with a decision you make after your fight with Joe.

So these branching paths are great, as will be talked about in the gameplay section, but they don't really contribute to the story outside of the faux mission briefing that precedes each mission. The events that play out in the missions really aren't influenced by your actions directly, per se. However, the different endings do warrant plays through each of the 6 possible game outcomes, which is a nice replay factor.

Oh yeah, and there's a certain Colonel Bahamut you need to ''bounty-hunt'' (not a verb, but it should be), and the kindly old Doc decides that he's going to go rogue with the Colonel to make your life more difficult, because of course nobody understands his psychotic scientific vision but the Colonel.

The choices you make though determine the fates of the Doc, Deadeye Joe, and the Colonel. It's not a question of whether you choose to kill them or not, it's a question of whether by chance you're put in a position where you can brutally destroy whatever giant mechanical or bio-mechanical contraption that they'll try to kill you with, thereby killing them by extension. Really, the extent of the story choices you have are, in order and depending:

1) Go after Deadeye Joe / Rescue the research lab.
2) Surrender and fight later / Fight to the end.
3) Ally with the Colonel / Don't ally with the Colonel.

So it's really not as clear cut as ''Kill the Doc / Don't kill him''. Still, for the ability that you have to direct the course of the game, it's kinda neat. Unfortunately, it doesn't save the mediocrity written all over the game's minute amount of actual story.

By the way, every character has the same dialog, and they all seem to overuse the word ''Damn.'' Damn, it's not like damn saying damn all the damned damn time can ever damn improve a game's damn story. Damn! I guess that was the Genesis's way of seeming ''mature'' in the face of huge self-censorship issues.

Killer Instinct Gold was to be one of the first two games released with the Nintendo 64. However, while KI Gold didn't make the initial release (Mario 64 and Pilot Wings shared that honor), it is clearly the best fighter currently available on Nintendo's next generation system.

Killer Instinct Gold is basically a translation of the popular arcade game Killer Instinct 2. Its only truly new play feature is a training mode, designed to teach both beginners and pros how to kick out some amazing combos. The game's fighting system is made up of manual combos (regular hits strung together for maximum damage), and automatic combos (specific hits and secret moves linked together to engage automatically pre-determined combos). The ultimate result is that a player can perform insanely long 70+ hit combos. These combos are combined with super moves and fatality-type enders that allow for massacres. Of course, every combo has a "Combo-breaker" that can stop a fighter from getting murdered - or even turn the tide of battle.

The sound and graphics in KI Gold are near-perfect, though some of the narrator's voice-overs have been left out. KI Gold has enhanced the 3-D backgrounds of the arcade version, and though this is still basically a pre-rendered, 2-D fighting game, the graphics are impressive. All of the backgrounds are interactive in some way, which keeps play exciting and varied, but some of the characters aren't quite as sharp as the backgrounds are (minor flaw). KI Gold may lack that final finesse, but it more than makes up for it with fun.

The fighting games for the Nintendo 64 can only get better from here, though this title is a good offering for the first round of N64 titles.

There was a moment when I first began playing Shadows of the Empire when I actually believed I was a living, breathing participant in the Star Wars universe. The game's glorious first level (in which you take the controls of a snowspeeder in a gallant attempt to destroy evil Imperial Walkers, droids, and other machines on the ice planet of Hoth), is a flawlessly executed piece of video gaming: clear mission objectives, silky smooth controls, outstanding graphics, fantastic sound effects, and a true sensation of flight. I stared at the screen in awe as I made my first approach toward an Imperial Walker. Laser fire screamed past my ship as I angled to connect a tow cable to a Walker and wrap it tightly around its legs. And then it happened: The lumbering monstrosity seized up, its legs buckled, and the beast crashed to the ground in a huge fireball. I felt like jumping out of my chair and shouting to the world: "Yes! Yes! This is what video games should be! This is what I've been waiting for!"

Unfortunately, the remaining nine levels never even come close to matching the quality of the first. And perhaps it is the game's stunning first level that makes the rest of Shadows of the Empire such a letdown.

On the Star Wars timeline, Shadows of the Empire takes place during and after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. You play the role of Dash Rendar, a mercenary for hire who decides to take up the cause of the Rebellion. In a storyline that is never particularly engaging (due in large part to the rendering of the plot with still-life pictures and lines of text oddly reminiscent of the 16-bit gaming era), Dash finds himself knee-deep in the search for the frozen Han Solo, and in the company of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Dash's ultimate mission is to unseat the Dark Prince Xizor, who is determined to murder Luke. While playing Shadows of the Empire, you control Dash as he struggles through ten levels of play, which encompass piloting a snowspeeder, doing battle in the Outrider (a ship resembling the Millennium Falcon), cruising on a speederbike, and running on foot through several levels of Doom-style, first-person shooting.

On the surface, Shadows of the Empire looks like a sure winner. But the game simply doesn't deliver the goods. It is difficult to control Dash's movements. The Nintendo's analog controller, so well-suited to Mario 64, does not perform well for the many levels of first-person action. Because it's difficult to move in a straight line, you constantly have to worry about falling off ledges or small platforms. Combine this faulty movement feature with the game's aggravating save system (like other LucasArts games, save points are few and far between), and losing a life from walking off a cliff becomes especially frustrating.

The camera angles are also a nagging problem. Four fixed views are available, though none of them is fully satisfying. The first-person view offers the best gameplay, but it limits your field of view; the second-person behind view offers a better view, but Dash's body squarely blocks your line of sight; the view from above has limited utility; and the view from in front of Dash is a throwaway. Finally, beating the game's several bosses ranges from difficult to nearly impossible, thanks in large part to the game's auto-save system. Being forced to begin a level from the beginning when a boss brings you down can turn the game into a tiresome chore.

In all fairness, Shadows of the Empire certainly excels in some areas. The game's ambiance is often remarkable; at times you truly feel you are lurking in the bowels of the Empire's darkest corners. Confronting lifelike Stormtroopers is a treat. The graphics, while at times oddly sterile (monotone gray hallways and endless sand-colored canyons abound), are still generally convincing. Many of the sound effects, such as ships' engines, laser fire, and explosions, are perfect. Moreover, the gameplay is varied - few games offer flying, driving, swimming, and first-person shooting all in one package.

If Shadows of the Empire had lived up to its first inspiring level, it would certainly have been in the running for game of the year. As it stands, the control, camera angles, and frustrating save feature keep it from reaching its full potential. Programming for the Nintendo 64 is reportedly a daunting challenge, and perfecting the use of a true 3-D environment and analog controller will certainly take some time. Hopefully, the next Star Wars title for the Nintendo 64 will come closer to what Shadows of the Empire aspires to be.

lil new. not sure how this works to earn viz

Camelot developed the extremely addictive Hot Shots Golf for the PlayStation and it proved to be a solid sports title despite its overtly cute and child-oriented presentation. That same group of developers put their codes to work to bring us Mario Golf for the N64 and the results are the same. Nintendo is aiming Mario Golf at both the 8-14 -year old group and the 19+ group. How is one game supposed to satisfy the short attention span of grade schoolers and the finicky attitude of college age gamers? Read on and you'll find out how Mario Golf is a great combination of wacky fun and superb golf simulation.

The Features:

18 playable characters from the Mario universe, with some hidden.
A user-friendly play system, suitable for beginners but deep enough for golf fans.
Cartooney, polygonal 3D graphics with lush greens and realistic courses.
Dynamic camera angles.
Features a unique new play mode, called Ring Shot.
64GB Pak compatible so you can download characters from your Game Boy Color to Mario Golf.
6 championship courses with different challenges and obstacles.
Gameplay: The variety of modes is how Mario Golf is going to please everybody. For the youngsters, or anyone else that wouldn't know a divot from a lob wedge, the tutorial is very deep and comprehensive. By the time you finish reading and practicing how to drive, pitch and putt with the greatest of ease you will be able to play this game. Not only that, but you may be able to take some of your fresh knowledge out on the links. Learning how to strike a ball in just the right way with your sand wedge so you can get some backspin will be valuable both in MG and when you hit the local municipal course.

The reason the tutorial mode is so helpful and in depth is because the game's engine is so complete and exhaustive. To be successful, you'll have to learn proper club selection, how to judge win direction and velocity and, just like the PGA Tour pros, you'll have to develop a swing ritual that's as sure and automatic as riding a bike. When it's the ball won't fly as far and will hardly roll at all when it does land because of the soppy grass and mud. Each selectable character has his, her or its own swing style with hooks, slices, fades and different power ratings. Every player has a limited number of 'power shots' that will allow you to let 'er rip every once in awhile so you can get back in a match. When it comes to the intricacies that make golf the most loved and frustrating game on the planet, Mario Golf has it all.

We'll say from experience that putting will be the toughest part of Mario Golf. It's not going to be enough to nail a perfect 250 yard tee shot and a beautiful 85 yard chip to set up your birdie attempt. Not only will you miss the birdie but you can easily put up an 8 if you haven't figured out the nuances of putting. Judging the roll of the green and the strength of the shot is a science Mario Golf has really mastered. We put up enough "snowmen" in one player games to finally give in and practice putting for an hour in the tutorial. And it was worth it.

Just like in real life, overcoming the intimidating obstacles and forces the course has aligned against you is one challenge, while going up against an opponent, human or computer controlled, is a whole different set of hurdles to be dealt with. Of all the game modes, MG's five multiplayer modes offer some of the best golfing fun. Skins Match, Miniature Golf, Club Slots, Stroke and Match Play will all have you and some friends sweating out the details since bragging rights will certainly be on the line. Stroke Play is your standard tournament style play that you're used to seeing on television. Match Play has players competing to win the most individual holes in a best-out-of-18 format. The Club Slots is something nice thrown in for the advanced players where you select clubs for a hole in "roulette" fashion and you have to do what you can with the clubs that you're given. This is one of those feature put into the game for those 19-and-overs we mentioned earlier.

The courses get progressively more difficult and will require players to learn and master skills as they move from the relatively easy Toad Tournament played in Toad Forest to the Mario Open played on the Mario Star course. Of course to use the advanced courses in some of the other multiplayer modes, you'll have to unlock them the hard way in single player matches. Gamers taking on Mario Golf by themselves will find plenty to challenge them in the Tournament, Get Character, Ring Shot, Speed Golf, Miniature Golf, Stroke Play and Training Modes.

Get Character Mode is a no-nonsense direct way to unlock the majority of the 18 players in the game since you only start with five in the one player mode. The picking are slim at first with Luigi serving as the marquee character. The early characters, which includes Baby Mario, are easier t use with their short maximum driving distances and relatively straight shots. As you unlock more advanced players, you'll see that they can hit the ball farther but they tend to hook and slice their shots at severe angles in exchange. Soon you'll be crushing 300 yard drives with Donkey Kong but that won't do you much good on short, complicated courses that you'll see later on in the game, will it? But that's the nature of the game in real life. How many times has Tiger Woods played on a course that's "taken the driver out of his hands."

Graphics: The game is cloaked in typical Mario style cuteness and honestly it's this syrupy wholesomeness (the sounds fit right in with it) that ends up being the worst part about this game. There are no problems with frame rate or animation since Nintendo is going to make sure Camelot tightens up all of the mechanics on such a strong flagship title. The familiar mushroom and turtle shapes from the legions of Mario universe games are all there and it can either be a nice nostalgia kick to see a great big mountain with eyes watching you play golf or a total turnoff.

There's a little lens flare here and there and the fluttering flag on the game screen that tells you how hard the wind is blowing is very well done. The Exciting Camera (versus the Simple one) is a great feature that shows the flight of the ball from a variety of angles. Once a players has chosen the direction and power of the swing, the exciting camera chooses a variety of angles to show the player swinging, the ball on it's ascent and it's landing. There's transitions from shot to shot and there seems to be dozens of camera angles available to show the action.

Sound: The sound is appropriately Mario-esque with lots of characters making silly noises and bleeps and whatnot. The human characters say recognizable things in English thank goodness and really add to the experience. Mario Golf has a great taunting feature with each character assigned four specific phrases or sounds that you can blurt out. They can be effective weapons in multiplayer games when you suddenly have the characters yelling "great shot!" or "Wow!" just as your opponents start their swing sequence. For a nice twist of sarcasm you can even tell some one they hit a great shot as their ball rolls into the water or gets lost in the forest. Excellent.

The music is generic and will remind you of an extra long ride in an elevator or wasting away in the waiting room at the doctor's office. It is highly recommended to turn it down so that you can keep your sanity. There's nothing more likely to make you snap than nervously trying to line up an impossible putt that'll force a playoff than to hear some sappy music tooting along as if everything was fine. Silence is definitely a part of golf.

THE VERDICT
While I initially resisted Mario Golf because of its extremely cute presentation, I couldn't put it down once I picked it up. You would think that such a kiddie looking game would be a snap to play, dominate and finish. It was a lesson in humility once I saw that MG had some golfing challenges that would get under the skin of the coolest, most collected gamers. I still have a problem with the way the game looks, but there's really nothing that can be done about that as long as it's going to be a game based in universe of Nintendo's mascot character. The dichotomy of the game's look versus the way it plays may not matter this deep in to the N64's run since we were able to get over it with games like Mario Kart. Mario Golf is fun, plain and simple. It's better than Waialea Country Club hands down, offering a much richer game of golf. While I eventually learned to tune out the cartoon-style characters and focus on the tougher parts of the game, it may be tough to reel-in those 19 year-olds like Nintendo wanted because it just doesn't look like a game they'd enjoy. That's too bad because there's plenty of fun underneath all of those layers. There are better sports games out there to be sure, but right now, Mario Golf should be the golfing game of choice.

Remember WCW vs. NWO: World Tour, THQ's last Nintendo 64 wrestling game? Revenge builds on the previous game but makes most of the same mistakes. The result is a good wrestling game that should have been so much better.

The World Tour engine has been carried over to Revenge, so the gameplay is identical. The main difference here is the graphics. The characters look and animate very well, and the wrestlers' faces look really accurate. There are a few seams in the polygons here and there, and instances where bodies go through the ropes and such, but it's not a huge deal. All the backgrounds are made up to look like various WCW shows, including Pay-Per-Views like Starrcade, Superbrawl, and Halloween Havoc. The roster is quite possibly the largest roster of licensed wrestlers ever, though there are still a few non-WCW masked weirdos tossed in for good measure. An edit costume feature lets you make extremely basic changes to all the wrestlers.

The gameplay modes include challenges for all of the WCW belts, as well as a battle royal, handicap matches, and exhibition matches. Winning belts unlocks wrestlers like Kidman, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Curt Hennig. A few of the belt challenges are also locked at the beginning of the game. The actual wrestling itself is mostly timing based. Rather than grapple and pound on buttons for supremacy, he who ties up usually wins. There are a few counters here and there that will allow you to reverse certain moves and strikes. The game has a decent number of moves per wrestler, but it still feels like there just aren't enough variations. The computer's lack of skill in one-on-one matches doesn't really help, either. It does, however, manage to put up a good fight in tag team matches, as well as the battle royal.

The sound department is lame, at best. The only real music contained in the game is the WCW Nitro theme. None of the wrestlers' entrance music is in the game. Also, the game has zero commentary. Even a few phrases from Bobby "The Brain" Heenan or the fans counting to ten when you ram someone's head into the turnbuckle would have done wonders for the game's audio department. The sound that is in the game is pretty bad. All the music has an extremely generic sound to it, and the sound effects are pretty drab.

Technically, Revenge is a good wrestling game, but you would like to think that THQ would strive to make significant improvements over World Tour instead of jacking up the engine and sliding new graphics and some other insignificant changes under it, but that's just what it did. And we're all still waiting for a truly great WCW-licensed game. Maybe when EA takes the WCW license from THQ next year, we'll see something better.

In Star Wars: Episode One Racer, we see the dark underbelly of the Republic take form in the numerous pod racing leagues around the galaxy. For those of you who haven't seen the movie (all two of you), one of the best scenes involves the nine-year old Anakin in a deadly high speed race, piloting the Star Wars equivalent of a roman chariot. Gee, I didn't get to risk my life like that till I was twelve . . .

As hinted at in the movie, many other planets in the Republic condone pod racing for gambling purposes. It's your job to take on the role of one of the podracers, some of which were in the film. As in any racing game, the goal is to come in first. Placing in the top three gets you money, which can then be used to upgrade your pod. Not surprisingly, the tracks are broken into three groups: amateur, semi-pro, and Galactic. Unfortunately, you never get to race Ben Hur . . .

The graphics in Racer are really neat. After being so disappointed with Wipeout 64, it looked like the N64 couldn't handle the high framerate without a significant amount of pop-up. Well, the folks at Nintendo proved us wrong. As long as you have the RAM expansion pack, the graphics in Racer are great. There are at least 21 racers in the game, each with their own pod. On top of that, there are 25 different tracks, each one different - not just mirrors of each other. Even with all this, the framerate is impressive. You really get the sense of speed with Racer as you zoom through canyons and over volcanoes.


The sound is also fantastic. From the taunts, screams, and mumbles of the other racers to the great rendition of the bar music from the first Star Wars movie sung by Watto (the junkyard dealer), the music is authentic. Since sound quality is a major drawback to the cartridge based system, this is a refreshing change. If it's one thing the folks at LucasArts know how to do, it's sound.

What would a console racing game be without multiplayer? In Racer, you can challenge your best friend to a pod race and see who has the reflexes of a Jedi. Using the traditional split-screen setup, there is little or no framerate loss when racing a friend. In order to maintain the framerate, however, the designers opted to use a little bit of pop-up. Console gamers are used to a small amount of pop-up, so this isn't that much of an issue.

The biggest drawback to Racer is how easily your pod explodes. It's rare to be able to finish a race without crashing at least once. Unfortunately, the crash graphics are some of the worst in the game, and you're forced to watch it over and over again. The result of all this carnage is that the game seems much more arcade-like. You can crash multiple times and still win a race. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, I'd enjoy the game more if I could finish a race without getting destroyed in a cheap-looking blaze of glory.

All in all, Star Wars: Episode One Racer is a pretty good game. With fast action and a good two-player split-screen, it's sure to entertain most Star Wars fans. The constant crashing will frustrate some gamers, but so did Jar Jar. Let's just thank Nintendo for not putting him in the game.

The N64 version of Toy Story 2 surprisingly doesn't win any graphics competitions against the PlayStation game, and actually falls short of the 32-bit companion. The gameplay, however, salvages what the visual side is lacking. Unfortunately, the lack of animated cutscenes from the film is sorely missed. Part of what makes the Toy Story 2 game experience fun is that it's like interacting with the movie. Still screens with oversimplified text just doesn't seem the Pixar way.

Toy Story 2 is something like n-Space's Rugrats: Search for Reptar in that it has mission-based levels set off a hub, which, in both cases, is a house, and that it follows the film's scenarios to a T. Toy Story 2 is larger, with about 15 levels (three levels within five zones) you can play through them either as quickly and easily or as difficultly as you wish. By picking up all the items and solving all the puzzles, Toy Story 2 has a bit more complexity than Rugrats, which probably exists more in the "good for kids" category. Toy Story 2 wants to appeal to a broad range of gamers, not just kids, and this is obvious in its level design. In each of the levels you have several objectives. You have puzzles to solve, tokens to collect, enemies to fight, and items to find - in addition to a boss fight at the end of zone. However, once you complete one objective, you have the option to move on, fight the boss, and work your way to the next zone. It's usually easy to acquire 50 tokens in a level, as they're scattered about the environment, often lending clues as to which obstacles you can jump on, and so forth. You can also pick up tokens from dead toys you've destroyed with your Buzz Lightyear laser. Eventually you must go back and replay levels, if you haven't picked up all the goods, as you'll need a decent-sized stash of Pizza Planet tokens to advance toward the final stages. But as in any game, you learn certain skills as you progress that will make stages that had seemed difficult in the beginning much easier.

The graphics, however, were disappointing. Not bad, but not what you'd hope for from the N64 - given what developers started out with in the Toy Story motif. With movie license games, it's easy to assume that the PlayStation/N64 trade-off, should both versions exist, will be graphics for the N64 and sound and fmv for the PlayStation. This is not the case. The PlayStation version actually has both, and the N64 offering was pretty weak. Without scenes from the film, the movie's energy is gone. The look and feel is there, but the mood is not. The environments are colorful; they're mostly easy to get around in and free of depth perception. But the color seemed a little flat on the N64, even with the same nice touches found in the PlayStation version, such as Buzz's reflection being visible from inside his space helmet when you're in targeting or close-up mode. The cameras presented a bit of a problem. You could choose passive or active cameras, with either you in charge of the camera or the camera in charge of itself. You decide. What's good is that you can change between active and passive cameras on the fly during gameplay. You'll probably find yourself doing this quite often in the beginning. When the active camera is agreeable, it's suspiciously good. But then, seconds later, you'll find yourself cornered in an alley, pushing a box next to a chair that you must jump on to leap onto a scale that will in turn send you soaring into the air. This isn't fun with a camera whipping around you like a mosquito, yet you've too much going on to manage your camera while you navigate your jumps, grabs, and leaps. This becomes a problem far too often, dragging the game's overall score down a bit.

It's certainly not the worst camera system out there, and you will get used to it and probably settle on the active camera at some point, cursing your way through the game. It proves the game to be yet another notch away from being a kid's game.

For a movie with generous voice-over already in the can, you'd expect an overload of catch phrases and one-liners in the licensed game. This is not the case, and Crystal Dynamics could learn a thing or two for Gex from this one. It's a simple model: Less is more. The voices from the film are intact, but they're not out of hand, at least Buzz's voice isn't. It does get a bit annoying when Hamm whines, "Buzz, come 'ere" the entire time you're in his territory. And Sarge's pep talk gets old pretty fast. But for the most part, the catch phrases are few and far between - just enough to make it interesting without driving you to the brink. And the music? Toy Story music. 'Nuff said. All the dressing aside, Buzz has a variety of moves that he uses quite well. As Buzz, you can jump and double jump; hoist yourself up; climb plants, trees, and poles; execute a heavy-duty foot stomp; spin to attack or to deflect weapons; float on balloons; use a grappling hook; slide down zip lines and wires; run; and best yet, target and lock on your enemies, switching between them with a simple tap of the right shoulder button. The environments are so diverse that you'll find interesting uses for your base moves throughout the game. On one level, you must jump (with the right pacing, a la Mario Party style) on an air pump to inflate a rubber pool duck. Once you do, you'll use an unlikely move to actually solve the related puzzle. We won't give it away here, but as with this example, the game does makes you think. The use of Rumble when pushing boxes and taking lasers from toy robots is a good feature but not necessarily noteworthy or inventive in its delivery.

What really rounds out and makes up for the compromising cameras and the lack of fmv sequences in Toy Story 2 on the N64 is the sheer number of minigames. As in Rugrats, you must race the RC Car in order to win Pizza Planet tokens, which open up levels or zones later on. You also must keep your eyes open for lost sheep or take a few seconds out to find Mr. Potatohead's eye, ear, or what have you. You must also collect baby ducks for the rubber duck or bones for Slinky, all within a set period of time. If you get frustrated with one minigame, you can move onto another within the level and come back later. The gameplay is nonlinear, therefore, you're not punished for pacing yourself and exploring.

In the end, the game is good, even with its shortcomings. Whether you've seen the movie or not, Toy Story 2, as a game, stands on its own because it offers gameplay. It's not complicated or sexy, and, in fact, the N64 game isn't all that attractive or well designed. But it is possible to have fun with it. If you are a fan of the Pixar films, the game struggles to deliver the same experience in video-game format - largely due to the missing fmv cutscenes. The shortcomings, however, aren't enough to take away an entertaining movie-to-video-game effort. It's well worth a rental.

After a three-month, release policy motivated delay, Nintendo's sequel to the Super NES racer F-Zero finally arrives on Western N64s. In case you already own the Japanese import, you may want to stop reading now, since nothing has changed -- well, apart from the translated menus, of course. But if you only know F-Zero X from previews and hear-say, boy, are you in for a ride.

Put together by an in-house team made up of several Wave Race 64 key programmers (including the lead programmer), F-Zero X is more than just a virtual xerox copy of the ground-breaking Super NES racer. Like the current reigning racing champ, Wave Race 64, Nintendo's latest addition to the N64 racing lineup stands out with perfectly tuned controls and a number of unique, trend-setting innovations.

Gameplay
The original F-Zero, which first appeared on the Super NES in 1991 (in the U.S.), blew gamers away with its Mode 7 technology and amazing graphics. It was the first of its kind; the only really successful inheritors to date are the Wipeout and Extreme-G franchises. With F-Zero X, Nintendo seems to take gamers on a little trip back in time, offering a taste of why F-Zero served as an inspiration for a whole genre. Unlike the original, F-Zero X is not about showing off graphics or sound capabilities -- it's all about gameplay.

Even a quick look at X's course and vehicle lineup confirms that you're dealing with a Nintendo-developed title. Many third-party racers struggle to come up with five distinct tracks, F-Zero X packs more than 24 tracks and 30 cars, most of which are hidden and have to be earned first. When you start off and race the first two courses, the overall feel and experience is eerily similar to the original F-Zero. You compete with hovering cars, seemingly inspired by '60s art-deco appliances (Pico, you're driving a lamp!), on floating tracks high up in the sky. Before each race, you can customize your vehicle's speed and handling and pick from a number of colors. The gameplay is as simple as can be: Accelerate, brake, boost, and avoid the lethal track boundaries that deplete your ship's energy.

You can pick from the following game modes:

GP Race -- The main Grand Prix mode, consisting of Jack, Queen and King cup races, (novice, standard and expert difficulty levels respectively) each with six courses to complete. There are two hidden cups.
Time Attack -- Standard time attack fare. You can also race against a ghost. For that extra challenge, the game's developers also saved a Staff Ghost to the cart.
VS Battle -- Splits the screen into two, three or four sections and yell at your mates as you try to outwit them and accumulate the best points tally. An amusing extra feature of this mode is the slot machine, where you can deplete your opponents of their energy if you're lucky.
Death Race -- the only mode to have a track designed exclusively for it, is a grudge match between you and 29 rivals, where spin and side attacks are supremely important. You must force the retirement of all as quickly as possible, so the heavier vehicles come highly recommended for the task.
Practice -- Speaks for itself. Valuable for testing out your revised machine settings.
Although similar in presentation to the Mode-7 F-Zero, the polygonal tracks in the new 64-bit version curve, twist and curl in the third dimension and rush by at such intense speeds, it's easy to forgive the lacking scenery and foggy horizons. There is of course a reason for the bland look and simple road graphics: there are up to 30 cars on screen at the same time, racing along at a steady 60 frames per second. Yep, that's 30 cars, all behaving differently, skidding into turns, bumping into each other and boosting out of harm's way. The feel of hitting a "zipper" and jetting right through the middle of a pack of 15 cars is awesome . You really have to admire Nintendo's strict design policy and restraint to produce a title that will look visually dated in stills and only shows its qualities when in motion. It's almost as if Nintendo decided to extract the essence of racing, maximum speed and perfect control, and throw out anything that could stand in its way.

If you've played any of the recent cyber racers, you've probably noticed some of the problems that come with high speeds, such as the inability to see obstacles coming from far away or to the frequent banging into walls. Luckily, F-Zero X avoids the pitfalls of Extreme-G with dead-on control and collision physics. The tracks are so well designed, if you're good enough, you will be able to avoid every obstacle and never bump into a wall or fall off the track -- something that was near impossible in Extreme-G. As with most Nintendo titles, the control scheme accurately reflects the company's mantra of delivering a game that beginners can enjoy, but only experts can master. For example, many players will be content steering their craft left and right with the analog stick and braking for the tougher turns. But this won't get you far on the higher difficulty modes. Using L and R in unison with the analog stick will enable sharper turning, whereas reversing the buttons will produce drift turns that allow you to get around corners without losing any momentum at all.

Like its predecessor, F-Zero X also features energy zones that replenish a player's shield energy on the fly (a feature Wipeout borrowed from the series). In an interesting twist on the tire and fuel management of many sim racers, F-Zero X offers the choice of either preserving energy for your defensive shield, or using it to boost ahead of the competition by the press of a button. You need to juggle energy management wisely. A collision with zero shield energy ends the race in a boom.

Despite the dead-on controls, F-Zero X's learning curve is steep, and even seasoned players will spend quite a while before perfecting their drift techniques and reaching the hidden X-Cup (which follows right after the hidden Joker Cup). Get this, the X-Cup is actually a track generator that "creates" a different set of tracks every time you play. Unfortunately, the generated tracks lack loops and some are pretty lame, but once in a while you will encounter a wickedly complicated track that could have easily been one of the regular courses. To leave the field open for future, Nintendo also added "64DD hooks" that allow for add-on disks such as track editors or course updates. It remains to be seen if US gamers will ever get their hands on this add-on, since things don't look too good for the 64DD in the US -- a lock-on cartridge would do the trick, though.

As good as the gameplay in F-Zero X is, the game won't appeal to everyone. Unlike Wipeout or Extreme-G 2, F-Zero X relies on pure racing. There are no lock-on missiles or fancy gadgets to put yourself ahead of the competition. If it's explosive action you're looking for, this is not your game. The only aggressive feature the N64 version adds to the franchise is the ability to knock other racers off the track by smashing into them or draining their energy by pulling off a new spin move. To fully exploit this, Nintendo added the Death Race Mode -- an elimination race where players have to knock out all other racers as quickly as possible. The spin attack also serves as a good strategy for the regular races. Knock out some of the tougher drivers early on to screw up their overall rating.

Multiplayer
On the multiplayer front, F-Zero X offers up to four player head-to-head races at 60fps with an innovative "slot machine" feature. If the feature is switched on in the options menu, players knocked out of the race early on can screw up the other drivers' energy by playing slots. While nothing major, it's a neat idea to give players something to do while waiting for the others to finish. If you prefer to play fair, switch the feature off. The multiplayer battles are excellent, but it's a real shame that Nintendo didn't add at least a two-player GP Mode (with more than just a single track competition). Other than that, the vs. mode is well-conceived, with two additional (optional) AI drivers in the two-player mode and the smoothest framerate yet seen in a split-screen game.

Graphics
Look at the screen-shots. Looks pretty bland, huh? There is no denying that the game's graphics are simple. The effects are subtle and uneventful (nice glow effects and some specular highlighting on the cars), the car models are low in polygon count, there is quite a lot of fogging at the horizon and the occasional draw-in plagues the more complex track layouts. In order to keep the framerate at a blazing 60fps, Nintendo sacrificed roadside detail completely. A few pillars rush by once in a while and the background bitmap changes from track to track -- but that's pretty much it for variety. There are a few courses that stand out visually, such as the half-pipe and the tubes, which are usually enough to make you break out in cold sweat, but there is no doubt that F-Zero X would feel even faster if there was more going on with the regular tracks. Still, the amount of cars moving on screen at the same time and the unbelievable smoothness have a charm of their own. Too bad there isn't a cockpit view, though.

Sound
F-Zero X's music is directly inspired by its predecessor's tunes. Instead of going with techno like every cyber racer and their sister, F-Zero X's sound is perfectly retro, with streaming audio made up of rocking guitar tunes. If you played the Super NES racer, you will instantly recognize such classics as the Mute City melody, but F-Zero X doesn't exactly push the boundaries of stereophonic sound. Because of compression, the tunes are pretty much mono, with the ambient effects generating the stereo sound effects. It all sounds pretty good, though.

THE VERDICT
F-Zero X is another proof that nobody does sequels like Nintendo. The developers kicked out everything that stood in the way of perfectly-tuned gameplay. Unfortunately, graphics and sound were also on that list, which may sadly keep F-Zero X from achieving mainstream success. In the grand scheme of things, F-Zero X will probably appeal to older gamers more, who want pure racing over arcade frills and still have a soft spot fot the original F-Zero. An excellent update to the grand daddy of cyber racers that only suffers under its generic look. If you can look beyond presentation, you will easily fall in love with the smooth gameplay, insane speed and great four-player mode.

For some reason Gauntlet Legends is one of those games that divides gamers into separate camps of those who love and those who hate it. The reasons for this aren't clear but it most likely has something to do with the differences between the classic four-player arcade games, the updated arcade machine that appeared last year and Midway's N64 conversion. Atari Games and Midway are among the few videogame companies that carry the burden of bringing their arcade hits home to consoles knowing that there's always going to be a drop off in graphics and audio. The truth is the N64 version stays true enough to last year's standup machine which captured the essence of the classic 2D Gauntlet games and that's enough for us.

Gameplay
The N64 version of Legends and its arcade cousin share pretty much everything except the same visuals and sound components. The storylines, weapons, characters, strategies and monsters are all back but they look and sound a lot different. You still get the disembodied voice of the Gauntlet gods guiding you and telling you what you've done right and how to advance through the levels, but if you already know the game and how to play the tutorial parts get kind of irritating.

The characters are still broken down by color and "profession." You get your wizard, warrior, valkyrie and archer in one of four "ethnic" flavors that correspond to the different color schemes of red, green, yellow, blue. You can upgrade each of them into their animal counterparts like minotaurs and tigers once you build up enough experience and skill. For information on each character's Turbo Attack you can click here to check out our feature story on that subject.

The Players

Wizard: His main thing is the ability to get the most out of potions. Clearing rooms of bad guys and Deaths in one pop is very valuable in some of the more advanced levels. He's usually an older guy so he's not the toughest and doesn't like hand to hand combat too much.
Warrior: He's not a finesse player. Hand-to-hand combat is his thing and should be used often. He's not fast or very powerful with the magic but his Turbo Attack is very powerful and again should be used as much as possible.
Archer: The adventurer formerly known as The Elf is fast and her shots are even faster. She's not anywhere near as powerful as the other characters but her speed makes her good at grabbing stuff and hitting traps. Her Turbo Attacks look neat but they don't pack enough wallop.
Valkyrie: The mistress of all trades is still the best middle of the road character with decent ratings in most areas but only excellent in one: armor. In single player missions she may be the best option because she starts off evenly balanced and upgrades at an even rate as well.
The most important skill, as it was in Gauntlet and Gauntlet II back in the '80s, is attacking and clearing out areas of bad guys and generators without taking any damage. There's no depleting energy timer to keep you on edge like there was back in the day, but there are a wide variety of enemies that attack you in seemingly endless waves. These waves of enemies work together to set you up and hit you high and low at the same time so that there is some skill required to get through levels nice and healthy. Early on you'll come across enemies that will shoot arrows at you or lob cartoon style black bombs at you from the other side of a wall while their cohorts run up and engage you so that you can't move. You'll have to learn to attack the hand-to-hand fighting enemies quickly and move around so that you can keep them off of you and avoid the air attacks at the same time.

Some gamers may not feel the same sense of urgency in trying to survive since it is a console game and you don't have to spend any quarters should you get killed. While there isn't this natural incentive to play efficiently, you'll still want to do your best since starting a level over after you've died is a pain in the butt and going up against the Dragon bosses requires a ton of health later on. The cool shopping feature allows you to buy everything from increased player attributes to super shots to health, but you have to stay alive long enough in each level to collect enough money or other valuable power-ups to trade in for these items. So it just may work out for you.

The game is non-linear in spirit but you will have to accomplish certain feats to unlock other levels. Getting to the boss levels is a bittersweet experience since it's so hard to get there and you'll most likely get killed when you do.

The single player missions in Gauntlet can be a bit of a numbing experience especially early on or if you're already familiar with the game. Opening up treasure chests to find scrolls with clues written on them can cause you to roll your eyes often since that's 2 seconds of your life that you'll never get back. The A.I. does take it easy on you when you're by yourself with fewer enemies and manageable placement of generators. Most games rely on a strong single player experiences, but Gauntlet is literally a game that can only be enjoyed when you play it with companions.

The N64 doesn't have many fun cooperative games so Legends may have a slight advantage as a change-of-pace game. The fact that you're on the same screen for once doesn't hurt either. If you can appreciate getting together with friends and rolling out to correct some great cosmic wrongs, then Legends should touch you in a special way. Getting a nice mixture of wizards, warriors, vals and archers to work together as one cohesive unit can make you feel all warm and tingly inside if you've just completed a particularly complicated level or killed a dragon. This is the only way to get the full enjoyment out of Legends.

Working together should be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. It may take a little reconditioning since most of us are use to attacking each other in various deathmatches, sports or fighting games, but it can be done. In fact if there was a way to get eight or 12 players into one cooperative game that would be one hell of a co-op experience. As it is though, using strategy is the way to go in the four player match. Sending your warrior forward to hold the line and battle through the grunts with a valkyrie at his side while archer and wizard attack from a distance to keep the baddies off their backs takes a certain coordination and respect for the enemy. Plus it's the best way to get through a tough level with enough health to fight the dragons.

The dragons are as tough to defeat and deal with in Legends as they were 15 years ago. You'll have to take your time and stay at it for awhile and hope you have enough health to weather the storm of fire, rocks and other crap that's being hurled at you. There's not strategy for killing these bosses beyond quick thumb action and nerves of steel.

The bottom line is Gauntlet Legend's gameplay will be very familiar to you with a few console only twists thrown in but your opinion on it won't be too different than your opinion of the original Gauntlet arcade game or last year's updated standup machine.

Graphics
Legends seems to get by on good-enough graphics. It doesn't look like the arcade as far as animations on the characters but the backgrounds look a lot better than you'd expect. The textures on the buildings mountains and walls look detailed enough to see the wood, brick and stone. Some of the enemies look a lot more detailed than even the main characters since their animations tend to be a lot simpler with various chopping or punching motions.

The characters themselves look a lot different than the ones in the arcade game. Their animations are more varied and so they've been made to look a little more bland than, say, the zombie farmer enemies. Sometimes there's a little clipping with the projectiles if you see them from the wrong angle. The warrior's spinning battle axe becomes a glowing sliver when you're looking from directly in front of or behind the shot. This is in line with an overall lower level of detail on the N64 version when compared to the game that was in arcades.

The camera moves quickly and intuitively enough to be used to your advantage or disadvantage just like you're used to in a Gauntlet game. You can trap members of your party behind walls with a Death right next to them, or move so that the camera swings around and shows you that door trap you've been trying to find for the last half hour.

The framerate is good until you get a situation with all four players on the screen doing complicated things against hordes of enemies. Not that you can avoid these situations but you'll notice some chop when there's a lot happening on the screen.

Sound
The rumbling voice of the old Gauntlet guy is there to annoy and surprise you once again but it does make a huge difference in the game. We played the game without it and it just feels like something is missing. His isn't the only voice sample that keeps it interesting. Picking up food, depending on what it is, always gets a nice response from one of the characters. The valkyrie is known to cry out "sustenance!" whenever she's low on health and happens upon a steak. This is why "food is good." The sound effects are nice with wood sounding woody and iron clanging just like you'd expect. The sounds for the attacks and enemy moves aren't anything outstanding but they all make sense within the game.

Again there's not much in the way of sound that wasn't in the arcade game. The background music is all organ-ey and medieval flavored but we wouldn't recommend getting a tape of it. It's part of the Gauntlet experience but it can get a little irritating after 12 hours. Give us the endless loop of the classical Bach tune from the 1980's Gauntlet game.

THE VERDICT
This game may end up being nothing more than a nice niche title that would make a nice addition to the library of a sports or shoot-em-up fan. The multiplayer game is great and a nice way to have some kinder, gentler fun with some friends instead of bashing them as usual. If you're decidedly not into co op adventure games and hate the Gauntlet series and everything to do with it then you should avoid this game like a bill collector. Because the N64 version is so close to the arcade machine version it's hard for this game to stand alone under scrutiny. This is a very accurate translation of an arcade game to a console and that's a nice accomplishment but how much you'll like it depends on what you thought about it in the arcades. I for one think it's worth a rent first but don't pick it up if you don't like multiplayer co-op games or have no friends.

South Park (64) is exactly like South Park the TV series. That's both good and bad. Both are outrageously funny, positively insulting and simple in presentation. But they also share another, less flattering similarity. The fun often stops after half an hour.

The Facts

Episode-based one-player adventures that make players feel like they're really in South Park episodes.
Four-player multiplayer modes.
Hundreds of hilarious soundbytes created specifically for the game (using Acclaim's advanced voice compression also heard in Turok 2)
3D polygonal graphics.
640x480 high-resolution graphics with 4MB Ram Pak.
Crazy gadgets include a Cow Launcher, an Auto Egger (which is basically a chicken sniper rifle that shoots eggs out of its ass), a sponge dart shooter, snowballs (which can be urinated on) and Mr. Hankey (the Christmas Poo).
Play as Kyle, Stan, Cartman, or Kenny in the one-player mode. Choose from more characters in the multiplayer modes.
Features a host of classic supporting characters: Terrance and Phillip, Big Gay Al, Mr. Garrison (and Mr. Hat), Mephesto, and more.
What is South Park?
If you're asking yourself this, then let us take a moment to welcome you back to the real world. How was your coma? We hope you're feeling rested. South Park is an extremely popular animated series by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that airs on Comedy Central once a week. The show follows the misadventures of four Colorado-based kids who always seem to stumble into trouble when they're not cracking jokes on each other's moms or farting. Maybe the greatest part about the series is that it is crude as hell. Its characters cuss freely and explore issues that would make any network television station cringe. It's downright vulgar. So when Acclaim announced that it would be releasing a game based on the hit show, well, Nintendo 64 owners were understandably skeptical. After all, the console isn't exactly known for its radical stance on violent, vulgar games. Most gamers predicted South Park 64 would arrive as a watered down, extremely censored adaptation of the hit series. And, assuming that did happen, what would be the point?

Gameplay
The good news first. South Park 64 is every bit as nasty as its television inspiration from start to finish. And we mean that quite literally. And if you don't believe us, maybe you'll listen to the game's 'M' rating and parental warning.

The boot-up intro sequence to Acclaim's game goes something like this: Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan wander up to a 3D Iguana logo, unsure of what it is. As the four of them eye the comparatively gargantuan structure, the Iguana lizard suddenly appears from behind it and bites Kenny's head off in a spurting, bloody mess. Upon seeing this, you'll hear "Dude, this is pretty [bleep]ed up right here!" followed by Kyle's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny. You bastards!" All of the above transpires in full polygonal 3D and with animation that looks better than that seen in the television series. And then the real opening cut-scene takes off, which proves to be even more impressive. Watching, it's easy to forget that Iguana whipped South Park 64 out in six months time.

But that's exactly where the game's main flaw lies. South Park was put together in very little time. Presentation and sound are great, but the gameplay experience needed a few more months of fine tuning.

Played from a first person perspective with controls identical to Iguana's Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, players take on the roles of South Park badasses Kyle, Stan, Cartman, or Kenny and embark on a long quest to save the snowed-in Colorado town from an intergalactic threat. You see, every 666 years a comet approaches Earth and threatens civilization as we know it. To make a long story short, turkeys are running rampant, clones are populating the streets, the aliens are back (moomooomoo?), and killer toys are on the loose. That's where Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny step in, armed with a host of gadgets ranging from cow launchers to fart dolls.

Gameplay is mainly confined to running through fairly linear and straightforward levels. Starting in South Park, players face turkey after turkey after turkey after turkey before finally taking out a larger, um, turkey. Then it's off to level 2, where you fight turkey after turkey after turkey only to face another larger turkey. The last level of each episode is comprised of a lengthy battle with a boss (in the case of level 1, a turkey), where you try to take out the creature before it reaches your hometown. The look is vintage South Park, but the action really gets dull after only 30 minutes of play. Considering the often violent nature of the show, the weapons in SP64 are also surprisingly tame. Snowballs, dodge balls and toilet plunger launchers are just not as exciting as a real shotgun. The pissballs, sniper chicken, Terrance & Phillip fart dolls and cow launcher make things more interesting, but after the initial "ewwww!" factor is gone, the arsenal ceases to "feel" as cool as the real weaponry in a shooter like Turok 2.

In terms of level design, SP64 is as generic as they come. There are no clever puzzles or AI surprises. Kill a certain amount of enemies and a door opens, then kill some more. It's fun for a while, but it's fun not because it's a good game -- it's fun because it's South Park. This is no GoldenEye, folks. And it's no Turok 2, either.

Multiplayer
Aaah, multiplayer. Now we're talking. The wealth of characters available and the almost 20 levels makes the multiplayer battles a much more rewarding experience than the dull one-player mode. But even this mode bears the signs of the disease known as "get it out in time for Christmas". We can tolerate a lot of slowdown in four-player gaming, but South Park's four-player split-screen just isn't fun anymore. The slow framerates make aiming almost impossible, no matter which resolution you're running the game in. Stick with two- or three-player battles. Unfortunately, the alternate multiplayer modes originally planned for the game aren't here either, but at least we're getting a radar screen, crosshairs and adjustable time and frag limits. The multiplayer experience is fairly solid, but not quite up there with T2 or comparable multiplayer shooters. The main fun is still derived from listening to all the one-liners and taunts and get your friend's head stuck in a cow's rear.

Graphics
It's surprising that Iguana decided on 3D polygonal graphics instead of going with a 2D PaRappa look. Even more surprising is how the 3D look manages to stay absolutely true to the shows presentation. Iguana nailed it 100%. Apart from looking a bit better, the soft-skinned 3D models of the different characters are the spitting images of their paper cutout counterparts. Utilizing Nintendo's 4MB Expansion Pak, the game also features an optional 640x480 high-resolution mode a la T2. And why shouldn't it? It's running on the Turok 2 engine after all. Like in T2, projectiles are polygonal and stick to opponents (such as the toilet plungers) and you will even see some cool lighting effects here or there. The cut-scenes that intersperse the action here and there look great and will make you roll on the floor laughing.

On the downside, SP also inherited some of T2's choppy framerates, especially in the hi-res mode -- but since the difference between the hi-res and the low-res modes isn't as great (mostly due to the game's Gouraud-shaded look), we suggest to keep it on low-res for a smoother experience. Some levels are also shrouded with a thick layer of fog, much like the original Turok. A radar screen at the top helps you see what's ahead, so it's merely a cosmetic flaw.

Overall, South Park 64 faithfully recreates the look of the show -- from the realtime intro sequence to the many cinema scenes starring Chef and some oversized opponents.

Sound
Iguana has put its sound-compression to good use. The game features tons of exclusive new material straight from the mouths of the show's creators, including one-liners and taunts for all the characters, including Big Gay Al ("ssssuper!"), Mr. Mackey ("don't make me kick your ass, n'okay?"), and Ned, whose monotonous Vietnam references are guaranteed to crack you up. Like the TV show, SP64 bleeps out some of the harsher swearwords. Thankfully, Nintendo didn't censor any of the fun, letting the characters say anything that's permitted by TV broadcast standards, including "b****", "ass", and so on.

In addition to the fully digitized opening song and plenty of narration and voices, Iguana also throws in some quick midi renditions of the South Park theme.

THE VERDICT
Unless you're not into fart jokes and toilet humor, South Park 64 is just as funny as the Comedy Central series, which definitely makes it worth a look for fans of the show. Unfortunately, under its layer of recognizable characters and off-beat humor, South Park is merely an average shooting game, devoid of any of the innovations that have endeared the Turok games to many N64 owners. The lack of Nintendo censorship is refreshing (only Satan, Santa and Jesus had to be left out), but the levels are often dull and boring and the armies of enemies the game throws at you in each stage get old quicker than Cartman can sing the "Kyle's Mom" song.

The multiplayer mode makes up for the uninspired one-player experience to a certain degree, but it's the quirky voice characterizations Parker and Stone have thrown in that really make this game. Without the sound, South Park would succumb to its generic level design. This way, it's at least worth a rental. Imagine the game like a good joke. You'll love it the first time you hear it, but once you know the punchline, there is no reason to hear it again. There is no doubt that the design team behind this title is talented and technically superb, but I encourage Iguana members to wear giant "A good game needs time" signs around their necks when going to the next development meeting with Acclaim.

Doom set the standard for first-person shooters when it hit PCs in 1993. Since then, we've seen versions for every system that could handle it, from Sony's PlayStation to Sega's ill-conceived 32X add-on, with varying results. While most would argue that Doom is finally dead, Midway is attempting to keep the series alive with its latest release, Doom 64 for the N64. While it's probably the best version to date, it pales in comparison to id Software's follow-up, Quake, which currently looms on the console horizon.

Doom 64 picks up where all the other Doom games left off. After tearing through space, hell, and wherever else your Space Marine was sent, you thought that the threat of the demons was finally past. Of course, one survived, and it is currently reanimating all of the fallen monsters in a last-ditch attempt to revitalize their evil mission. Your task is to finally rid the universe of all the crazy hellions - from the dead guy with the pistol to the rocket-spewing Cyberdemon.

Of all the changes made for the N64 version, the upgraded graphics are perhaps the most striking. There are new images and texture maps for every weapon, monster, and wall. Every character looks crisp and maintains his sharpness at close range - finally removing the pixelation that previous versions have suffered from. True lightsourcing has also been added, so colored lights and shadows permeate the game's 30-plus levels. The sound has also been tweaked and now boasts a few new death screams and a hauntingly ambient soundtrack. Thrown in (seemingly) as an afterthought is a new weapon, the laser, which proves to be next to useless and is nowhere near as cool as it's made out to be.

The basic rules have been adjusted as well. Some changes are major - the switch system is no longer a "flip once" process - some are now used for multiple openings and must be returned to more than once. Several items teleport in now, making it much harder to find keys and other power-ups integral to completing the game. The minor changes, while not noticeable to everyone, will surely bother hard-core Doom fans. For instance, now that the engine is true 3-D, rooms can exist on top of each other - gone are the gratuitous staircases and ramps that dominated the original. It's almost as if the design team set out to make people re-think what Doom was capable of doing. While no one could argue that this is an unworthy ambition, if the team was prepared to make minor, annoying changes to the game, then why couldn't they throw in completely new features like jumping or the ability to look up and down. Better yet - why not just make an entirely new game instead? Play control remains the same in Doom 64 but seems somewhat restrictive when compared to that of the PC version. The analog stick enables you to force your Marine along at several different speeds - but it never feels quite right. In fact, this sense of being 'wrong' permeates the entire title. On paper, Doom 64 sounds better than the original could ever hope to be, but the end result feels more like a bastardization of the original.

Uninitiated or casual Doom players may get a kick out of Doom 64 - the graphics are fairly impressive and the game still has a spooky atmosphere. But anyone who has downloaded custom WADs for the PC with new levels, graphics, and sounds has already seen greater things from the world of Doom. Sigh... yet another mediocre N64 game.

Among the many NES and SNES titles near and dear to the hearts of Nintendo fans, Harvest Moon has always been on the N64 most wanted list. Unlike, say, Excitebike 64 where aa familiar name is being slapped on an entirely different 3D game, Harvest Moon on the N64 feels and looks a lot like its SNES predecessor, and that's not such a bad thing. It would've been easy to condemn this game's lack of ambition since the graphics, animation and audio elements are far below the N64's capabilities. However, the truth is, we had entirely too much fun playing it for hours on end and disregarding all of the ways the game comes up short.

The Story
When you kick off a new game, you find yourself at your grandfather's memorial service with all of the townsfolk of Flower Bug Village. Your grandpappy has left you his farm and it's up to you to keep the family homestead going despite the fact that the old man left it in pretty bad shape. With only 200 bucks, your trusty dog and the eternal optimism of youth going for you, you've got to turn things around as soon as possible. You've got two years, divided by seasons, to put together the best life possible. That is your mission should you choose to accept it.

Gameplay
This is not only the strongest area of the game, but gameplay is pretty much the only thing Harvest Moon has going for it. Simply put, there are dozens and dozens of activities that you can do and dozens of characters to interact with all for the purpose of running a successful farm and leading a happy life.

There are a handful activities that you will have to get used to quickly. Clearing off your field so that you can plant some crops is your first major task. Getting rid of the rocks and weeds is hard work and even a bit tedious at first. This gets the game off to a pretty slow start and those with short attention spans will not feel satisfied with the experience.

After clearing your fields you get into the exciting task of raising crops. You've got to go through every motion just like a real farmer. This means buying the right seeds --hopefully one that will produce valuable crops in the shortest amount of time-- tilling the land, planting the seeds and watering that stuff every single day. This is the most basic activity in the game and one you'll get used to very quickly. The tricky part is that you're limited at first by your low budget equipment . The good part is you'll have plenty of time to go exploring at the beginning of the game.

Time is a tremendously important force in Harvest Moon because not only do you have a limited amount of time to accomplish your goals, but there are various time sensitive activities and events that can affect how close you come to your goals at the end of the game. If you spend too much time dilly dallying around your farm in the beginning you'll miss meeting important people and events that can help you. If you don't visit the ranch early on, you won't get your horse. If you don't get your horse, you can't enter the horse race or use it as a mobile shipping bin.

There are certain daily activities like watering crops, brushing your livestock, feeding animals and playing with your dog and horse that will become routine. These tasks become obstacles however, when you realize that you haven't been to visit that cute girl at the bakery that you've had your eye on; or when you remember that you never explored that secret cave you found the other day; or when you want to enter the seasonal swimming race at the beach. Balancing the daily tasks with the once-in-a-season or once a year events is the essence of the game. Quite often you won't realize when or how you should've done something until it's too late. Just make sure that you're prepared next year.

Again, the most exciting things in Harvest Moon happen when your watering can is upgraded from lead to gold or when your sheep is finally mature enough sheer for wool. The appeal of the game is more or less a mind game you play with yourself. You think to yourself that taking care of some stupid little chickens or raising some lame little potato crops has got to be easier than collecting 201 bananas in Donkey Kong 64, and you've done that twice in your sleep already. But when you consider that you have pressure on you to raise crops, tend to your animals, make money, upgrade equipment, help the right people, talk to the right girl and perform dozens of other activities all at the same time, suddenly DK64's bananas seem like a joke. After all, they're just sitting there waiting to be discovered at your leisure.

Because the gameplay is addictive, Harvest Moon provides tons of accomplishments and secrets for you to chase. We've told you about the main farming responsibilities but at some point in your two year career, you can court and marry one of the lovely ladies of the village, follow a treasure map that your character made for you when you were younger and build your tiny farmhouse into a palatial estate. And the best part is that all of these goals are linked to each other in one way or another. It's easier to land the hottest girl in town when you serve her some of that special soup recipe in the kitchen of your giant mansion.

Sound
Get used to the music because it's going to be with you for hours at a time. However, you really won't be missing much if you just turn the volume down and jam your favorite CD while playing. Sound is not an important part of the game since all of the important messages and information are text based. The only sound you control is whistling for your dog and horse or other interactions with your animals.

For such a simple looking game, we're kind of disappointed that Harvest Moon has absolutely no voice samples. We know the N64 doesn't have the best sound processing powers but we're not asking for an interactive movie here. All we want is a little chatting amongst characters and not just the moos, whinnies baas and clucks of your livestock.

Graphics
Would you believe us if we told you that this game's look is so simple it's genius? Didn't thinks so. The truth is, this is one of the few old Nintendo titles that's been updated to the N64 without much of a 3D overhaul and it still has some problems with its looks. The isometric perspective may be good for a little nostalgia but having to stand on the right "square" when you're in a hurry to do something is frustrating.

There is some really disturbing and dramatic draw-in especially when you go into the main village. The edges of your television screen will show little chunks of scenery popping in and out as you walk around. Keep in mind your character is usually the only one moving and there's just not much on the screen, still or otherwise, to keep track of.

The character animations are also simpler than they need to be. When your main character lifts a fish to his mouth to eat it --in one bit no less-- the entire sequence takes less than ten frames of animation. More intricate and detailed animations for all of the characters would've been in order. Since you do so much chopping, watering and walking, it would've been nice if those animations looked a little more interesting.

Overall, the idea of keeping the N64 version of Harvest Moon looking like the SNES game works, but there's no reason for some of the shortcuts that have been taken. The N64 is capable of doing so much more than what this game shows.

THE VERDICT
It's a rare occasion nowadays that a game with such simple graphics would even make it to store shelves, but Harvest Moon as that rare quality of being totally engaging and challenging. I was able to forgive a lot of the shortcomings like poor audio and visual elements because I found myself playing it for hours at a time. The RPG-style elements of figuring out what the heck you're supposed to do next is always fun and Harvest Moon gives N64 owners a nice taste of that genre. If you want a game that's a change of pace from everything else available on the console definitely check it out. If you want to make sure this game works for you by renting it first, be prepared to stay up for a few days straight.

Three years ago Rareware released GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 and changed the way gamers thought about console first-person shooters. The title, based on the movie of the same name, followed the exploits of super-spy James Bond as he plotted to save the world from terrorists. And thanks to clever, innovative design and a remarkable multiplayer mode, it proved that consoles could do the then PC friendly genre justice too. For more than a year Nintendo 64 owners cried for a Bond sequel all the while expecting that Rare would be the software house to create it. After all, GoldenEye's end credits did promise: "James Bond Will Return." But not from Rare. The British developer instead announced that it had passed on the chance to do the follow-up so that it could pursue its original work, which as we all know turned out to be the great Perfect Dark.

Yet, Nintendo's 64-bit console would see the return of James Bond still, and from another English developer at that: Eurocom Entertainment. The up and coming company had quietly been working on a 3D engine catered specifically to Nintendo's hardware and with a little help from giant publisher Electronic Arts, the videogame version of The World is Not Enough was born. Excellent news too -- it turns out Rare's not the only developer that can make a highly enjoyable Bond shooter.

The Facts

32MBs (256 megabit) cartridge -- the same size as Perfect Dark.
3D first-person shooter developed by Eurocom Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts
Play as the one and only James Bond
Action-packed single and four-player multiplayer modes that maintain a constant, high framerate for fast, fluid gameplay
14 single-player missions with different levels of difficulty
More than 40 unique Bond weapons and innovative gadgets to acquire and utilize
4MB Expansion Pak support provides enhanced graphics and visual effects
14 multiplayer arenas and levels, many of which are based on movie scenes and locales
Unlock tons of character skins for use in the multiplayer mode
Enemy bots in multiplayer mode
Authentic sounds and dialogue folded in throughout the game that adds to overall seamless and exciting gameplay
Gameplay
The World is Not Enough, like GoldenEye 007, stays true to the movie license of the same name. It's visibly evident from the moment the game boots up that developer Eurocom has gone to great lengths to follow the storyline closely. The shooter begins as Bond makes his way through the Banque Suisse de L-Industrie in Bilbao, Spain on a mission to meet up with the banker Lachaise, a character also featured in the film, and a suspicious one at that. The overall adventure kicks into full force from this starting point, following all of the major moments from the movie including, but not limited to 007's skiing battle, sneaking around at night in Davidov's security office, the helicopters with saw blades scene, and the underwater submarine showdown. As you can see by clicking right here, Eurocom has really done an amazing job recreating the cinema experience for the Nintendo 64 owner, perhaps more so than any other movie-to-game license to date.

Eurocom's shooter does not stop at presentation though. The title plays just as Bond fans hoped it would; it's fast, it's packed full of mission objectives, and it's overflowing with impressive spy gadgetry, all brought together under a slick 3D engine. Is it a blatant copy of GoldenEye in many respects? Yes. Does it play a whole heck of a lot like Rare's first-person shooter? In many ways, the answer is again yes. Is that really a bad thing though? Absolutely not. GoldenEye rocked, and developer Eurocom has done its best to recreate that original design, and then add to it with a few innovations of its own.

The World is Not Enough features 14 single-player missions that employ a variety of different first-person shooter gameplay styles. In one level Bond is required to chase a criminal across a maze-like city while fighting off enemy thugs and avoiding civilian casualties. In another our hero finds himself swimming through an underwater submarine, advancing not only forward and backward, but up and down to as he descends deeper into the sunken structure's belly. And in another mission still Bond must take out violent terrorists in an underground subway system. Each scenario is not only different in design, but in overall gameplay mechanics too. For example, swimming through a sunken submarine requires a bit of strategy, as Bond will have to find well-hidden air pockets in the ship just so that he can breathe and stay alive. On the other hand, taking out enemy trash in the subway system level really only requires 007 to point, aim and shoot, disposing of thug after thug as he makes his way through the mission.

The majority of the 14 levels in the game are put together superbly with lots of variation, great enemy placement and something new to do at every corner, be it shoot the bad guys or complete one of the mission objectives. The end experience is one that, especially in 00 Agent mode, is so much fun to play and so enjoyable that you'll have a hard time putting the controller down, and it's for this reason that we primarily recommend the game.

In fact, only one stage, actually, Cold Reception, gets just that from us, not because it's particular poor, but because it doesn't quite deliver on the same level as the rest of the single-player missions. In it, Bond must ski down a huge mountain overflowing with terrorists who are all too happy to shoot at him from every direction (and even in parachuting snowmobiles from above). The concept is great, but unfortunately Eurocom decided to unfold the action on-rails so that complete freedom of movement is not an option. The end result, more constrictive, is less satisfying than the rest of the game.

All of the single-player stages feature mission objectives which, depending on the degree of difficulty played (Agent, Secret Agent or 00 Agent), vary in quantity and length. Having tested all of the different modes, we can honestly recommend 00 Agent as the only way to play; it's just got so many more enemies and more clever, hard to execute mission objectives that it's totally worth the added effort -- and you will be satisfied with it. With mission objectives in mind, another play style is a necessity -- stealth mode. Like GoldenEye, The World is Not Enough sports dozens of areas that require more than just a quick trigger finger to properly best. Bond will need to use all of his sneaky gadgets and he's got a whole lot of them at his disposable. The list includes all of the following goodies: Flash bang gun, Secret detonator, Claymore, Pen grenade, camera, phone tap, safe cracker, keypad decrypter, fingerprint scanner, bomb disposal kit, data scrambler, covert modem and swipe card, to name just a few. These in addition to night-vision goggles, x-ray vision goggles and a wristwatch that features everything from stun darts to a grappling hook for high to reach areas. The gadgetry isn't just in the game for fluff, it's extremely useful; in some areas 007 will literally have to sneak through the dark with his night-vision goggles, crouch around corners, sniper-in on enemies and silently take them down. He'll then have to shoot out a locked gate with his silencer, use his swipe card to gain access to the next area, disable the enemy's camera systems with the data scrambler, move into the guarded room, stun the bad guys with his dart watch, and use his safe-cracker to unlock a chest so that he can photo documents inside. Sound awesome? That's because it is.

Perhaps our biggest gripe in the single-player mode is the enemy artificial intelligence -- not nearly as well demonstrated as in Rare's Perfect Dark, for example, a title that The World is Not Enough is bound to be compared to. The bad guys in Eurocom's shooter just aren't exceptionally smart -- and that's not to say that they are stupid either. Certain programmed attributes make for welcomed in-game additions, like, for instance, when Bond sneaks up behind a guard with his gun drawn, the enemy will then turn around and put his hands up. Or when Bond opens a door guards close by will yell, "Who's there?" and proceed to examine the area. But sometimes enemy groups fail to react in a lifelike manner; when one guard is shot, the others will continue with their business as if nothing has happened. And worst of all, these poor saps make almost no effort to move out of the way of oncoming bullets. Is it as terrible as some other critics have suggested? We don't believe so. In fact, if one raises the difficulty level to 00 Agent, there's hardly any time to worry about the game's decidedly normal AI between blasting enemies and accomplishing mission objectives. With that said, Perfect Dark enemy intelligence this game does not deliver.

Multiplayer Mode
The only other area in which we feel that The World is Not Enough fails to measure up against Rare's efforts is the multiplayer mode, and again that doesn't make it bad, just not great. A commendable effort on Eurocom's part to be sure, the game features 14 multiplayer levels based mostly on the single-player ones. Right off the bat we notice that they are extremely fast moving areas -- a much better sense of fluidity and framerate than in Perfect Dark, for example. The multiplayer modes are pretty standard, with lots of selectable weapons to choose from, and different gameplay modes to boot including everything from standard Deathmatch to Team Play and Capture the Flag, Capture the Briefcase, King of the Hill, Team King of the Hill, Uplink and Last Agent Standing. There are also different weapon modes, from Rapid Fire guns to Covert ones, as well as Close Combat, Sniper Combat, and so on.

Certainly the number of options Rare's shooter has is its major strength here, and admittedly The World is Not Enough simply doesn't touch it in that respect. The title features all sorts of customizable Bond character skins -- everything from 007 himself to the evil Renard or, if you prefer, Christmas Jones. But all of the player attributes, rankings, and different styles are pretty well naked in comparison to Rare's shooter.

In terms of multiplayer action, it's super fast, incredibly smooth, beautiful, and still a little on the stale side. Bots, up to three in all, are relatively stupid and can be killed rather easily, unless they take down your character with a quick, cheesy shot to the head, which sometimes happens. Perfect Dark really demonstrated how tough AI opponents can be in a console game and Eurocom's title definitely falls short there. With everything said, though, not a bad multiplayer experience at all. In fact, with a few friends it can be an enjoyable one.

Graphics
Beautiful. Detailed. Fast. Smooth. These four words sum up the visual experience that is The World is Not Enough N64. Eurocom has really put a lot of time and effort into a super-polished 3D engine that enables high quality visuals with a respectable framerate -- a fluidity better than Rare's Perfect Dark or GoldenEye. Texture design and character animation is generally very high, and equally fast. When Bond takes out an enemy with a shotgun blast, they are blown back to the ground immediately and the animation looks dead-on, whereas if he shoots them in the foot with a standard pistol they grab at their legs in pain. An excellent particle effects system works to highlight detailed explosions, blasts, fires, smoke, and the like, usually with no hit on the framerate whatsoever. Gun reloading animations are varied and realistic; you can see the watch on Bond's hands as he adds in new shotgun shells, or the rocket barrel on the ground when he's out of ammo for that particular weapon.

Even more amazing, though, are the 3D environments themselves. Eurocom's slick 3D engine allows for excellent draw distance without fog, so we can see vast areas including huge city streets with civilians running around, rooftop locales, industrial warehouses, and more. These stages are often filled with taxing 3D objects like floating animated helicopters with saw blades (that actually do damage the surrounding environment!) or enemies with mounted weaponry and missile launchers. Sometimes all of the madness can be seen on-screen at once and again with a respectable fluidity, which is very important for a game of this type. The cinematic cut-scenes are well placed and come off brilliantly, but unfortunately there is a loading screen between them that is rather annoying. But beyond all else -- quite frankly, once you've experienced the visual treats that are the game's night-vision and x-ray vision goggles, there's simply no going back to any of the competition's equals.

Oddly, The World is Not Enough does feature massive dithering for reasons unknown. The effect leaves some areas, particularly dark ones, looking a little grainy, but it's actually not a bad style, it's just a different one than what most Nintendo 64 owners are used to. All in all, though, an extremely good looking game, and don't believe any review that says otherwise.

Sound
Okay, first things first: what happened to Monty Norman's James Bond Theme? The classic Bond title music we all know and love is absent from the game and sorely missed. But with that issue aside, The World is Not Enough sounds spectacular. Crisp, clear effects, from explosions to all of the different firing noises the guns make, and top voice acting from quality actors, including the one and only John Cleese, who plays R in the film. Really a top notch job on Eurocom's part here.

THE VERDICT
The World is Not Enough is an excellent 3D shooter for Nintendo 64 and an amazing follow-up to Rare's GoldenEye. Whether or not its ultimately better than Perfect Dark is a question that's open for debate, as different gamers obviously want different things out of their shooter. However, if it's an incredible single-player mode packed full of spy gadgetry, stealthy missions, clever mission objectives and outstanding graphics that you're after, you can't do better than this Eurocom shooter, even if it does fall a little short in the AI and multiplayer departments.

Wholeheartedly recommended.