THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

Story:
In 2023, an interstellar war has erupted between two races (The Maians, who are basically the ‘greys’ from alien folklore, and the Skedar, reptilian aliens who can be disguised as humans as well). Meanwhile, there is a rivalry on Earth between The Carrington Institute (owned by Daniel Carrington, it’s an R&D centre but is covertly working with the Maians) and dataDyne (a sinister defense contractor with links to the Skedar.

You, the player, are Joanna Dark (codename ‘Perfect Dark’, thanks to your impressive training and background), agent hired by the Carrington Institute to investigate suspicious reports surrounding a dataDyne insider. She then stumbles across a conspiracy between the Skedar and dataDyne whereas the Skedar are plotting to steal an alien weapon from a crashed spaceship in the ocean and use it to their advantage over the rivaling Maians.

Graphics:
Superbly defining for the platform that it is. It’s a smooth run from beginning to end with some of the best textures ever seen on the Nintendo 64. The draw distance is also quite impressive. It is clearly one of the most advanced Nintendo 64 games, complete with high-resolution graphics and even Dolby Surround Sound.

Controls:
Absolutely spectacular and highly responsive. It throws in the “GoldenEye” formula and adds on to it some of its own features to make it far easier and improved. A good example - Whereas you had to switch through your weapon inventory, all you have to do now is hold the A button and move up to the weapon you wish to use.

Gameplay:
Single player mode consists of seventeen missions. There are also multiplayer options such as co-operative and counter-operative modes as well as traditional death-match. The maps of the levels and the multiplayer mode shows a lot of effort was put into this as they are very well designed. There’s also a huge inventory of weapons to choose from here, numbering around forty (yep, that’s right!), each containing a secondary function.

The main story, or single player, never gets boring as there are stealthy missions, all-out assault missions, and defensive missions as well. The levels become increasingly more challenging as the game goes on. On the other hand, the multiplayer mode is endless loads of fun guaranteed. The game’s AI is very advanced, although it may not be perfect.

Overall:
Meet “Perfect Dark”, the game that was also known as the ’spiritual successor’ to “GoldenEye 007″. Rareware striked gold once again after “GoldenEye 007″ with “Perfect Dark”. It is almost impossible to match the type of gameplay in this, no matter how hard developers may try. You will endure plenty of playtime with this game, it’s simply huge and epic in scope.

Like “GoldenEye 007″, “Perfect Dark” introduces extraordinary FPS gameplay and multiplayer options that were a revolutionary creation of its time. “Perfect Dark” is detailed, polished, and easily one of the most memorably fun games ever conceived.

Rating: *****

Story:
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know the plot here. James Bond loses his agent friend, Alec Trevelyan, on a mission at a Russian nerve gas station where everything goes wrong. Ten years later, a new organization called ‘Janus’ arises whom are suspected to have something to do with a stolen Pirate Helicopter and seem to be in command of a fearful EMP disrupting satellite known as the GoldenEye. The leader of this organization turns out to have a personal vendetta against James Bond. 007 joins forces with Natalya Simonova (a spy and programmer who is the token Bond Girl this time around) to battle Janus and bring them down.

Graphics:
The characters resemble their realistic versions from the films, it’s like walking through the Wax Museum in Times Square and looking at all of the celebrities. The levels never fail to satisfy as they are breathtakingly astonishing and resemble many of the sets and scenes from the movie itself. Last but not least, the textures here are way ahead of its time for a Nintendo 64 game.

Controls:
The controls are very suitable, especially the default mode which is basically where the stick aims and moves you forward and backward, meanwhile, the C buttons strafe you left and right. If this is not your cup of tea, then there’s several other configurations to select from. You’re bound to find one of them that works best for you.

Gameplay:
You as James Bond will gun down plenty and plenty of evil terrorists throughout the game in first-person shooter style. This may not be a smart tactical first person shooter like “Rainbow Six”, but it is far more entertaining and fun in a different way. But you also have to use some strategy here as just simply running down the hall with guns blazing will surely get you killed. All of the bad guys react astonishingly realistic, more so than say “Doom 64″, they will know when something’s not right once the guard next to him drops dead from a sniper shot.

You can shoot enemies in different body parts which will cause different reactions and movements. Your arsenal consists of about twenty-eight varying weapons - Explosives, laser guns, rocket and grenade launchers, knives, pistols, rifles, fists, uzis, remote and proximity mines, and even a tank. They have the Golden Gun here as well, also Bond’s favorite PP7 which comes in black, silver, and gold.

Aside from dispatching bad guys, there are objectives on every level which you must accomplish and they don’t always include killing everyone. The objectives are pretty much straight out of the movie (i.e. copying the key to the GoldenEye satellite, disarm bombs, etc.). There are eighteen main levels and two which need to be unlocked - Most of them are from the movie while a few have been added on. There’s plenty of variety in the levels (jungles, trains, boats, missile silos, train depot, and runway just to name some). Each area is as fleshed out as can be with absolutely excellent level design.

Overall:
This game has one of the highest replay values in both single player and multiplayer modes. Single player because the game has three levels of difficulty to choose from, each adding more objectives to the levels and smarter enemies to tackle, there’s a whole book of cheats and multiplayer maps to unlock by completing certain levels on a specific time frame. You can unlock levels and characters from previous Bond movies as well.

Multiplayer mode is a blast with options that are named after previous Bond films, some of which speak for themselves: You Only Live Twice, The Man With The Golden Gun, License To Kill, and The Living Daylights. Bond fan or not, this game is loads of fun; released nearly ten years ago in 1997, the game stills holds up its replay value to this day. “GoldenEye 007″ is a game to add right next to “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”.

Rating: *****

Story:
After a virus wipes out most of the female population on Earth in 2001, countries engage in battle over their own quarantine zones, leading to full scale nuclear war. The last females are held captive by gangs. You play as Griffin Spade whose fiance, Madison, has been abducted by the U.S. Government.

Separated from his wife, Spade claims a tank and travels across war-ridden America to find and rescue her, fighting off any gangs he comes across.

Graphics:
Well-detailed explosions. The tanks are well designed and each contain their own abilities and weaknesses. The developers really went to town with the levels with plenty of things to destroy within huge, wide open areas that are unbelievably long (hey, longer the levels, the better they are).

Controls:
Controlling the tanks is very easy and realistic. The controls feel very responsive with no difficult movements, making it very fun to play. There’s no need to feel around for a button while you’re focusing on the screen.

Gameplay:
You can select from three tanks - a Moto Tank, M1A1 Abrams MBT, or the Goliath. You will control your tank through seventeen levels in the single player campaign and battle enemy tanks all throughout. All of the levels are set across the United States including New York City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Chicago. Each environment is fully destructible and interactive. The game has multiplayer as well where you can team up with 2-4 players. There’s four multiplayer games to choose from: Battlelord (a variation of capture the flag), Deathmatch, Family Mode, and Annihilation.

Overall:
Blow up as much things as you would like in this game - Tanks, walls, streets, buildings, heck why not nuke the entire city!? Totally doable here. This game contains strategy, adventure, action, and free-roaming fun. Every level is complete with enemies, shortcuts, and fully destructible environments. “BattleTanx” contains high replay value, especially with its multiplayer options which has all sorts of weapons and goodies to mess around with.
Armor up, lock and load, and pop “BattleTanx” into your Nintendo 64. It’s going to be quite a while before you get bored with this game.

Rating: ****

Story:
You have crashed on Isla Nublar aka Jurassic Park and must collect the eggs of seven species of dinosaurs scattered around the park. You have a real-time twelve hour limit in order to accomplish this.

Graphics:
The graphics are top of the notch for 1993. Movie-like quality, tons of detailed frame speed, solid pixels, the ability to pan in 360 degree motion, and smooth moving images. The graphics suit it well, from your movement to the reactions and attacks of the animals themselves. Visually, this game is much more well put together than its Sega Genesis counterpart which was a totally different animal in of itself.

Controls:
It’s a point-and-click adventure game, it’s rather easy to get the hang of here, even if you have never played a point-and-click game before, you’ll pick up on this long before you tune into the mechanics like use of items and battle options. Overall, no complaints whatsoever. Point-and-click games are really that hard anyway.

Gameplay:
Although it’s a point-and-click game, it has a lot of focus on action sequences with split-second timing. You must work your way around the park, collecting dinosaur eggs under a real twelve hour time limit (ala “Prince of Persia”). You play from a first person perspective with a panoramic view of your environment and surroundings, you have plenty of tools to interact with it as well as weapons (a stun gun, gas grenades, and tranquilizer darts), none that are exactly dangerous but most of the combat here is often disguised as a puzzle of sorts, so you’ll have to do a little more than just shoot in order to survive.

The game has mixed difficulty, you may find yourself taking up to an hour in one area of the park. You don’t have all the time in the world here, you only have twelve hours to accomplish all of your objectives which range from collecting dinosaur eggs, fixing areas of the park, restoring power, and avoiding bad guys who eventually show up.

Overall:

 This is a very enjoyable game as long as you complete your objectives and do what you need to do. The game also makes several references to characters and events from the original book by Michael Crichton; I think it’s somewhat like a precursor to “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” in some ways.

“Jurassic Park” also has a eerily creepy vibe to it as well - You’re all alone in a park with all these dinosaurs, there’s no dialogue, you’re on your own, and there’s bad guys on their way to the island who will show up in the later hours of the game (trust me, when you see that helicopter coming in and landing somewhere beyond your horizon, you will feel a lump in your throat). It’s too bad Sega CD didn’t come out with more games of quality like this one.

Rating: ***1/2

Story:
In 1999, a multinational counter-terrorism group of elite NATO soldiers known as RAINBOW is established in response to the growth of international terrorism. The group responds to a series of unrelated terrorist situations by a radical eco-terrorist group known as Phoenix.

It turns out that the advisor of RAINBOW, John Brightling, is also the chairman of a powerful bio-tech Corp. known as Horizon Inc. which Phoenix Group happens to be a front for. Brightling is in the process of unleashing a super-virus known as Shiva with the intention of wiping out all mankind on the planet.

Graphics:
This is a PC-to-console transferred game. The graphics here, more or less, get hit hard as there is little-to-medium character detail (they all look pretty much the same, if you ask me). However, you probably won’t notice once you really get into the gameplay.

Controls:
It may take a few tries to get a hang of the controls here as there is a lot of stealth and tactical stuff for you to do in this game. The basics, however, like shoot, proceed, turn, action, etc. is no problem. It’s relatively easy even though the layout is somewhat complex.

Gameplay:
Welcome to the world of tactical shooters where the focus relies more so on stealth and tactics rather than sheer firepower. Terrorists can be handled with one-two shots and so can the player and his teammates. There’s a briefing and planning stage before each mission where you get to select your team members, the weapons, uniform, and equipment. You may also assign your crew orders to follow in the mission, such as where to deploy devices like flashbangs, etc.

During mission, you start out as the team leader but you can switch in between any crew member you’d like and take over them. If any of them die, it’s permanent, you will no longer be able to control them in future missions/levels. However, you do have the option of ‘rewinding’ to a mission that was, although somewhat successful, pretty much a disaster in an attempt to try it again.

Each of your missions will begin with you and your teammates at a safe zone on the map, they will immediately begin following your orders and going wherever you told them to go and do. Your objectives are mostly set around rescuing hostages, you must either escort them to a certain area or eliminate all of the bad guys on the map firsthand.

Overall:
This is one of those games that were built for the two player mode. There’s big levels that are loads of fun to explore, realistic tactical gameplay, and an attractive array of firearms to aide you in your missions. The game is pretty doable in one player mode as well, but when you team up with a friend and have him join in, man, that is such a defining trait here.

The only downside to “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six”, aside from the medium-subpar graphics, is that there are simply not enough levels while some levels might actually be a bit too confusing for the player, and lastly, some of the items may be a bit too difficult to use at first. This is, however, the very first video game in the ‘Rainbow Six’ franchise and it proved to be a much better successor on the PC than it was on the console versions like here.

Rating: ***1/2

Story:
Set in the backstory between “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”, mercenary Dash Rendar assists Luke Skywalker in his efforts to rescue Princess Leia from the evil Prince Xizor.

Graphics:
Not bad at all, considering this is one of the first ‘Star Wars’ games released on the Nintendo 64. The levels are very expansive, allowing you to see in great distances and detail. The frame rate matches with the images and there’s plenty of detail involved with the characters. Many of these levels are well designed and pretty cosy, not to mention, there’s plenty of references and sets from the movies; you’re bound to do a few levels here and there over again just for the fun of it.

Controls:
It may seem a bit awkward at first as far as moving around and weapon switch, especially a few jumps here and there - You might be falling through cracks or off of ledges a few times before you get the hang of it.

Gameplay:
There’s space battles, swoop biker chases, and you even get to have a jet-pack - that’s plenty of variety for a ‘Star Wars’ game right there. The Hoth battle is pretty cool the first time around but you don’t get to take out as many enemies as there were in the actual film’s invasion. The game also offers a variety of camera angles to choose from - third person, first person, overhead, and Hollywood. Each one is fun to play through with. The Hollywood angle is icing on the cake as it allows you to view Dash as you play him in a blockbuster film-like profile.

Overall:
While this game has no multiplayer option, it is quite a fun and definitive single player experience. There are also cheats which make the game even more fun and allow you to experience the game in a different light (you can play as the X-Wing or Tie Fighter in the space battle finale) and even reach areas in levels you wouldn’t normally be able to reach.

To this day, “Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire” on the Nintendo 64 still holds up as a unique ‘Star Wars’ experience with plenty of interesting atmosphere and quality to make you want to play it again. Overall, a ‘Star Wars’ game that was well-developed and well-crafted.

Rating: ****