Reviews from

in the past


I have no idea what I just experienced but it was an interesting and fun mindfuck to say the least.

Wild rails shooter where you actually play defense too.

This is quite possibly one of the best of Nintendo’s “forgotten” games. It’s the single player shooter genre done right. It’s a rail shooter, which was pretty new to Nintendo at the time, with Star Fox being the only attempt at the genre they’ve done before. It didn’t receive an english translation until 2007, 7 years after the games release. Sadly, everyone will have to admit that the voice acting work is terrible in this game. It sounds fanmade. The subtitles also haven’t been translated, which sucks, as it’s hard to hear what the VAs are saying from time to time. But this game also tells a compelling story, and has the challenge to keep you hooked. The game isn’t the longest (only took me about 3 hours in total to finish) but it’s still a fun play. Is it worth the $12? That’s honestly for you to decide. Maybe wait for Nintendo to announce N64 Switch Online and play it on there, if you’re not really sure about it now.

The final battle is you fighting a planet as a giant kaiju and it's possibly the most beautiful video game sequence I've laid eyes on.


Now THIS is a real man's rail shooter. Not only is it fun as shit, it's also cool as shit (They're crying Brad's name!), and the music goes hard as FUCK. Game Over'd on Stage 2-3 because I was too busy fucking GROOVING

Funny story on this one, so one time at a convention, I learned that you can break the region lock of Japanese N64 games by unscrewing the back of the cartridge and replacing the back of it with the back of an American N64 cartridge. Never thought I'd be using that trick again until I found out about this game, where now I own a copy that has the back of a now useless copy of Nascar '99 that I bought at a local retro game shop for 3 bucks.

Doing it this way made me feel like I was popping in an old fuzzy VHS tape of a 90s shonen anime movie that never made its way over seas. I mean that literally, because this games presentation gives that vibe. You have these unhinged over the top scenes that uses all the power the N64 can render, backed by the most groovy soundtrack imaginable (my personal favorite in any Treasure game) and voice acting that sounds like it was done by 5 fans of this shonen who have no idea how to voice act and took a lot of translations very literal, and they were lazy to include english subtitles to help the audience differentiate what they're saying from all the loud sound effects. And the story beats go by so fast it felt like I only watched like part 5/17 in a larger narrative. It's super cheesy and is basically jibberish, but no other game has ever emulated that feeling of 90s anime cheese before like Sin and Punishment, so it's presentation arguably leaves a lot to be desired but for me is such a guilty pleasure.

However, the reason why I popped this tape in wasn't for it's story, but it's "fight scenes".

The reason why I bought this game physically to begin was, upon doing research, I found out this game was designed around the N64 controller itself. The premise for the development of S&P was to design a game where you use the left side of the controller rather than the right side. S&P is an on-rails shooter where you move your character with the D-Pad (double tap a direction to dodge roll), aim with the analog stick, shoot with the trigger, double jump with the left bumper, and switch weapons with the A button. This unorthodox control scheme was actually extremely easy to get used to, which helped that the game had a great tutorial that was easy enough to made someone like me who isn't very good at Japanese to understand. (Although granted I wished this game didn't suffer from inverted aiming controls.)

Because of this control scheme, you will not also be tested on your aiming, but when to strafe, jump and dodge roll. You are given a lot more to look out for and the game will constantly test you on this principle. I was pleased to see this game was directed by Hideyuki Suganami, the same man behind Alien Soldier, collabed with Nintendo EPD1, so the levels just keep offering idea after idea that will both challenge you while offer so much variety in it's ~1 and a half hour run time.

My only major gripe when it comes to gameplay is the time limit. If reach zero, your characters health bar drains until death. Normally I don't mind time limits if they're done right as they're a means to prevent a player from stalling, but because S&P is an on-rails shooter, you can't exactly beat the time if you want to. It can make one hit that knocks down your character more frustrating than it needs to be, and some stages that don't give time bonuses like Stage 3 can make it a lot more infuriating.

Despite that however, Sin and Punishment's charm and polished gameplay left me in total awe, and is now possibly one of my personal favorite N64 games behind Majora's Mask and Banjo-Kazooie. Unfortunately this game isn't as well known as the other two, because of it's Japanese only release. There was a release of this game for Wii virtual console but.... yeah that's gone. However, I can't recommend this one enough because I think this game is very special. One day when this pandemic blows over and conventions roll back around, I can't wait to show this game to everyone of my friends, and watch them marvel in this insane 90s anime movie that is bundled in a video game at it's most purest, much like how people traded VHS tapes of old anime films before their mainstream popularity.

"GET BONUS" -Sin and Punishment, 2000.

damn they got sin AND punishment? talk about stacked

One can only imagine what could be achieved if a AAA budget was spent on a relentless hour and a half action game like this

esta cachondo el doblaje castellano

Probably one of the best N64 games I've ran in to. The story execution is real bad and the polygons are real ugly, but Treasure knows how to make fun games and they managed to make another one on a console that actively tries to push away fun

How did they make this on N64 it's fucking insane. Bless Nintendo forever for deciding to release it worldwide on Virtual Console back then, AND to bring back Treasure to make a sequel. Most based Nintendo move ever probably. Especially since it probably made 0 sense market wise ?

Basically better Star Fox with shitter voice acting. Absolutely fantastic game. I remember thinking the reticle was too slow, however I now realize that the game is balanced immensely well for the speed of the reticle. Treasure really knew what they were doing with this game, I look forward to the sequel.

The story is a crazy rushed sci-fi anime that makes very little sense but it's fun to watch at least. The english voice acting despite the game not coming out of japan was strange and added to the odd tone. The gameplay is pretty fast and satisfying and the bosses and setpieces made each level feel quite enjoyable without having it get stale. It's a short game but that's fine with me, I think rail shooters should be short since the gameplay can get repetitive faster than with the average genre. The character models looked pretty awful but the environments and the dynamic camera were very cool. Overall while it wasn't a very impactful game, it had a lot of classic japanese soul.

its a damn good time, with a batshit insane story and amazing graphics for the n64

a fantastic on-rail shooter with great presentation and style (especially by N64 standards), and one of the sickest final bosses of all time

the game is fantastic to play and there's nothing else quite like it (besides the sequel i guess). please come back and remake this game, Treasure, we miss you

One of the finest titles for the platform, with a ridiculously confusing plot, entertaining Engrish voices, and pure action running at a smooth 60 FPS, but the adventure is over as soon as it gets great.

I think what makes sin & punishment so great — other than the exhilaratingly snappy paced set piece monster sandwich of a campaign, killer soundtrack, and pristine level design paired with a borderline sexual difficulty curve — is that it's the perfect crystallized representation of the core elements of the "shooter game"

Anyone whos played a shmup, run & gun, FPS or TPS knows these games are made up of two core elements. Move to avoid getting hit, line yourself or your reticule up with the enemy and press the shoot button to win. Move and shoot.

What makes S&P stand in contrast to its contemporaries is that there's virtually zero interplay between these two aspects. Moving doesn't affect your aiming (considerably) and aiming has no effect on the camera or your movement.
This disconnect between the two elements ends up creating a unique appeal where you're essentially playing two different games at the same time, a 3D shooting gallery and a 2D "dodge em up".

This inherent multitasking element plus the set camera let the designers create deliciously demanding scenarios like having to focus your aim on a mobile enemy in the top right while noting the missile arriving from the bottom left in your peripheral vision and making a bet with yourself that you'll reflect it without ungluing your eyes from the top right.

Were this a standardized FPS/TPS, the dynamic camera and 3D movement wouldn't afford the same level of clarity or precision that allows S&P's obstacles to be as tight & demanding as they are.
Were this a shoot em up, you'd have the clarity and precise movement but the (generally) restrictive way that shooting works doesn't allow for the multi tasking element to emerge.

This isn't either of those things though. It's straight up moving and shooting at its rawest and most literal. It's Sin & Punishment all the way through, baby.

Sin and Punishment is truly a bizarre game, one that most people would pick as something only Japan could do. The game is very short, the controls are a bit hard to understand and use , and some of actions the game asks you are quite demanding even on the easiest difficulty. But if you stick with Sin and Punishment, and learn its ways the game can be quite fun and rewarding, although you may never actually understand what is going on.

Treasure doing what Treasure does best.

ta bien, pero se siente injusto a veces pero en un segundo intento es re facil, excepto por el duelo de espadas, FUCK EL DUELO DE ESPADAS

this is what you get if you put star fox and like 12 different 80s OVAs in a blender. everything makes absolutely zero fucking sense, it's great.

The vibes are unreal it's like looking at my brain undiluted. Nintendo honestly wasn't ready to work with basement schizos on a game. There's stuff that happens in this game that you will never get anywhere else it was ahead of its time and it has a berserk biomecha in it so rad. Very Shinzo Abecore game actually


This review contains spoilers

The final boss is just shooting to the earth from other dimension, peak fiction.

This game rules. There’s a segment where you play as a woman with a monster boyfriend who’s hellbent on killing this mascot-y cat creature and when you fight her, you hear the voice of this military commander who basically says “You will not hurt my friend!!” in the most shonen way possible.

Aside from the terrible voice acting this game is great

Shit owns. It's definitely in contention for THE best N64 game of all time.

The incredible set pieces Treasure managed to eke out of the 64's limited processing power are just stunning, from front to back. It doesn't control the best -- it always feels a bit clunky -- but it's almost like the game knows this, and so it passes out continues like candy, and offers super-generous checkpoints. It doesn't want to frustrate you, or grind you down with difficulty (though there's always 1CC attempts, hard mode, and playing for score if you WANT that); it just wants you to have a fuckin' rad time.