Switch Funday - Extreme G - Nostalgic Game Play

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week's game is a nostalgia pick for me. My sister had an #N64 and we sometimes played games together and Extreme G was one of them. i've been wanting to try out this version for a while and so with bad weather today i relaxed with Extreme G.

Going in, i remembered a fair amount of the game. i talk at the start about things like difficulty, passwords, and how it felt like you had to crash to get around the tracks. but what was the hardest at the start was working out what buttons did what! i don't have a N64 controller so for the first race it was a question of pressing all the buttons and working out what they did. LZ is accelerate, for example. once i worked out what they did, i didn't find the layout too troublesome.

As expected, the memories and feelings came flooding back whilst playing it. turns out i remembered pretty much everything except for the music. there's some wonky UI stuff and odd choices, but for the most part it holds up fairly well. the difficulty was a surprise even tho i knew it was difficult. sometimes i had huge wins, sometimes i was far behind, and yet i couldn't tell you the difference. what was nice tho was the enemy Ai. it often felt like they're out to destroy each other, so when you did catch up with them it was because they were attacking each other rather than rubber banding.

I'd recommend Extreme G if you have Nintendo Switch Online. it's not perfect and there is a learning curve, but there's also enough here to have some good times. the tracks have some alternative routes is a great way to play repeatedly without it feeling stale, as is unpredictable nature of the enemy Ai. I kinda liked how the graphics looked on a HDTV instead of the old CRT memories i had.

Switch Funday - Mario Kart 64 - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

I have been using the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack's Virtual Consoles to catch up with some games i've never played before. today, i chose to play Mario Kart 64. I recently tried out Mario Kart on the SNES, https://youtu.be/ytuZQssV_7Y, and this was the final Mario Kart i hadn't played before. i learned a lot about that game from user  @SuperNickid  , i recommend reading what they wrote if you're unfamiliar with that game.

i didn't quite know what this game would be. would it lean closer to the SNES version or would it lean closer to the GBA and GameCube versions. thankfully, it feels more arcadey, more balanced, and generally more fun to play. The reason this video is so long is because i tried every map!

there were a couple of things that still annoyed me about this version of the game. the main one is that you must finish in the top 4 to progress. that's more similar to the SNES original than later games. another was the lack of characters. i played as Kooper in the SNES game but that character was not in this one. thankfully the character's looked much better, much closer to how you imagined they look. a great example is how much better Yoshi looks.

Another big improvement were the weapons. in the SNES original, i learned how the weapons work as whilst playing it i couldn't understand what was happening. characters have their own weapons and they have endless amounts of them. here, it was much more familiar and it felt much more fair. if i have a complaint it's that the red shell Ai was really quite bad at times. i would say the drift mechanic was also much improved and it felt a more vital part of the gameplay. in the SNES version it's more a jump, but on the N64 it's more a drift that also can give you boost.

I had much more fun with this game. it feels more like the first game in the series than the original does. it also feels more fair and better balanced. even tho i lost some races, it didn't feel like it was the computer cheating. It's well worth trying and it still looks good, too!

Switch Funday - Sin and Punishment - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

I'm back trying out a N64 game on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. Today, it's Sin and Punishment. It's a game i have heard off but never played.

i went in only knowing that it would be on rails. i didn't even know the state of the translation. only that it didn't get a western release on N64. so i was surprised that the in-game text was all in Japanese but the voice acting and menus were in English. 

I had a good time. this video is longer than i expected and ultimately i had to stop playing as i kept wanting to play a little more. it controls better than GoldenEye 007 did with the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, but it still wasn't perfect. there were many moments where i would go for the wrong button and in a game this fast it did cost me a few times. thankfully there was a training mode and i did that first. i didn't expect the training mode to have a boss tho!

it felt a little rough in places, like it being unclear how to avoid certain attacks almost as if we were expected not to. but it also felt like one of the biggest battlefields i had ever fought in on the N64. the epic battle against the battleships was a pleasant surprise. i had no idea the N64 could be capable of such a spectacle. But of course this is the Switch, there's every chance that on the N64 the performance wasn't quite there. but what would be the same is the looks. soo many things look different from each other. it was clear who was who and what enemy was what, whilst also looking very impressive.

It's a hard game that does feel it's age in places. but it really is worth trying. it won't be for everyone, but it's something worth experiencing.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Puzzle League - Becoming The Champion

Welcome to Switch Funday!

Last week i played GoldenEye 007, https://youtu.be/tHaZuV7rAJo, for the first time. I hadn't really used the N64 app from Nintendo Switch Online and there were numerous games i had heard of but never played before. So starting this week, i'm going to try out some games in the App. the first of which is going to be Pokémon Puzzle League.

I had heard of this game, but i knew nothing more than that. i don't recall hearing YouTubers talking about it or seeing it in Pokémon game tier lists. Other than the Pokémon Pinball games, i haven't really played much of the side games. it was obvious that this was going to be a puzzle game, but i didn't know what style of game it would be.

Looking at the box and title, i thought it could be a Columns style game but i was wrong. it was a style of puzzle game that was familiar and yet new. i found it hard to describe throughout the video, i'd often bring up Meteos but in hindsight that's not the game i was thinking of. a quick look at the Giant Bomb website, https://www.giantbomb.com/tetris-attack/3030-13130/similar-games/, lists a few games i've played like Arkedo Series - 02 SWAP!, https://youtube.com/shorts/UnWo0yeSEcA, Poker Smash, and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, so it could be any one of those ... if not something else!

As for Pokémon Puzzle League, it's a fine game. but i got bored fairly early on. the nostalgia was a big drive to keep on playing and trying out the other modes. A highlight was the 3D mode. i felt that this offered an interesting challenge and twist on the somewhat boring gameplay the 2D board offered. i don't think it'll be a game i'll go back to. i'm glad i gave it a go and tried something new. but it was just lacking something. i feel like the hour i played was more than enough. back when this game out, this would've been a great rental game for a weekend or maybe a game to try and get your parents to play with. 

Switch Funday - GoldenEye 007 - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

Even tho i've been playing video games since the early 1990's, i've never played GoldenEye 007. As i say in the video, my sister had a Nintendo 64 but we never had the game. I didn't even know anyone who had the game. so when it came out on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack i was eager to try it.

i went in knowing full well that games from this time haven't always aged well but still, i was shocked at how bad the controls were. they haven't been updated for the Nintendo Switch release, they've merely been mapped to controls that already exist. but it's fun to watch the video and see how i gradually adapt to the controls.

In this video, i don't finish the second level. even tho it's over an hour long, i try 4 times to beat the second level and fail. and it's mostly because of my own mistakes. but gameplay wise i kinda had fun. it was somewhat nostalgic but it was perhaps even nicer to know that i have finally played the game.

i don't know if it's one i'll come back to and finish. maybe if they update it or maybe if i get the N64 controller for Switch i might. It would be nice to try the online multiplayer, but that's only for friends rather than randoms online which i had hoped it would be.