An early take at the twin-stick shooting dynamic, Forgotten Worlds offers a lot of the features of its contemporaries including cheesy dialogue and bad translations. The story makes no sense, the protagonists are over-the-top macho dudes on a mission to save the universe and exterminate everything, and the action is well-paced, although it becomes frustratingly hard and unbearable towards the end of the game.

The sprite work in the game is great, with background and level bosses shining up high. Gameplay becomes a bit tiring since the twin-stick concept is not refined and enough to keep a good level of attention on behalf of the player.

While the general concensus that Quest 64 is not a good RPG may be true, its flaws stood out more than normal considering this was one of the very few jRPGs released for the Nintendo 64 and all eyes were on this game.

A lot of the game components were average such as graphics, presentation, and soundtrack but the game did shine in trying to provide fresh ideas such as having limited movement within each battle to dodge attacks. Some of the early parts of the game were laid out nicely and presented charming areas to explores such as towns.

At the time of its release, NBA Courtside was easily the best N64 basketball game. Compared to the typical basketball games of its time, Courtside had a steeper learning curve as a result of its emphasis on simulation over arcade gameplay. Learning controls and movements was a bit frustrating early on but worth it once the player knew what to do since it added realism to the games.

It was interesting how Nintendo decided to go with Kobe Bryant as the face of the game/series considering he was just getting started in his NBA career. As we all know, Kobe went on to become one of the best players in NBA history so I guess Nintendo and Left Field Studios had a good foresight on Kobe's potential. Because of him being featured in this game, he became one of my favorite players to follow even though I've been an Orlando Magic fan through and through (RIP Kobe).

DKC3 had a number of things against upon release in late 1996: the Nintendo 64 was already out, 3D games were all the buzz then, overall interest in side-scrolling platforming was very low, and this was the third entry in the DKC series (5th if the Game Boy DK Land games are counted) so there was a bit of burnout among fans of the series.

Even with so many things against it, I had a good time playing this back in the day (rented it from Blockbuster) but it was clear to me that this game was nowhere near the masterpiece levels that (IMO) DKC and DKC2 achieved earlier. DKC3 didn't really do anything wrong but at the same time it didn't really do anything new. Sure, the setting was different (focus on a northwestern forestry setting but with diverse climates and themes sprinkled throughout the worlds), new enemies and characters were introduced (beginning with Kiddy Kong), and gameplay variety between levels is probably the highest in the series, yet the game felt very familiar in a been-there-done way. Not necessarily a bad thing considering the quality of previous games but definitely not good enough to propel this game into the same level of appreciation.

Graphics, gameplay, and sound are all very familiar and based in previous games for the most part with new collectables, mascots, and some level design ideas that were fairly interesting but not mindblowing.

All in all, DKC3 is a very solid platforming game that was released perhaps a bit too late in the SNES life cycle and therefore lost the spotlight and interest that the other games carried.

Unfortunately for this game, GoldenEye 007 was already out by the time this came out and even though this was not a first-person shooter, it failed to even remotely match the bar that was set by GoldenEye with well-designed and smart goal-based levels.

It was obivous that the budget for this game was somewhat on the low side, featuring limited graphics, poor performance, and janky movements. With that being said, I feel like M:I offered some interesting ideas for the time such as the Embassy level (which in my opinion, it's one of the best stealth levels of its time) but the prominent factor in this game is the inconsistency in the game's quality and level design ranging from excellent (such as the aforementioned Embassy level) to poor (underground sewer level).

Overall, it's not a bad game for its time and I feel like with a better budget and perhaps more development time this could have become a product that really stood out.

Played this game via the Capcom Arcade Collection. Just like most arcade shooters/shmups, this is a coin muncher that gets increasingly difficult and unfair the more you progress through the game. The difficulty and frustration rely mostly not on the amount of enemy projectile (like some "bullet hell" games out there) but rather on the enemy plane speed and enemy projectile speed, making dodging enemy fire very difficult (despite very precise controls).

For being a 1987 game, the game looks very good but unfortunately the backgrounds and sprites get old very quickly. All levels (rounds) feature the same backdrop with basic water, some clouds, and sporadic small islands. Understandably, this game is about a battle in the Pacific Ocean so you would expect a lot of water backgrounds but I feel like the developers could have at least tried featuring different times of day and weather effects to add some visual variety.

Gameplay is interesting featuring a fuel meter (acting as health) that gets depleted as you get hit and as you use special powers, making the player think hard before employing the bigger 'clear screen' weapons. Bosses at the end of each round are pretty cool but get repetitive since they are variations of the same machinery.

An interesting game for the time offering a classic side-scrolling experience (in an era where 3D platforming was new and booming) but with different rules on how to advance levels such as eating a determined amount of fruit instead of reaching an end point/goal area.

Despite the side-scrolling view, Nintendo went with 3D graphics and that made for an interesting art direction and the game ended up looking great and was unique for its time. Soundtrack was cringey for me with too much baby Yoshi voices but there are some interesting pieces here and there.

Unfortunately, this game was on the (very) short side, definitely one of its biggest cons making this a good game to rent or borrow back in the day.

Even though this original/first GTA game will never be placed high alongside the other games in the series, it served as the foundation for the series and I thought it was a pretty fun title back in the day.

The over the top view limits the presentation greatly and convolutes the controls making things fairly unintuitive at first. Most missions are timed and don't allow a whole lot of room for mistakes so the frustration factor is fairly high for new players but if you manage to get past that point and become familiar with the controls, the game becomes very fun.

I was never able to fully complete the game but this game made me appreciate and keep an eye on the GTA series ever since it came out.

As far as the Nintendo 64 version of the game, it represented a huge leap in terms of overall improvements versus EA's previous soccer game FIFA 64 which was an embarrassment compared to this.

FIFA 98 improved in just about every category including graphics, sound, gameplay, and even overall game modes offering very detailed and realistic World Cup qualification competitions for every Confederation. It was a blast playing this game and taking a national team all the way from qualifying to winning the World Cup. Last but not least, this game had one of the most epic intro songs of its time with Song 2 by Blur.

Not sure what Midway was thinking when they released this game. Admittedly, the hype was kind of high considering this was the first non-fighting Mortal Kombat game so the curiosity alone generated hype among fans and most Nintendo 64 owners craving for more games to be released on the system.

Calling this one of the worst games of its time it's not an over-exaggeration; the controls are terrible with specific buttons to change the direction you are facing, as well as nearly impossible to control platforming segments that made the game incredibly frustrating and unfair.

I still scratch my head to this day as to how a game of such high profile gaming series got approved and passed internal QA/QC process.

Even though Bomberman 64 deviated from the traditional formula of over-the-top 2D view with focus on battling others, it managed to provide a decent new outlook with a 3D adventure that seemed appropriate for its time with all the new concepts and mechanics developers were employing with 3D technology.

Controls had a steep learning curve and were not very intuitive, gameplay and performance were a bit buggy at times but overall the levels were fun to play and figure out the progress. Creating your own character/Bomberman was a nice aspect at the time, providing some (basic) customization and variety to the game.

Even though I never managed to beat this game, it was a fun game to experience and see what developers had in mind at the time for the Bomberman games and concept.

Doom 64 is one of the early N64 games that blew me away with its dynamic lighting and updated art direction over the first two games to give the game its own unique dark theme and look.

Unfortunately, it was also the first game where I started experiencing frequent motion sickness (a somewhat common occurrence for me with modern first-person games) so I was never able to beat the game in its original platform and had to resort to watching my older brother play and beat the game.

With that being said, my experience from the levels I've played and from what I watched make this one of my favorite Doom games in terms of gameplay (a bit slower than perhaps other games but appropriate for this game) and level design.

I rented this game back in the day when it came out and had fun with it for a few hours before I felt the game got repetitive. This was not a bad effort considering it was an early-gen title with limitations but I thought the use of the Simpsons license was well done and driving around Springfield was fun and interesting despite early hardware limitations.

One things I appreciated over the obvious Crazy Taxi comparison is that this game allowed for more breathing room and thus it was easier to explore the surroundings.

Blast Corps gets a huge thumbs-up because of its uniqueness in concept and variety in gameplay. All you do in this game is clear a path so a nuclear missile doesn't blow up. You clear the path by using unique vehicles and other blast equipment like robots.

Graphics were very good for the time and there was a good level of detail featuring buildings, cars, and different terrain surfaces. Explosion effects were very good for the time. The soundtrack and sound effects were silly but very appropriate with the nature of the game.

Gameplay was different and provided a ton of variety due to the different types of vehicles you could use on different levels. Not everything was perfect though, as there were a couple of vehicles that turned the game into a pain with the obvious example being the dump truck that required perfect slides to destroy obstacles. Those looking for a challenge also had the option to improve scoring and get different types of medals for each level.

Due to its difficulty, I was never able to finish the game (dump truck I'm looking at you) but nevertheless Blast Corps was a very fun game to experience due to how different it was at the time, and in fact, it still remains as a very unique game worth trying via modern resources such as the Rare Replay collection.