I consider the N64 to be my main stomping ground, comprising a large portion of my video game library. Although I recognize the considerable drawbacks of both the hardware and the era in which it was spawned, I love it all the same. I suppose the fact that it’s a contrasting mix of good and?? bad is really the cause of my attraction. The PS1 is too good. The Saturn is too lacking. But the N64 is like fine art played on a va?seline-smeared screen.

It had some great titles, though. While I’m confident in my picks for this list, I’m leaving out a number of titles that I could gush about. That’s sort of why I don’t like lists like this, I’d rather talk in-depth about the merits and problems of each game in their own context, not compare them. However, if someone is going to do it, I’m definitely the most qualified. I’m fairly sure everyone thinks that about themself, but only I am correct in this assessment.

And lucky you, I've updated the list from a meager five select choices to a sprawling 20. At that point, we start to get into muddier territory where numerous g?ames could fit the spot. I could keep going, though. One day, I might revisit my list and do just that. Keep me around, and we could reach the whole library one day. But for now, it's 20.

20. Goldeneye 007

When Goldeneye 007 was released in 1997, it was a phenomenon. I remember that wherever I’d go t??o rent it, I usually had to put down a reservation on it because it was constantly out of stock. Even at the Blockbuster the next town over, it was elusive. I eventually got my own copy for my birthday.

Nowadays, however; yeesh. I’m someone who doesn’t think that games really age. They can be superseded if a later game takes all the same features and improves them, but what was great then is great now. However, after years of being used to cleaner graphics and reasonable framerates, Goldeneye 007 is rough. The game runs like everyone is wading through pudding, and the framerate drops into slideshow territory whenever the action heats up. It’s also so blurry that, on certain levels, it’s extremely difficult to tell where the enemies are until the autoaim points your gun at them or you see a muzzle flash. Playing the Jungle level w??as a good way to tell if you ne?eded to dust off your CRT screen.

At its core, it’s still great. It has a unique formula where you need to explore levels to locate and accomplish objectives. You also need to exfiltrate, which is something that FPS games rarely ever had. The successor to Wolfenstein 3D’s key hunt formula for first-person shooters would wind up being Half-Life’s linear narrative, but if you ask me, more games should have copied off of Goldeneye’s sheet.

19. Mario Kart 64

I probably would have put Mario Kart 64 higher on the list, but I think there’s some childhood trauma there. It was a game that my entire family would play back when it was released, and while I was the big gamer in the family, this was one game that my parents and sister could beat me at. I would ??have been around 10 in those days, so even if I still would play along, my developing ego?? was fragile.

I think Mario Kart DS was when the series really nailed the series�?feel, but Mario Kart 64 had i??t where it counts. Maybe the speed wasn’t quite there, and the drifting didn’t feel right, but the tracks are some of the best the series has ever seen. Its b??attle mode also took what was already great on the SNES and lifted it even higher. There was better verticality, more interesting level design, and, of course, four-player support.

I think what makes Mario Kart 64 still worth playing these days is that it still has a sense of danger. There’s more risk and reward, and it wasn’t afraid to make you freeze or crush you under the wheels of a much bigger car. It is, quite possibly, the meanest Mario Kart.

18. Diddy Kong Racing

If you’re just looking at screenshots, Diddy Kong Racing just looks like a differently-themed version of Mario Kart. In reality, it’s only partially that. Rare went in a bit of a different direction by combining the weapon-laden racing of Mario Kart with a sort of collect-a-thon metagame. Not only can you get balloons?? for winning racers, but you can also find keys to unlock challenge races, T.T. Tokens for time trials, and more. Plus, there were boss races.

But beyond that, racing isn’t relegated to carts. There are also planes and hovercrafts, and certain side modes challenge your mastery of the vehicles. The races are heavily themed, and while they’re not quite as varied and unique as Mario Kart 64’s, they still give you a lot to chew on.

The best part, however, is that you can play through adventure mode with a coop buddy. You hav?e to unlock this with a code for some reason, but it makes for a fun afternoon.

17. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

Listen, I have opinions about Star Wars, and it’s hard to talk about the games without touching on it. To put it as succinctly as possible, the galaxy far, far away is dead to me. But before the nails started getting pounded into the coffin by the prequel trilogy, we got some of the best games from it. Games like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Rogue Squadron certainly wasn’t the first space combat game based on the series, but while Star Wars: X-Wing went in sort of an (awesome) simulation direction, Rogue Squadron was simpler and more narrative-focused. Well, “narrative-focused�?might be stretching it, but it covers the period between Episodes 4 and 5. It still staye?d very true to the look of?? the films, drawing from the extended universe novels, as well. It’s just too bad about the escort missions.

16. Blast Corps

1997 was kind of a stupid year for Rare. Good stupid. They came swinging onto the N64 with three of the games on this list. But as much as I love Goldeneye and Diddy Kong Racing, Blast Corps is the one that has endured for me. In ?fact, right now, I’m keeping myself pinned to my chair so I don’t get up and slot it into my N64.

Blast Corps is just lunacy. It tells the story of this truck with nuclear devices on it that gets locked on a completely straight course. Naturally, there are buildings in the way but, somehow, no steep drops, cliffs, or mountains. The only people who can save the day is a hardcore demolition company. Their plan is to just level everything in the path of this carr?ie??r, and also everything in the vicinity. If we’re just demolishing everything anyway, I’m not sure why we need to stop a nuke from going off. There was actually a comic about it in Nintendo Power, but it doesn’t actually answer a lot of questions.

So, it makes hilariously little sense, but it lays fine groundwork for a game about knocking down buildings using heavy equipment. And not just, like, a bulldozer. There is a bulldozer, but there are also cartwheeling robots and off-road rocket buggies that ramp into buildings to knock them over. Ab??solutely incredible.

One of the only reasons I've ever been tempted to own a more recent Xbox is because of Rare Replay, and a big part of that is because I want to play HD Blast Corps. I just can't justify it when I own a PC, but for everyone who owns Rare Replay, I have one question: How a?wesome is it t?o be you?

15. Mario Party 2

Mario Party essentially launched the party game genre for a while, even before it exploded during the Wii’s early years. It started off modestly enough, giving people palm blisters with its stick-rotating mini-games, but Mario Party 2 is where it hit its stride. Or possibly its pe?ak, if ??you ask some people.

While Mario Party 2 adheres well enough to the board game-like formula of the first game, it in??troduces facets like duel mini-games to keep things? more interesting. It’s also home to Horror Land, the creepiest board to ever hit the series with its strange night/day happenings. But, perhaps most importantly, it nixes the stick-rotating games, which may have saved a lot of joysticks and palms.

14. Perfect Dark

If you could withstand Goldeneye’s blurry visuals and nauseating framerate, Perfect Dark has a new challenge for you, since it inherits many of the same p?roblems. However, it also pushes the system much harder and h?as a level of detail that few games strive for, even today.

It’s a sequel to Goldeneye in everything but name, taking all the standards set by that game and extrapolating on them. It continues the objective-based mission structure, takes it to the near future, and throws in some aliens and presidential clones for good measure. There’s also a greatly expanded multiplayer mode, including many of the same rulesets as Goldeneye, but expanding it with bot?s, a greater? arsenal, and bigger maps. You can even play the standard missions with a second player. It’s rad!

Except, as mentioned, the framerate will drop into the gutter with little provocation. An updated HD version was later released for the Xbox 360 and is still available on Xbox platforms, and simply because the hardware’s horsepower is up to the task, it’s a much better experience. Perfect Dark was always a great gam??e, the N64 just is??n’t the best place for it.

13. Paper Mario

Super Mario RPG was among the last big games to hit the SNES before the focus moved to the N64. It was a pretty big deal, featuring a collaboration between Nintendo and Squaresoft and graphics that felt like they pushed the console. So, excitement was pretty high to see a follow-up, and we never quite got one. Paper Mario was originally in development under the name Super Mario RPG 2, but with a different developer, different art style, and different gameplay, the only thing the t??wo games really have in common was the fact that they’re JRPG-lites.

Okay, that’s not the only thing the two games have in common, but Paper Mario is a different beast entirely. It further boils down the RPG side of things while still keeping Mario RPG standards, like its reflex-based button presses to enhance damage or defense during battle. However, it’s quite a bit sillier and, in a lot of ways, helped better define the underlying sense of hu??mor of the Mario series.

12. Star Wars: Episode 1: Racer

You can refer to the entry for Rogue Squadron if you want to hear me circle around my feelings on Star Wars, but to sum it up, I didn’t like the prequels to the point of disillusionment with the franchise in its totality. However, Phantom Menace did lead to some great games, and while Battle For Naboo was an okay follow-up to Rogue Squadron, Episode 1: Racer finds the best home for the movie’s pointlessly ostentatious ?pod-racing ?scene.

The result is some of the best high-speed, edge-of control future-racing since, well, F-Zero X, which is further down this list. It also ties in a layer of dept?h around upgrading and maintaining your machine. The tracks start off as small samplers of what will be sprawling circuits in the later stages of the game. Narrow canyons and track obstructions challenge you to keep you??r pod in one (three?) piece. It’s only let down by some pretty awful sound design.

11. Pilotwings 64

One of the launch titles for the N64, Pilotwings 64 takes the st??rangely relaxing flight school aesthetic of the original SNES title and expands it to a celebration of polygonal 3D. It features detailed physics and a massive draw distance that was extremely rare to see in the era.

It’s something of an unassuming game, featuring goofy characters and offbeat challenges such as firing them out of a cannon into a giant target. Others have you taking pictures while keeping your hang glider aloft. A couple involve shooting rockets at a giant metal man. It also contains a lot of the tangible optimism of early N64 games, where devs experimented with the over-promised and under?-delivered hardware.

Pilotwings 64 is something I return to every so often because, like the original, it’s quiet and relaxing without sacrificing the challenge. I mean, I’ve played it so often that there’s very little challenge left for me, but?? it??’s not like it’s effortless and meaningless.

10. WWF No Mercy

It’s rarely disputed that the best era for wrestling games was exclusive during AKI’s tenure on the N64. And that’s not just because they hit during the Monday Night Wars. They first began with the WCW for a couple of titles before moving on to the WWF. And really, WWF: Wrestlemania 2000 was great in its own right, and WCW/NWO Revenge has “Macho Man�?Randy Savage in it. Personal preference might put either of those games here instead. Or even Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 if I was including N64 games.

But, for my money, I’d give it to WWF No Mercy by a healthy margin. The gameplay itself was at its most detailed while it took concepts like backstage brawling in a direction where it’s actually a lot of fun. When AKI moved to WWF, the WCW license moved to EA who made a game based entirely around backstage fighting, and it was complete trash. No Mercy effortlessly makes it worth experiencing.

It also had multiple story modes with branching moments based on how well you do. A person could get lost in the create-a-wrestler mode as they dream up their own wrestling narrative. And as anyone who was into wrestling at the time will tell you (I wasn’t, this is just what I was told), it was hard to bea?t the four-player modes.

9. Battletanx Global Assault

After the failure of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 3DO had to pivot hard to being a software company. And while they’re often associated with the maligned Army Men deluge of games, it’s easy to forget that they had a lot of talented staff on board. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the two Battletanx games that hit the system. The original game was already pretty great, but Global Assault took that?? and expanded on it in? every way possible.

Battletanx takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where gangs roam around in surprisingly abunda??nt tanks. You play as Griffin Spade, who leads his army across America and Europe to save his son. The story isn’t all that special, but the tank-on-tank fighting is hard to beat. Levels are almost entirely destructible, and you’re give??n a tonne of weapons to bring down the house. Nothing can quite beat the nuke, which is quite literally a nuclear bomb that levels most of the map, destroying or badly damaging everyone in the area with an explosion/shockwave combo that is visually impressive for the time.

If it’s not already abundantly clear, it’s not exactly a simulation take on warfare. The tanks run like they are fueled by Pixy Stix, and the main game?play mode is a variation of Capture the Flag where the flag is a woman. Incredible stuff.

8. Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is essentially the basis of how a platformer should work in 3D. The N64’s controller was more-or-less designed aro??und how Shigeru Miyamoto’s vision for how it should be done. Th??e result is something extremely ambitious, very experimental, and damned impressive. Also, it’s a bit unwieldy.

The early 3D days wer??e littered with the bodies of mascots from 2D games that weren’t able to make the transition. It makes sense Nintendo would want to have things perfect for their central character. In a bit of an abstract adventure, Mario jumps through the various paintings in Peach’s castle to collect stars that allow him to advance further. It’s a formula that would be adopted as the standard for collect-a-thon 3D platformers.

It’s a bit divisive nowadays, as later games, especially modern ones, have really ironed out some of the flaws in the game’s movement system and camera. Personally, I get the complaint, but I still find Super Mario 64 to be a lot of fun whenever I pop it in.

7. Beetle Adventure Racing

While you might be tempted to lump Beetle Adventure Racing with any later licensed advergame like, say, Ford Mustang: The Legend Lives, the developers clearly didn’t have hawking wares since the game ??they came? up with is a much more whimsical approach to driving. The fact that the central and only vehicle is a Volkswagen Beetle is completely secondary.

Beetle Adventure Racing is unique in the fact that its tracks are comprised of a circuit of braided shortcuts. Your success isn’t determined entirely by how well you can handle your wheels, but more in how willing you are to explore. A perfect r?un doesn’t come from perfect cornering but whether or not you can take advantage of each route through the track. Crates are scattered about the track, with nitro boosts to give you a kick of speed and points that can help you out by providing continues or unlocking stuff. In order to get all of them and stay supplied with nitro, you essentially need to follow a different route each time you circle the track.

There really isn’t anything like Beetle Adventure Racing, even ?today. It’s another demonstration that, in terms of arcade racing games, the N64 really was its own little ecosystem.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

We’ve established that Mario made the transfer to 3D unscathed, so the pressure was on for Zelda. For a long time leading up to its eventual release, Ocarina of Time was shown off as Zelda 64, and it had a very different look and feel. I kind of have to?? wonder what the early version felt like, but it clearly wasn’t good enough for the developers, so they made some big changes, and what we wound up?? with was worth it.

Ocarina of Time, in some ways, feels a lot like a remake of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Structurally, it’s very similar, with an initial set of intro dungeons before expanding to larger ones. However, its look and feel, as well as a greater focus on narrative, makes for a completely different beast.
Video games were becoming a lot grander at this point in time, and Ocarina of Time is a good example of this. There’s a heavy focus on atmosphere, with it even delving pretty close to horror at times. It??s soundtrack had the biggest impact on the series going forward, and ?it nailed down the last lingering standards of the formula. It was a big deal when it first released and is still worth playing today.

5. Star Fox 64

The on-rails shooter is a sub-genre that remains widely untapped. It’s bizarre to think that the best example of it is still the 1997 classic, Star Fox 64. While largely a re-do of the? SNES original, telling the same story but in greater detail, it manages to be a better realization of the concept while still being equally experimental.

Anyone ?who has played it probably has a bunch of favorite moments from the game. Was it when the train explosion made the rumble pack go ballistic? How about when Star Wolf appeared in their upgraded Wo??lfens? To top it off, if you had any extended experience with it, I bet there’s a tonne of voice lines burned into your brain that you can repeat pitch perfectly.

Nintendo has never really topped it, and unlike some other series in their pocket, they have trie?d. It's pretty sad when it looks like the series barely got off the runway, but maybe we just have to accept that it reached perfection quickly.

4. Ogre Battle 64

Ogre Battle on the SNES was a great game with a lot of problems. Its follow-up, Ogre Battle 64: A Person of Lordly Caliber, solved a lot of those problems, feeling more like a realization of the intended formula. The only problem is that the N64’s horrible gelatin blur makes the whole?? game look ugly. Not the art style, which is fantastic, it's mostly just the text?ures and the filtering over the sprites. Yeesh. If any game needs a remaster, it’s this one.

But it’s 60 hours of troop-?upgrading fun and semi-strategic combat. The back of the box says 50 hours, and it’s lying. The narrative is surprisingly deep, combining some groundedness with a healthy dash of whimsy. Building your perfect team of units is extremely engaging, and while the strategy isn't terribly deep, it's hard to pull away from.

3. F-Zero X

Have you ever truly appreciated what a fever dream F-Zero X is? The ridiculously fast speed that keeps you on the edge of control, bizarre aliens and robots piloting strange amalgams of metal and glass, foggy tracks hovering in the midst of nowhere. That’s to say nothing of the sound design here, which sounds like the outer limits of a concussion. F-Zero X is a legend. While the console follow-up �?F-Zero GX on GameCube �?ma??y have tightened up the gameplay, it also added an un??healthy dose of sanity. I prefer my racing games to be nauseatingly abstract.

F-Zero X established the series as one of the best racing games around, and it should be a gem in Nintendo's st... stable? However, it's only been recently that they suddenly seem aware that it even exists. Many of the games have made their way to the Nintendo Switch Online retro catalog, with F-Zero X being one of them, and F-Zero 99 is a successful, new-ish entry. It would just be nice if they gav?e it a proper return.

2. Banjo-Kazooie

The N64 was the best era for Rare, with the developer putting out a number of games that are close runners for this list. I consider Banjo-Kazooie the best for a number of reasons, but mostly because it’s as tight as cling-wrap. The controls are basically stolen wholesale from Super Mario 64 and presented in a less hyperactive manner. The?? variety is on point, and some fantastic pacing ensures there’s ??always something cool up ahead. Plus, Gruntilda is a fantastic omnipresent antagonist who taunts you all through her lair.

You may wonder why Banjo-Tooie isn’t here inst??ead (or anywhere on the list) since it did see a major reassessment a few years ago by some fans around the internet. I also reassessed it and found it to be a bloated sack of boredom. The best thing I can say about it is that Banjo makes the best noise when he takes a nap in his backpack. Other than that, it’s a slog.

But we're not talking about that. We're talking about Banjo-Kazooie, which is platforming perfection. Concise, but winding and varied. Full?? of personality. Absolutely joyful in every facet. It doesn't get much better.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Majora’s Mask is not just my pick for the best game on the N64; it’s one of my favorite titles of all time. While I love the Zelda series in general, Majora’s Mask transcends its kin. While its gameplay sticks largely to the established formula of overworld exploration and dungeon delving, it’s thematically dense. It presents a world gradually coming t??o terms with its imminent destruction, depicting characters that respond with anger, denial, sorrow, resignation, and even disassociation. Most of the world’s inhabitants don’t have many lines of dialogue, but each one encapsulates so much emotion.

As a person, Majora’s Mask added a dash of whimsy to my perception ??of death. It covers so many facets of this unifying experience and how we individually approach it. We’re always staring it down, constantly trying to find mea??ning, yet still, we hold onto our failures.

Hm? The gameplay? Oh, it’s good. I like t?he mountain area, especially.

The post Top 20 best N64 games of all time, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

At this rate, the priciest PS Plus subscription tier is a tough sell if you're not into cloud gaming

PlayStation Plus offers three subscription tiers—Essential, Extra, and Premium—and out of all of them, the middle option feels like the best value. As someone who treasures retro games, especially the ability to easily play them on?? modern hardware, I thought I'd be a regular Premium subscriber above all. But the initial wave of PS Plus Premium classics was sparse, and the rollout since then has been as incremental as folks had feared.

Sony's updates to its classic catalog have been disappointingly irregular, and whenever it has added old-school titles from the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable days, they typically haven't been the most exciting inclusions. To this day, many fan-favorite games that defined these consoles remain absent from the catalog, such as the original Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon trilogies.

Right now, it seems like most of the value of Premium is tied to the streaming-only PS3 classics and cloud gaming in general. Unfortunately for players like me who never g??ot into the PlayStation Now service, that's not a great deal—but it could be so much more enticing if the PS1, PS2, and PSP library did more heavy lifting.

For all of the backlash, I've slowly but surely come around on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack thanks to the N64, Sega Genesis, and DLC inclusions. I hope PS Plus Premium can step it up too; otherwise, I'll swap to the Extra tier?? when my sub runs out.

As more games join the service, I'll ??update this l??ist, including notes about any PS1 classics with trophies, or games that are exclusively playable with PS Plus Premium.

Classics included with PS Plus Premium

PS1 classics

Here are a??ll of the PS1 classics available on PS5:

• 2Xtreme ($9.99 standalone)
• Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare ($9.99 standalone)
• Ape Escape ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Cool Boarders ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Dino Crisis (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium) (*trophies*)
• Disney•Pixar Buzz Lightyear of Star Command ($5.99 standalone)
• Disney•Pixar Toy Story ?2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! ($5.99 standalone)
• Doom (1993) ($4.99 standalone)
• Doom 2 ($4.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Everybody's Golf ($9.99 standalone)
• Everybody's Golf 2 ($9.99 standalone)
• Grandia ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• G-Police ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Harvest Moon: Back to Nature ($5.99 standalone)
• Herc's Adventures ($4.99 standalone)
• Hot Shots Golf ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Hot Shots Golf 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• I.Q Intelligent Qube ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Jet Moto ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Jet Moto 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Jumping Flash! ($9.99 standalone)
• Kurushi Final: Mental Blocks ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• MediEvil ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Mr. Driller ($9.99 standalone)
• Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus ($4.99 standalone)
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee ($4.99 standalone)
• R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 ($9.99 standalone)
• Rally Cross ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Resident Evil Director's Cut (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
• Star Wars: Demolition ($4.99 standalone)
• Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace ($4.99 standalone)
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire ($4.99 standalone)
• Syphon Filter ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Syphon Filter 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Syphon Filter 3 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Tekken 2 ($9.99 standalone)
• The Legend of Dragoon ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Twisted Metal ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Twisted Metal 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Wild Arms ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Wild Arms 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Worms ($9.99 standalone)
• Worms Armageddon ($9.99 standalone)
• Worms World Party ($4.99 standalone)

PS2 classics

Here? are all of the PS2 classics available on PS5:

• Ape Escape 2 ($9.99 standalone)
• Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits ($14.99 standalone)
• Dark Cloud ($14.99 standalone)
• Dark Cloud 2 ($14.99 standalone)
• FantaVision ($9.99 standalone)
• Garou: Mark of the Wolves (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
• Ghosthunter ($9.99) *trophies*
• Hot Shots Tennis ($9.99 standalone)
• Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy ($14.99 standalone)
• Jak II ($14.99 standalone)
• Jak 3 ($14.99 standalone)
• Jak X: Combat Racing ($14.99 standalone)
• Kinetica ($9.99 standalone)
• Mister Mosquito ($9.99 standalone)
• Okage: Shadow King ($9.99 standalone)
• PaRappa The Rapper 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Primal ($9.99 standalone)
• Red Faction ($14.99 standalone)
• Red Faction II ($14.99 standalone)
• Rise of the Kasai ($14.99 standalone)
• Rogue Galaxy ($14.99 standalone)
• Siren ($9.99 standalone)
• SkyGunner ($9.99 standalone) *trophies*
• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time ($20.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter ($9.99 standalone)
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter ($9.99 standalone)
• Star Wars: Racer Revenge ($9.99 standalone)
• Summoner ($9.99)
• The Mark of Kri ($14.99 standalone)
• Tomb Raider: Legend ($19.99 standalone)
• TimeSplitters ($9.99 standalone)
• TimeSplitters 2 ($9.99 standalone)
• TimeSplitters: Future Perfect ($9.99 standalone)
• War of the Monsters ($9.99 standalone)
• Wild Arms 3 ($14.99 standalone)

PSP classics

Here are al??l of the PSP classics available on PS5:

• Ape Academy 2 ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies)
• Ape Escape Academy ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Ape Escape: On the Loose ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Daxter ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Disney•Pixar Up ($5.99 standalone)
• Echochrome ($9.99 standalone)
• Echoshift ($9.99 standalone)
• Gods Eater Burst ($9.99 standalone)
• Gravity Crash Portable ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Jeanne d'Arc ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Killzone: Liberation ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Kingdom of Paradise ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy ($14.99 standalone)
• LocoRoco Midnight Carnival ($9.99 standalone)
• MediEvil Resurrection ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• No Heroes Allowed! ($9.99 standalone)
• Pinball Heroes ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Pursuit Force ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Resistance: Retribution ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Ridge Racer 2 ($9.99 standalone)
• Secret Agent Clank ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny ($9.99 standalone)
• Super Stardust Portable ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
• Tekken 6 ($9.99 standalone)
• Thrillville ($9.99 standalone)
• Thrillville: Off the Rails ($9.99 standalone)
• Toy Story 3 ($9.99 standalone)

It's worth noting that some beloved games are included in the separate Remasters list on PlayStation Plus Premium. Notable examples include Patapon, Patapon 2, LocoRoco, LocoRoco 2, Toukiden: Kiwami, and Gravity Rush. So while it's a lot of various ne?wer remasters, there are gems that fit the "?classic" vibe of the PSP and Vita era.

As for PS3 games, again, they're streaming only on PS4 and PS5. There are way too many for me to list out and link �?sorry! But Tokyo Jungle and PixelJunk Monsters sure do rule.

The post All Games on PlayStation Plus Premium appeared first on Destructoid.

Atari has announced that they’ve acquired Chris Sawyers�?1994 DOS hit Transport Tycoon. That is to say, they’ve bought the property. Although, since the game is largely unavailable aside from the free OpenTTD fa?n source port, it would be a feat in itself to purchase it.

This is a move that makes sense. Atari already licenses Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Chris Sawyer has kept a working relationship with the company, even back when they were terrible, and even after a 2005 lawsuit. Atari recently bought a large portion of Microprose’s back catalog and is resurrecting the brand as a publishing label. It would make sense that they’d want Transport Tycoon, and that Chris Sawyer would be willing to sell it to t??hem.

I haven’t personally played Transport Tycoon, but I’m aware of its impact. I’m also aware of Chris Sawyer’s technical mastery in the �?0s. Guy’s a legend, but I mostly know him from Roller Coaster Tycoon and Frontier: First Encounters. I could also play OpenTTD, an open-source port of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, at any time since it’s available for free.

Speaking of OpenTTD being free, I have to wonder what Atari plans on doing with the property. The press release only says, “Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution, potentially develop new titles or content, and explore brand and merchandising collaborations as part of a long-term plan to preserve and expand this classic sim.�?Maybe they’ll work with the community to port OpenTTD to consoles (I highly doubt they’d try and hamper the fans working on it), or perhaps they’ll port the Saturn/PS1 version of it. One thing I do know for sure is that there will? probably be T??-shirts with a high probability of mugs and hats, as well.

Atari has done a lot to transform its image from a reviled publisher responsible for things like Asteroids: Outpost and Haunted House: Cryptic Graves to one that pays greater respect to its stable of IPs. They’ve bought up remaster houses Nightdive Studios and Digital Eclipse. As cynical as I am, their efforts seem very earnest. It all seems like way too much effort to just be in it for the money. Four years ago, I would have told you it would never happen, but here it is. Now we get to wait and see what they do with Transport Tycoon.

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Retro-Bit has announced that they’re dipping back into the Toaplan Genesis/Mega Drive well for another collection. The Toaplan Shooters Collection Volume 2 is ?a physical set of three Genesis/Mega Drive games by the lege??ndary developer.

The games included are Twin Cobra, Grind Stormer, and Slap Fight MD. All of which are among the best of Toaplan’s output, which puts them up there on the ladder of shoot-’em-ups in general. But while Toaplan is perhaps best remembered for their pioneering efforts in the bullet hell sub-genre, none of the included games have reached that point (Batsugun is sometimes considered the first). Nonetheless, they’re a set of somewhat weird scrolling shooters that are something of a rarity on Genesis. In fact, this will be the first time Slap Fight MD is being released in North America, and I’ll get to the reason why that’s pretty cool in ?a minute.

Twin Cobra is the game that I’m most familiar with. That’s mainly owed to the fact that it got an NES port, but it was hardly scarce on Genesis. It’s one of the developer’s seminal games and helped establish their approach to the genre. It’s a vertical shooter where you play as a helicopter and fight tanks and other modern military hardware. It always felt to me like a bit of a midpoint between 1942 and Raiden.

Grind Stormer is a pretty goofy name, which is too bad because in Japan it was called V-V. Now that I look at it, that looks like an emoji, but is actually supposed to be pronounced V-Five. It’s pretty intense, but is still a bit more subdued than a true bullet hell shooter. It loses a bit of its visual arcade splendor on Genesis, but it’s made up for by including two modes: one exclusive to consoles and another th??at sticks c?loser to the arcade version.

Finally, there’s Slap Fight MD, which is a name that never stops being funny to me. You might expect that this is another funny localization title, but no, that’s the original Japanese. It makes me think of something like Twinbee, with the titular character actually using its massive hands to slap enemies out of the air. Instead, it’s a 1986 vertical shooter where the main hook is being able to essentially overpower your ship. The Genesis version is particularly special, however, as it includes a sort of remake/remix mode. That’s cool enough, but Toaplan had Yuzo Koshiro contribute his take on the score. If you aren’t familiar, Yuzo Koshiro is a legendary composer responsible for the soundtracks of Streets of Rage, Beyond Oasis, and Actraiser. He’s actually working on a new Genesis shoot-’em-up right now, Earthion.

A few years ago, Retro-Bit released the first collection, which was a set of four games. That one included Truxton, Hellfire, Fire Shark, and Zero Wing. Unfortunately, they have stated that they won’t be producing another run of the first c??ollection to go alongside Volume 2. It’s a shame, since I missed it.

You can buy the games à la carte, or get the full collection with a slipcase, digital clock, interview with Masahiro Yuge, and a sheet of puffy stickers. Each one comes in a different translucent cartridge color and has a reversible slipcover. I’ve received a f?ew of Retro-Bit’s previous releases, and they’re very high quality with lavish attention to detail. Feels great in the hand and as expected ??in the console.

Pre-orders for Toaplan Shooters Collection Volume 2 start today and run until December 1st. If you miss the window, you’ll still be able to buy it from select retailers like Castlemania Games and Rondo Products.

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While the firs??t console I technically had in my household was an NES, the Super Nintendo came around when I was finally old enough to really appreciate them. So, the console is a familiar and dear friend. However, I’m more passionate about exploring? places that I haven’t been before.

Thankfully, the SNES has a large enough library that I’m still coming across worthwhile titles that I’ve missed. There are over 700 games in the SNES library, and that’s ju?st in North America and excluding Super Famicom exclusives. It’s hard to play all of them, and sometimes you kick over a rock and find something worth eating. I’ve kicked over a lot of rocks, so I’m here to point you at some of the juiciest grubs.

This list is not ranked. I’m just giving recommendations. I’m also only pulling from the North American library, so we’re excluding Super Famicom and PAL-only games. It’s also difficult to define what, exactly, is overlooked. Zombies Ate My Neighbors might be a staple to me, but others may say otherwise. So??, take it for what it is. If you haven’t played these games before, consider checking them out.

Demon’s Crest

Demon’s Crest is one of my favorite games on the SNES, but I only found out about it a few years ago while following the Gargoyle’s Quest trail. But while Demon’s Crest retains quite a bit from the previous Gargoyle’s Quest games, it’s in a league of its own.

The Gargoyle’s Quest series is a spin-off of Ghost n�?Ghouls starring one of the most vexing enemies in those games, Red Arremer (or Firebrand). It started out on Game Boy with its sequel on NES, but those games had more of an adorable cartoon style laced with horror. Demon’s Crest is all horror. It looks more similar to Super Castlevania IV than anything else in its own series.

You also get to play as a certifiable badass. You start?? with most of the skills from the previous g??ames and then build upon that foundation. That doesn’t make the game easy, but it does make the character feel incredibly powerful. It helps that other demons you run into react with either respect or straight-up fear.

S.O.S.

The absolute opposite of a power fantasy, you’d think S.O.S. (Septentrion in Japan) came out in the wake of the film Titanic rather than four years b?efore it. You play as one of a ?few characters who are on board the luxury liner “Lady Crithania�?when it gets caught in a storm and capsized. Your goal is to make it off the ship while saving as many people as possible.

The problem is, the characters you play aren’t action heroes. They’re regular people, so the game controls a lot closer to Prince of Persia than a standard platformer. The characters are slow and cumbersome, and If you fa?ll too far, you might lose consciousness or outright die. The game proceeds on a progressive clock, and as the minutes tick by, the ship begins to roll and tilt, completely changing how you navigate the ship. 

It’s not something you’ll complete on your first try; it’s going to take many failures before you figure out the best way to get around. Even then, your next challenge is getting as many of the daft passengers to the exit with you, and they are hardly reliable on their own. This can make S.O.S. very u??ncomfortable to play. Frustrating even. Especially since the music is like the soundtrack to a panic attack. However, you won’t find anything quite like it, either on the SNES or beyond.

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

While Tactics Ogre still loves on through occasional remasters, the classic Ogre Battle style of strategy games hasn’t seen much action in a long time. It all started here on the SNES with Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen.

These games are a strange ?mix of strategy and RPG. Essentially, you build your party, then send them out to various strategic locations to either attack or defend against the enemies. You work to recruit new, more powerful units into your army while building and upgrading the ones you hav??e. All this is presented against vibrant Mode-7 landscapes with a terrific soundtrack.

The main downside is that it’s extremely easy to cheese your way through most levels. There’s also an extremely obtuse alignment system for characters that is very poorly explained but has a massiv??e impact on what ending you ge?t.

Uniracers

Aside from, say, Super Mario Kart, the SNES isn’t exactly known for its racing games. Uniracers took a pretty distinct direction by being a completely sidescrolling racer. But holding a direction until you reach the finish line would be pretty boring, so it th??row?s in half-loops and half-pipes that force you to adjust your one-wheeled mode of transportation for a safe landing. On top of that, stunts are how you gain speed, so you need to be always flipping and twisting if you want to win.

It’s an intense game, featuring crazy-??fast abstract graphics and a pretty kicking soundtrack. There’s two-player split-screen if you want to see who�??�s better at keeping their wheel under them. I just want to know how my mother set such a record time on the first course. That shouldn’t be possible.

Metal Warriors

I feel like Cybernator/Assault Suits Valken deserves a mention in this list, so there it is. I’ve talked so much about it at this point that I need a breather. Instead, I’ll give it to Metal Warriors, which isn’t a sequel to Cybernator and is??n’t even by the same developer, but you’d swear it was. It features the same stompy robot action and careful aiming. It’s a real “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery�?situation. Only thi??s time, the robots are hot rod red, and you can get out of them.

Metal Warriors comes from many of the devs who worked on Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The two games are in completely different ballparks, but they both feature interesting and detailed art design. T??here’s also no HUD, which is a unique thing to see in an SNES game.

Unfortunately, this one either didn’t sell well, or just wasn’t marketed very hard by Konami. Cartridges are pretty scarce to come by and?? command a ridiculously high price. I have high hopes that a port comes to modern consoles.

Shadowrun

Based on the tabletop RPG of the same name, there are actually two versions of Shadowrun: One on the SNES and another on Genesis/Mega Drive. They’re completely different, with the Genesis version sticking closer to the rules of the TTRPG and the SNES taking a page from the novel Never Deal with a Dragon.

You play as Jake Armitage, who kicks out of his own morgue slab to figure out what’s going down in the cyberpunk future of Seattle. Shadowrun’s big hook is that it’s essentially Bladerunner mixed with The Lord of the Rings. So, it’s a ?grim, corporate-dominated future, but there are also elves, dwarves, magic, and dragons.

What I absolutely love about the SNES Shadowrun is its atmosphere. It doesn’t entirely get the cyberpunk feel across, but it does capture the isolated feeling of walking the streets on a summer night. This is helped through the terrific use of its color palette and an incredible soundtrack by Marshall Parker. It’s wort??h checking out, even if its mouse interface is pretty cumbersome.

Batman Returns

Batman Returns got a game on many different platforms, and most of them are different. The SNES version is a pretty incredible beat-’em-up by Konami. It’s (mostly) a conveyor belt brawler where you walk the festive s??treets of Gotham, beating the cotton cand??y out of clowns. You can pick them up and smash them against the scenery or even each other.

It does a great job of capturing the feel of the movie. It even features the score by Dan Elfman. But it’s the amazing physicality of Batman Returns that makes it worth playing.

Nosferatu

I often forget that Nosferatu was even released in North America. Forget that the name makes it sound like a clone of Castlevania, Nosferatu plays more like a cross between Prince of Persia and a brawler. You play as a guy trying to rescue his girlfriend from a vampire. To do so, he doesn’t come equipped with crosses, stakes, or garlic. His only tools in the fight against evil are his two friends: Left? fist and right fist. That joke would be funnier if I could just say “left and right�?while raising my fists to illustrate, but since this is text, I had to make do.

Anyway, Nosferatu will really test you. Not just your ability to throw hands but also your reflexes and puzzle-solving skills. Like Prince of Persia, there’s a whole lot of instant death around, so if you want to make it to the big bad guy and feed him ?his teeth, you’ll need some skills to pay the bills.

Pocky & Rocky

Technically, Pocky & Rocky is a sequel to Taito’s 1986 arcade game, Kiki Kaikai, but Natsume took the core idea of it and went its own way. It’s a top-down run-and-gun, not unlike Ikari Warriors. Here, however, you play as a Shinto shrine maiden, Pocky, and her tanuki (not actually a raccoon) friend, Rocky. ?Pocky slings ofuda card??s while Rocky throws leaves at terrifying velocity. 

Beyond just dealing death with projectiles, both characters can do a sweep in front of them that deflects projectiles and can also dive to get out of t?he way of danger. The art style is cute, with squat characters, amazing bosses, and detailed environments. But while the graphics are cute �?and even occasionally serene �?the action can get very intense. It is extremely fast-paced and gets pretty difficult toward the end.

A sequel by Natsume came out not long after. However, while a lot of the strength??s of the first game are retained, slight changes �?especially to the co-op multiplayer �?make it? a bit weaker overall. Still worth checking out if you get the chance.

Wild Guns

Speaking of Natsume, another one of their absolute bangers on the SNES is Wild Guns. It’s also a shooter, but this time, it’s a Cabal-styled gal?lery shooter. You move your character in the foreground to dodge incoming shots while shooting into the background. However, Natsume hit on an incredible concept for its t??ake on the sub-genre: Cowboys in space.

Yeah, you choose from a pair of rootin�? tootin�? and also shootin�?cowfolk and unleash death on various hired thugs and robots. There’s some sort of True Grit-style revenge plot mi?xed in there, but it’s not important. You just have to keep blasting.

Like Pocky & Rocky, this sugar-powered gameplay is captured with vibrant, detailed art. The backgrounds get wrecked by every shot that you miss, and the animations are packed with personality. Also, like Pocky & Rocky, you can take it on with a friend, whic?h just adds to the fun.

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The Game Boy Color wasn’t exactly the best platform for horror unless you count, like, Resident Evil Gaiden and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. Anyway, now’s a good time to get into some indie Game Boy Color horror, like what’s packed into the Metamorphosis Collection. You can even get a physical cartridge if you’re into that sort of thing (?I am).

The three games included are Opossum Country, Decline, and Specimen 134, all by Ben Jelter. Two of these games, Opossum Country and Decline are available already on itch.io, so you can play them right now for free. They were created for game jams. Specimen 134, on the other hand, is a completely new game. It’s also supposedly a lot longer than the other two. Howeve??r, there ??is a demo of it that you can try.

I’ve played Decline and Opossum Country. They’re creepy short-form adventure titles. Decline is about a police detective on the verge of retirement solving a supernatural mystery. Opossum Country, on t??he other hand, is about a gig food delivery person riding up to a creepy trailer park full of evasive pe??ople.

A lot of development for Nintendo’s old handheld platform has been spurred by GB Studio, a development suite that makes creating games on the platform a lot more accessible. It’s pretty neat. I’ve only done a bit of dabbling in it, but it seems pretty intuitive and simple to use. It’s resulted in some interestingly designed games that wouldn’t have been marketable during the handheld�??�s life, giving the platform new life.

For Metamorphosis Collection. You can get the digital version for $13.99. But the real fun is with the physical cartridge, which comes with a box, instruct??ions, and a sticker sheet for $59.99. If you order b?efore Hallowe’en, you’ll get a translucent blood-red cartridge instead of the usual smokey black. Either way, it’s pretty neat. I’m on the verge of pulling the trigger on a purchase.

Preorders for Metamorphosis Collection are open now, and physical editions will ship later in Nove??mber.

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A few months ago, Argonaut Games announced a new remastered version of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, one of the most beloved 3D platformers on the original PlayStation. Since then, the studio has been constantly posting updates on its official Twitter/X account.

But one of Argonaut Games' most recent posts revealed a fascinating new piece of information about the development process of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos: Croc was at one point going to be a d??ragon instead of a crocodile. But that's not the full story.

Argonaut Games will include an Encyclopedia (or "Crocipedi??a") in the new remaster, which will feature never-before-?seen concept art that the studio discovered after its recent rebirth. It already revealed drawings and test animations of Croc as a small, anthropomorphized dragon with wings from December 1996.

Considering that the animations look almost completed and that Croc: Legend of the Gobbos came out less than a year later, it's most likely that this old version of the character got pretty far into development. Curiously enough, Spyro the Dragon, another classic PS1 platforming game starring a smal??l dragon?, came out in September 1998, which explains why Argonaut Games made a tongue-in-cheek reference to him in its original post.

And before that, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was going to be a Yoshi game

Remarkably, this wasn't even the first prototype version of Croc that the studio scrapped before the release of the game. Back in the early 90s, Argonaut Games had a close relationship with Nintendo after it helped develop the original Star Fox for the SNES. At one point, the studio crea??ted a concept for a brand-new 3D platformer starring Yoshi and?? pitched it. As impressive as it was, Nintendo didn't want to let another company use its IP (not to mention that it was already working on Super Mario 64 at this point), so it rejected the concept, even though the pitch had apparently impress?ed Shigeru Miyamoto himself.

This rejection and the cancellation of the almost completed Star Fox 2 marked the end of the partnership between Argonaut Games and Nintendo. Not wanting to let go of this brilliant concept, the studio repurposed its rejected Yoshi 3D platformer, transformed it into Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and released it on the PlayStation 1. So now we all know that Croc was originally going to be Yoshi, and he was later turned into a dragon before ending up as the adorable crocodile we all know ??and love.

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For quite a long time after obtaining the console, Killing Time was the only game I owned on my 3DO Inter?active Multiplayer. I started it up, played for maybe 20 minutes, and then decided I’d probably be better off with ??the PC version. I wasn’t entirely correct on that.

I didn’t even get around to playing the PC version, but I learned with the announcement of Killing Time: Resurrected that there are stark differences between the two versions. The 3DO version had digitized sprites of actors as enemies, while the PC version swapped them out for 3D renders, which�?well, I wouldn’t say they’re worse, but you lose some of that 1995 charm, which Killing Time is packed with.

Nightdive is easily the best developer to take on a remaster of Killing Time. They’re probably also the only people that would. They’ve proven very adept at updating games while keeping the original vision intact. And gosh, Killing Time has a vision.

Killing Time: Resurrected (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch)
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Studio 3DO
Publisher: Nightdive Studios, Ziggurat
Released: October 17, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

It took me about four-and-a-half hours for me to hit the end of Killing Time: Resurrected. I started it late in the evening and finished it early in the morning, all in one sitting. I didn’t intend to. I wasn’t?? expecting to. But once it got its hooks into me, I was determined.

Killing Time was first released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1995. For context, this was the year before Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, but you’d hardly believe it. Okay, that’s a bit disingenuous. Much of Killing Time: Resurrected is based on the 1996 PC port, which fits in ?more with the tim?e period. 

The map was entirely redone on PC, and the makeover was both substantial and phenomenal. While elements of the 3DO version were retained, the PC version has convincing? room-over-room, much better verticality, and more realistic dimensions. In some ways, I wish you could choose between the 3DO and PC versions of the world, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone would prefer the former.

On the other hand, the monster sprites were much better. As I mentioned, the 3DO version used digitized actors, which gives it a whiff of the FMV era. Nightdive chose the actors, making Killing Time: Resurrected the absolute best of both worlds.

As is typical with Nightdive remasters, everything was moved over to their proprietary KEX Engine. Lighting was redone, mouselook was added, and textures and sprites were upgraded. The latter change is the most impressive. The team had access to the original photographs of the actors to build off of, while the PC monsters and textures were upgraded?? largely by hand.

The actors in their weird costumes clash against the environments, giving them a surreal “off�?quality. You can practically smell the green sc??reen on them. But had Nightdi?ve somehow lost the off-ness of it, they would have also lost a lot of the charm.

Every so often, as you explore, you find little ghosts on the ground. As you approach, they’ll load a video of two ghosts acting out a scene from the past. FPS games of the �?0s had a great deal of difficulty telling stories right up until Half-Life established the formula. Killing Time’s attempt is actually quite effective. You pick up bits and pieces of?? the story �?not necessarily in a chronological fashion. Through those scenes, you get a complete picture of what went down at the Conway Estate.

You play as some dude who arrives on Matinicus Island in pursuit of an Egyptian water clock. You quickly find that the island is overrun by duck hunters and clowns. It’s bizarre. Tess Conway loved to party, so all her friends were over when everyone suddenly disappeared back in the 1930s. There are actual expl??anations for why there are so many clowns and why an endless supp?ly of ammunition is scattered across the island. As ridiculous as the narrative is, someone thought long and hard about how to do it.

What amazes me about Killing Time: Resurrected is that it’s a non-linear world you explore, but it very much follows the key-hunt FPS formula set by Wolfenstein 3D.? It’s just done using a single level on a much larger s?cale.

The world design is an incredible flex. Despite relying so heavily on exploration, there’s about as much action as you’d expect from something like Doom. When I said there are a lot of duck hunters and clowns, I mean a lot of duck hunters and clowns. As you travel the estate, you’re constantly mowing them down in droves, dealing death to whole circuses of entertainers. To enable your rampage, the game dumps ammo on you constantly. It’s possible to run out of buckshot, but that just means you switch to your Tommy Gun. ?There’s no shortage of gun food on the island.

This kind of sucked on the choppy 3DO version, but with the added mouselook, you can take on your opponents like any Doomguy or Nukem. Enemies stay dead regardless of where you go on the island, so you can completely lay waste to the housekeeping staff and clear the area. There’s very little backtracking to begin with, but not havi??ng to wade back through enemies makes it even more tolerable. It also has the added side-effect of laying the groundwork for the climax.

Since my previous experience with Killing Time was a somewhat disappointing dalliance with the 3DO version, I was unprepared for how much I would enjoy the game. I knew it wasn’t going to be another PO’ed, but I was??n’t expecting it to be in bingeworthy territory. I ate through it, consistently entertained by the weird aesthetic and amazed by the excellent level design. Damn.

This might be Nightdive’s most important remaster. While the developer has helped polish up already popular games like Quake and System Shock, Killing Time benefits far more from their tender touch. It was already great, but this remaster makes it easier to digest. It really brings out its highlights, allowing the whole thing to shine a lot brighter. If you have never explored Matinicus Island, Killing Time: Resurrected is easily ?the best way to do so, and it�??�s high time you did.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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8BitDo has announced that their N64 wireless controller, the �?BitDo 64 Controller,�?will be up for preorder October 21, 2024. This comes alongside Analogue’s announcement that the?? Analogue 3D will open preorders at the same time.

Personally, I like the classic, awkward feel of the original N64 controller. Rumors of it being uncomfortable are unfounded by anyone who knows how to hold it properly. The stick is garbage, but I’ve long since replaced them (recently, with 8BitDo’s own Hall Effect N64 sticks). However, most games were built with its?? form f??actor in mind.

However, if you don’t dig the classic T-Rex foot, then you may want to check out 8BitDo’s take on the controller. It has an appearanc?e not far off from their Ultimate Controller but with face buttons that better emulate the N64. Uh, I don’t see where the Z-button is. Is it a trigger on the back like it ??was on the original controller, or is it a second shoulder button?

No matter, the rest of the look is there. There are six face buttons (aside from Start, Select (-), home, and wildcard), which means that games that use the C-buttons won’t feel as awkward. There’s also a convex joystick with those weird circular ridges in the middle and a big fat start button. The placement of the joystick and d-pad will make the rare games that had controller modes using the left and central handgrips, but those were very rare, and I thi?nk tha??t control mode was always optional.

It’s also not far off from RetroFighters�?Brawler64 controller. I wasn’t a fan of those controllers because the stick on the one I had abruptly stopped working on me. I question the build quality because there was an obvious glob-top visible on the circuit board through the translucent plastic. I have more faith in 8BitDo, but there is one issue with their take: it comes in white and black, and none of the face bu??ttons have color. At least the Brawler64 controllers were color-matched to the N64’s lineup.

8BitDo’s controllers were made specifically for the purpose of Analogue’s upcoming Analogue 3D console; an FPGA recreation of the N64. As such, it's wireless, which unfortunately means that it’s not compatible with the N64 without a Bluetooth receiver. More unfortunately is the fact that 8BitDo has yet to release an N64 receive??r of their own, with their most recent being for the GameCube. Maybe there will be an announcement of one following the release of this controller, but I don’t know. I don’t have that information. I don’t even know where the Z-button is.

What I do know is that preorders for the 8BitDo 64 Contro?ller open on October 21, 2024. They will run?? for $39.99 USD. No word on an estimated shipping date.

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Analogue has announced that their FPGA N64 con??sole, the Analogue 3D, will be up for preorder starting October 21, 2024.

The N64 is one of my favorite consoles, and yes, I’m absol??utely aware of all its shortcomings. It may not have the impressive library of the PS1, and all its games have a blurriness to them, like your eyeballs were just hosed down with chlorine, but�?uh, listen, I don’t need to explain my affections to you, I j??ust love the console.

Unfortunately, it looks horrid on modern displays, even if you’ve gone to the lengths I have to boost it RGB output and put it through a fancy upscaler. So, if you want the best possible picture, the Analogue 3D might be?? for you. It outputs through HDMI with support for up to 4K resolution. That’s upscaled resolution, mind you, so the picture is just stretched from it?s original 240-480i resolution. It’ll still look ugly on modern displays, which is why Analogue has built CRT filters into the OS. That way, you can hide the blurriness behind grill lines and simulated phosphor glow.

It’s also region-free. Technically, so was the N64, but regional cartridges wouldn’t fit in other regions, so it was region-locked by form factor, but there was ??an easy workaround to this. It supports both the original N64 controllers as well as bluetooth controllers like 8BitDo’s wireless N64 gamepad. It has built-in wi-fi for some reason, but I assume i??t’s for updates and general tinkering.

Perhaps the most important feature is the fact that it’s FPGA hardware emulation rather than typical software emulation. The N64 is notoriously difficult to emulate, so even the best emulators typically have compatibility issues. FPGA means that all software should be compatible and work exactly as it originally did. It boasts absolutely no graphical or audio glitches and no input lag. It also says there are no frame rate problems, but I’m assuming that means no additional frame rate problems since your typical N64 game struggles in terms of FPS. Just try Perfect Dark as it was originally released.

The price is set at $249.99. I don’t think that’s too terrible. It’s maybe more than you’d want to spend if you just want to dabble in the N64 library, but if you’re any sort of enthusiast and the idea ??of an FPGA-enabled reproduction interests you, you could do a lot worse.

For me, I’m not sure. As I said, I have my N64 modified for RGB output, and I put it through a Retrotink 4K upscaler, which has CRT filters already. However, if you want to do the same, it’s much more expensive than an Analogue 3D. If you just want to replace your composite N64, this is a much better prospect. I still see value in t??he Analogue 3D, even in my setup, but not enough to justify the cost.

Preorders for the Analogue 3D open on October 21, 2024. I don’t see an estimated shipping time, but I will upd??ate this article if it gets clarified soon.

The post Preorders open next week for the Analogue’s FPGA powered N64 recreation appeared first on Destructoid.

Pinball has a visual style all of its own, a tangible reality that most interactive entertainment fails to capture. And while the past few decades have seen the release of hundreds of great-looking, great-sounding, and completely?? compelling games, some examples stand out in the memory of the pinball community more than others. They might not necessaril??y be the best games, but they are the embodiment of the pinball age at its most lucrative. Stalwarts of the genre. Masters of design. Icons.

The past few decades have seen the release of hundreds of great-looking, great-sounding, and completely compelling pinball machines. However, some stand out more t?han others. Here are 18 of the most iconic pinball machines of all time. Take your Skill Shot.

The most iconic pinball machines of all time you absolutely must play at least once

Below, we've listed w?hat we believe are the 18 most iconic pinball machines of all time. While your tastes may vary, these ones stick out to us above all others for the reasons we've described?.

20. Super Mario (1992)

Mario helped put arcades on the map in the 1980s, so it only makes sense that Nintendo would strike while the iron? was hot when pinball made a massive comeback in the 1990s. The red-capped plumber turns almost any game he's in into an instant classic, and the same holds for this simple but endlessly amusing pinball cabinet.

This cabinet is a love letter to Mario fans, ri?ght down to reusing many of the original game's sound effects. A spinning Pirahna Plant watches as you try to shoot your balls into the Warp Pipe and tag the Bowser flag in the top-right corner. This game isn't that deep, but its colorful charm more than makes up for that.

19. Dirty Harry (1995)

Much more than an elusive Clint Eastwood fan collectible, this pinball machine has some quirks that set it apart from anything else you'll have played. Named after Eastwood's iconic character, Dirty Harry boasts some nostalgic elements that transport you back in time while you play. Staring at it brings back memories of hard plastic toy replicas of every movie?? that hit theatres, the kind of stuff you just can't get these days.

Maybe the best part of the Dirty Harry pinball machine is the moving .44 magnum replica that can and will shoot pinballs at targets, the ramp, and the sinkhole. That unique part makes this one of the best pinball machines of all time? for us because there aren't many you can point to and say you remember them for such a specific reason.

18. Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (2018)

The fact that Iron Maiden has a pinball machine is no surprise, is it? The band has everything else, from its own brand of beer to skins in Dead by Daylight, so this ma??chine makes a lot of sense. What we do find surprising is t??hat his 2018 machine is actually a sequel to one Stern released around 1985.

Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast builds upon the band's mobile game of the same name, in which its mascot, Eddie, battles The Beast. The main reason to play is for the stunning artwork? because the game modes seem to be pretty standard. Of course, they're Iron Maiden's level of ??standard, which kicks them up a notch.

17. Godzilla (2021)

Stern's 2021 masterpiece, Godzilla Pro Pinball, packs in a meaty storyline worthy of the modern Monarch timeline. Evil aliens known ??as the Xilians have mind-controlled King Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, Ebirah, and Titanosaurus and are destroying the world using their immense powers. Players use Godzilla and its allies, Mothra, Rodan, and Anguirus, to fight back against this threat and ultimately annihilate Mechagodzilla.

This one is something special, with the limited edition ?featuring a functionally collapsing skyscraper that will capture three balls and send them through every floor as it crashes down. Multiballs are a bit of a nightmare to keep track of, but they feel thematically accurate here because you're trying to cause as much chaos and destruction as humanly possible in a pinball machine.

As if the iconic Godzilla theme was?n't enough, the machine also plays the track, Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult just to r??eally ham things up. We can't imagine a better pinball machine for fans of the radioactive lizard and his ensemble cast of misfit monsters.

16. Cirqus Voltaire (1997)

Considered one of the last icons of pinball's golden '90s era, Bally/Williams Cirqus Voltaire is one of the most colorful, vibrant, and visually ambitious games of all time, as the player pushes through the various acts of an electric, arthouse circus �?Its unique aesthetic is reflected in its psychedelic playfield, and bolstered by bright neon lighting, ethereal sound, and fluorescent tubing built into the ramps. CV i??s also well-remembered for its sinister "Ringmaster", a mischievous head that rises and falls to taunt the player.

15. Black Knight 2000 (1989)

The direct sequel to the more modest 1980 release, Black Knight, pinball veteran Steve Ritchie's Black Knight 2000 supercharged the follow-up with faster gameplay, an electrifying visual design, a totally radical dude 'late-'80s aesthetic, and, most notably of all, a blaring banger of a theme song, written by Brian Schmidt and powerful enough to drown out the sounds of every other machine in the arcade. When someone was playing BK 2000, you knew about it, bub.

"YOU GOT THE POWER! GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!"

A machine that embodies the hedonism and raucous nature of the 1980s, BK 2000 is almost twee when viewed by modern eyes. But, make no mistake about it, no pinball machine was more determined to make you, and everybody else, sit up and take notice. Oh, and it was also hard as nails to boot. An incredible three decades later, the sequel Black Knight: Sword of Rage would follow.

14. Scared Stiff (1996)

Scared Stiff is the second of three pinball machines starring The Mistress of the Dark, Elvira. While we personally prefer 1989's Elvira & the Party Monsters, (and we're sadly yet to play 2019's Elvira's House of Horrors), Scared Stiff is the most commonly found of the three games. Featuring the look and vibe of her iconic TV show, Scared Stiff features comic-book gore, a backglass "Spider Spinner" and plenty of callouts recorded by the great woman herself. Gameplay is a tad on the easy side, but SS is a much-loved machine within the community??, and a great bookmark for modern pinball's "middle era".

13. Xenon (1980)

Released in 1980, Xenon is a stunning and truly iconic trendsetter for the d?ecade to come, wonderfully stylized in the fonts, colors, and architecture that would typify the following years. Not just in pinball but in all forms of new-wave fashion, music??, art, and culture.

Xenon features a future-noir silver/blue color scheme, electronic music, a litany of dazzling lights, and the sultry, beckoning voice of composer/sound designer Suzanna Ciani, who entices the player with flirtatious callouts and �?let's just call it what it is �?"orgasmic" sound effects. Xenon defined a new era for pinball, which would step away from the bells, chimes, and rootin?' tootin' cowboy themes of yore, to be replaced with an era of solid-state sou??nd, sci-fi, and sex.

12. Monster Bash (1998)

One of the most popular machines in the collector's community, Williams' Monster Bash takes the Universal Monsters, (Frankenstein, The Bride, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and The Creature from the Black L??????????????????????????agoon), and reimagines them as a retired rock band, who are digging themselves out of the grave for a reunion tour. It's up to you to get the band back together and back on stage.

Monster Bash is surprisingly straightforward, gameplay-wise, but is hugely popular due to its cast of characters, fun dot-matrix animations, and amusing playfield features. These include Frankenstein's revolving lab table and a ball-stalking Count Dracula. Some of the music tracks, (but not the great main hook), are a little cheesy to modern ears, but Monster Bash's overall concept is great fun, and the ??machine sits proudly in many a collection.

Unive?rsal should've based The Dark Univers??e on this.

11. Centaur (1981)

Arguably the most Heavy Metal pinball machine ever made, Bally's Centaur is in a class of its own where visual design is concerned. Styled almost entirely in black & white, the Centaur playfield is one from which no color will ever escape and is intricately detailed with the dark, comic-book artwork of Paul Faris. Centaur recalls an era of horror comics, Dungeons & Dragons, and the parent-bothering "Satanic Panic" ??that would tear throughout the 1980s.

The "half monster-half motorbike creature" is, quite frankly, funny "af" today, but even that staple of metal cheese just adds to the machine's perfect "time capsule" of the dawning 1980s. A well-maintained Centaur stands today as a thing of beauty.

If pinball did drugs, then Centaur is a cabinet of whiskey and coke.

10. The Machine: Bride of Pinbot (1991)

While 1986's Pin-Bot is undoubtedly one of the most beloved classics of the pinball era, its 1991 sequel The Machine, (more commonly known as "Bride of Pin-Bot"), is pinball royalty. The Machine has the player attempt to build a robotic waifu for our boy Pin-Bot. The construction is presented as an epic event, and The Bride comes to life with a soothing and flirtatious voice (ala Xenon), as well as a wonderful sequence where the entire playfield shuts down, The Bride's birth represented by an? evocative "heartbeat" light sho?w.

The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot is perhaps the shallowest of the Pin-Bot trilogy (1997's Jack-Bot eventually followed it), but The Machine's knack for special effects and st?orytelling made it an incredible smash hit on release, becoming one of the first "Must-Play" pinball machines of the '90s renaissance.

9. Medieval Madness (1997)

Easily the most popular and recognized of pinball's latter-day period, Williams' Medieval Madness is something of a Crown Jewel within the collections of those able to afford it. And it's quite easy to see why, with its intricately detailed playfield, physical models and effects, and galley of hugely satisfying shots. The audio package features amusing callouts, including Monty Python-?esque comedy, and a rost??er of fun allies and enemies.

Whether smashing castles, bashing trolls, defeating dragons, or rescuing damsels, Medieval Madness is a fast-playing, hugely gratifying game, and the ideal title to put in front of a newcomer to help them understand why pinball is so compelling. For these and other reasons, Medieval Madness is also one of the most expensive machines on the market, with original '97 models usually trading well into five figures. No wonder it's co??nsi?dered a rich man's pastime.

8. The Simpsons: Pinball Party (2003)

Are you really surprised that The Simpsons has its own pinball machine? America's most dysfunctional family is infamous in arcade circles for inspiring one of the most addictive beat-em-up machines ever made, but they're also the theme of not one but two colorful, melodious pinball machines. The original The Simpons pinball machine is well-regarded, but The Simpons: Pinball Party is legendary.

Moving parts fill the playfield of this cabinet, and all of them are charming references to the Simpsons' iconic home, including a couch you can load your multi-balls into and a bashable garage door you can use to get to the upper floor. The real selling point here, though, is the shockingly complex rule set. The Simpons: Pinball Party lets you stack up multi-balls and bonus rounds like you wouldn't believe, and only? an elite few pinball wizards have ever?? activated the cabinet's Super Duper Mega Extreme Wizard Mode.

If this section gives any aspiring pinball enthusiasts any id?eas, good luck.

7. Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (1993)

In the early '90s Williams' went hard on licensed titles, often to great effect. A great example of this model is 1993's Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure. This "widebody" game, (around five inches wider than the standard pinball dimensions), is a celebration of the original Indiana Jones film trilogy, and features characters and modes inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade.

The playfield features numerous physical effects, including moving idols, a rotating temple gate, a revolver shooter, and a World War biplane. Powerful new DCS sound technology allows for great replications of the famous theme tune, along with voice samples from characters such as Indy, Indy Sr, Marion, Short Round, Willie, and Sallah. Still, today, Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is one of the very best licensed games.

A second Indiana Jones game was released b??y Stern in 2008.

6. FunHouse (1990)

FunHouse truly turned heads upon its 1990 release. As pinball entered a transition period from early solid state and alphanumeric titles into a new world of gimmicks, games within games, and bold ideas, FunHouse became instantly iconic thanks to the disembodied head of mechanical carnival barker, Rudy, who taunts the player, offers hints, and even swallows balls! (behave). Fun fact: Rudy is voiced by Ed Boon, who was a Williams employee and would soon co-create the Mortal Kombat franchise.

FunHouse is perhaps the quintessential pinball game. It's fast and fluid, it's loud and colorful, it's compelling and frustrating, and it's one of the final titles that pushed the then-limitations of the market to the brink, right before the launch of a bold era of technically superior, highly polished, licensed ??games.

5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

One of the most popular games devised by pinball designer Steve Ritchie, (also the original voice of Mortal Kombat's Shao Kahn), Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a part of the then unheard-of billion-dollar marketing drive for James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster. As a typical Ritchie title, Terminator 2: Judgment Day features high-speed gameplay with a heavy emphasis on complex?? combo shots.

T2 features numerous firsts: It is the first pinball machine to feature a button-activated auto-launcher, it was also the first game designed with a Dot-Matrix Display (DMD), and to feature a built-in mini-game, as players use the shooter to blast approaching T-800s on the DMD. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is far from the best game on this list, but it was very widely distributed among arcade centers, and, as such, is remembered by even the most casual of arcad??e attendees today.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, als??o designed by Ritchie??, was released by Stern in 2003.

4. Gorgar (1979)

While the oldest and arguably most simplistic title of this list, Williams' Gorgar perhaps embodies the identity and culture of pinball more than any of the other games. The storyline sees the player battling the titular demon in an apocalyptic showdown, and the playfield is emblazoned in heavy metal iconography, parent-bothering themes, lurid horror-comic artwork, and half-naked humans, all while offering ??a brutal, quarter-munc??hing challenge.

Gorgar was the first pinball machine to utilize synthesized speech, with a seven-word vocabulary that forms crude sentences. Gorgar eschews music in exchange for a constant pulsing "heartbeat", which adds to the game's unholy appeal. The kind of pinball machine that would likely appear on '80s news broadcasts as "encouraging devil worship", Gorgar's rudimentary gameplay only add?s to its old-school ?charm.

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993)

Williams' Star Trek: The Next Generation might have hit the scene during the show's twilight years, but that didn't stop fans from flocking to its huge, stunningly designed cabinet. Another "widebody" title, Star Trek: TNG took an age to come to fruition, with the design team having to almost move the stars themselves in order to score the license from Paramount �?reportedly bagged on the insistence that the game's action upholds "The Prime Directive".

ST: TNG is not only a great-looking game, but it is packed with tricky shots, satisfying combos, a Borg Multiball, and a bevy of challenging missions, culminating in a "Final Frontier" endgame. Seven original cast members recorded new dialogue for the sound package, adding to its authenticity. Today, some 30 years later, Star Trek: The Next Generation stands up easily to any modern machine �?a testament to?? its timeless design excellenc??e.

2. Twilight Zone (1993)

Submitted for your approval: One of the best and most iconic pinball machines of the 1990s. Offered a "blank cheque" after his success with The Addams Family, designer Pat Lawlor followed up with this excellent adaptation of another classic of Americana: Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. The pinball version of the groundbreaking TV series features references to various familiar episodes, including "Living Doll", "The Hitchhiker", "The Invaders", an?d "A Most Unusual Camera".

Twilight Zone sports some of the most difficult gameplay in pinball, which turned away all but the most dedicated of players. Despite this, the game is a classy-looking and highly polished delight, with a cabinet that could be found in arcades across Europe and North America for years. TZ doesn't quite capitalize on its theme as well as it coul??d have, but the cool backglass and its rendition of the famous theme tune should instantly spark nostalgia in any arcade goer of a certain age.

1. The Addams Family (1992)

Tell anybody who was around in the '90s that you're into pinball, and never fail, you'll be met with some variant of "Oh yeah, I remember pinball!.. Yeah... Addams Family!". This is with good cause, as Williams' The Addams Family is officially the best-selling pinball machine of all time, having shifted a staggering 20,270 units since its initial release. TAF is, of course, an adaptation of Barry Sonnenfeld's 1991 movie, but nobody could? have quite anticipated the g??ame's incredible popularity.

Designed by Pat Lawlor, The Addams Family features a memorable, comic-book playfield with modes based upon various scenes in the movie. These include the secret staircase, the living bear rug, Wednesday's toy train, the family vault, and, most importantly, THHHE MAA-MUSHKAAA! The playfield utilizes hidden magnets to play havoc with physics, while an animatronic Thing emerges from a box to lock balls. As a final touch, Raul Julia and Angelica Houston recorded new dialogue especially for the game, reprising their roles of Gomez and Morticia Addams. 'Tish.

The Addams Family pinball machine was unavoidable �?/em> a cornerstone of practically every single arcade, bar, beachfront, bowling alley, and nightclub in town. You can still find them on site today, though often in upsetting states of disrepair. But perhaps the best example of The Addams Family's enduring legacy is that, whethe?r you personally play pinball or not...

...You already knew that this was going to be number one, right?

Don't get tilted

The past two decades might have seen pinball become something of a niche, rich folk's pastime, powered by a massively inflated collector's market and the increasing rarity of machine components, but for those of a certain age, there was, truly, a time where you couldn't enter a publi??c building and not fall over a pinball machine or three. Arcades, bars, clubs, laundries, resta?urants, theaters, corner stores, and gyms. If there was a five-foot empty space, then it had a pinball machine plonked on it.

There have been thousands of machines produced since the 1930s, from coin-operated bagat??elle tables, through to the delightful electromagnetic (EM) machines of the '50s-'70s, these would give way to the Solid State (SS) machines of the '80s, pinball's golden renaissance in the '90s, and ultimately lead to toda?y, with companies such as Stern and Jersey Jack continuing to roll out brand new, exciting, hi-tech games for people who have much more money than should ever be legal.

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