Played the remaster released on Steam.
With little effort, you can convince most people that the bizarre N64 platformer Glover does not age well as it stands. Level designs, for the most part, do not utilize the glove-and-ball mechanic beneficially resulting in numerous points of inflected frustration rather than curious cleverness. Boss battles present themselves in jittery chaos and require a certain amount of time for the player to devolve into an angry mass before understanding the simple strategy.
Nevertheless, underneath the oxidized design elements, there really is a ambitiously witty game here. Beyond the jank maelstrom of boss battle presentation is an acknowledgement from the development team that they were trying to diversify the fights. They succeeded, actually, to an extent, even if they are irritable. Glover is part of a fascinating group of games made for the N64 that embraced weird design, trying to breakdown the platforming norms set by giants like Super Mario 64 - although most platformers of the time end up mimicking the Nintendo game eventually, Glover included.
But it is worth noting that the actual remaster amplifies the jankiness. The sound design is splotchy with inconsistencies and mixing errors and textures seem to come and go as they please. One section in a level of the Circus World refused to provide a floor. You can fall to your death there. Screenshots of the N64 version show the floor intact and filled. While this game certainly could use a substantial remaster, this version of the game begs the eternal question framing all game remasters. Do you sustain the historical authenticity of the game so that people can experience the game as one would when it was originally released or do you conform it to contemporary game design sensibilities? My ideal would be providing both options, as that would also merit the price tag for a game like this. But I feel that is still a pipe dream.
Still, I did actually enjoy this game as much as I was angry at it. I'm not exactly sure what that means for the game, conclusively.
With little effort, you can convince most people that the bizarre N64 platformer Glover does not age well as it stands. Level designs, for the most part, do not utilize the glove-and-ball mechanic beneficially resulting in numerous points of inflected frustration rather than curious cleverness. Boss battles present themselves in jittery chaos and require a certain amount of time for the player to devolve into an angry mass before understanding the simple strategy.
Nevertheless, underneath the oxidized design elements, there really is a ambitiously witty game here. Beyond the jank maelstrom of boss battle presentation is an acknowledgement from the development team that they were trying to diversify the fights. They succeeded, actually, to an extent, even if they are irritable. Glover is part of a fascinating group of games made for the N64 that embraced weird design, trying to breakdown the platforming norms set by giants like Super Mario 64 - although most platformers of the time end up mimicking the Nintendo game eventually, Glover included.
But it is worth noting that the actual remaster amplifies the jankiness. The sound design is splotchy with inconsistencies and mixing errors and textures seem to come and go as they please. One section in a level of the Circus World refused to provide a floor. You can fall to your death there. Screenshots of the N64 version show the floor intact and filled. While this game certainly could use a substantial remaster, this version of the game begs the eternal question framing all game remasters. Do you sustain the historical authenticity of the game so that people can experience the game as one would when it was originally released or do you conform it to contemporary game design sensibilities? My ideal would be providing both options, as that would also merit the price tag for a game like this. But I feel that is still a pipe dream.
Still, I did actually enjoy this game as much as I was angry at it. I'm not exactly sure what that means for the game, conclusively.