Disturbance in the Balance

    Donkey Kong Country. I've blogged about them. I've blogged about them again. Then I blogged about them. Then I blogged about them some more. Now I blog about them yet again. The Donkey Kong Country series remains my favorite gaming series of all time. Whether it is Rare or Retro Studios at the helm, it always seems like magic is made with the Donkey Kong Country series. This blog will be taking a look how I rank the Donkey Kong Country series from best worst to best. Included in this list will be games with Donkey Kong Country in the title, so the Donkey Kong Land games will not be included in this list nor will none Donkey Kong Country games such as DK Jungle Swing.

Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Color)

    Donkey Kong Country came out on Game Boy Color in an era where if you did not have a Super Nintendo, you did not get to play Donkey Kong Country. The game looks and feels very similar to the Donkey Kong Land games, however it's not. It is a port of Donkey Kong Country, but a poor port. It's a port that had a job in the past, but now it is mostly a pointless remake as Donkey Kong Country would see light on the Game Boy Advance. 

Donkey Kong Country (Game Boy Advance)

    Speaking of Donkey Kong Country on Game Boy Advance... Rareware brought Donkey Kong Country to the Game Boy Advance and introduced an entire new generation to the game. The only problem was that in the translation from Super Nintendo to Game Boy Advance, some of the charm of the original was lost. The biggest issues this game faces is screen crunch issues on certain levels and what I like to call slippery gameplay. The control in the Super Nintendo version is so much tighter than this version. Still, this game is still worth playing if you cannot get your hands on the original and it does add some new collectible goodies and what not. 

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

    It had been a long time between Donkey Kong Country 3 and Donkey Kong Country returns. This game was Retro Studios first crack at a Donkey Kong Country game and they did a pretty good job with it. They really took what Rare had created and turned it into their own while sticking true to Rare's formula. That said, the game is not without flaws. For one, some players cannot stand the fact that there are motion controls in this game. My only gripe with them is you need to use them to do Donkey Kong's signature roll ability. There's lots of good in this game, but not enough to make it higher on my list here. Still, the game is certainly worth trying out! Awesome levels (for the most part), great gameplay (motion controls aside), and a soundtrack that pays an incredible amount of homage to the original makes this game worth your time. 

Donkey Kong Country 2 (Game Boy Advance)

    By the time Donkey Kong Country 2 came out on the Game Boy Advance Diddy's Kong Quest fell off the face of the Earth. As such the game was just called Donkey Kong Country 2. Nintendo's loss of Rare could also begin being seen as Dixie no longer sports the Rare logo on her hat. Those sad notes aside... Donkey Kong Country 2 is what I call the safest of the three Game Boy Advance remakes. It is very similar to the original and much like the first game, adds a bunch of collectible goodies for you to find. The major issues that plagued the first game such as slippery control were fixed here making for an overall better game. Still though, it pales in comparison to the original in terms of speed, graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack. That being said though, this is a wonderful remake. I know some people are in conflict as to whether or not this is possibly better than the original, but I just don't see that. Either way, this is a very good and safe remake.

Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS)

    Remember how before I said that motion controls hindered Donkey Kong Country Returns? Well basically here is what I think of the game when you take those away. No, the 3DS game does not look as good as the Wii and it runs at a little bit of a lower framerate, but for me the game is still true to form in this version. Without the gimmick of motion, the game feels more like a traditional Donkey Kong Country. In addition, Retro Studios pulled no punches and actually added an exclusive world into this game. It still has a few issues, but the effort that Retro put into this remake showed me that the series is in good hands. Now if only they could figure out an ending that's not worse than Donkey Kong Country 3's true ending.....

Donkey Kong Country 3 (Game Boy Advance)

    I rank Donkey Kong Country 3 the highest of the handheld games. In fact, there's a tiny, tiny piece of me that sometimes wonders if I like it better than the Super Nintendo version.... a tiny, tiny piece... Rare's last Donkey Kong Country game is nothing short of an appropriate send off. It feels like Donkey Kong Country 3 was remade from the ground up. The soundtrack is all new, there's a brand new world to explore, and sticks very true to the original despite these changes. Personally, I am not huge into collect-a-thons. I mean I love me some Banjo Kazooie, but in a platformer I always felt a couple collectibles were just right. So I am not upset that this game does not include as much collecting as the previous two remakes. The minigames are kinda meh, but the game itself is a fresh take on the Super Nintendo game.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (Super Nintendo)

    My opinion on this game seems to change every time I play through it. It's never consistent for me. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I just enjoy it. Despite it's flaws such as an overall slower pace than the first two games, Donkey Kong Country 3 remains what I would call a great game. The third tier of levels borders on unfair in terms of difficulty, but in my opinion, that's how it should be. It's not like the game is unfair throughout or anything. It also sports some of the most frustrating Lost World levels in the series. The game is beautiful, plays well, and allows Dixie to really, really shine. The majority of Rareware's people had moved onto projects for the Nintendo 64 by the time this game was being worked on, so it's not a surprise it's not on their level. Still though, it is a classic in it's own right and I think worthy of where I have it on the list. That tiny piece of me says to drop it a spot.

Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)

    The game that started it all. Rareware burst onto the Super Nintendo scene with this monster of a game. Donkey Kong Country needs no introduction. It's beautiful, it's got an awesome soundtrack, and a ton of character. You make your way all over DK Island and experience a world unlike anything that had ever been seen in a video game. Almost ever level introduced new challenges and new ways of playing. Gone were the days of move right and jump. Exploration had arrived in a platform game as had the start of what I call the greatest platforming series in gaming.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)

    I never thought I would see the day that a game disrupted my love for the original trilogy. Tropical Freeze is an experience unlike any other. Retro Studios did exactly what Rareware did before them with their first title. As I mentioned in blogs past, Donkey Kong Country Returns was a great framework. It was a great restart of the series with Retro Studios at the helm. The big question though at the time was what would come next, if anything. I remember when the game came out. I didn't have a Wii U just yet, but the rage from the internet was evident. It seemed the majority were displeased by Returns's difficulty in comparison to other platformers on the Wii and even more, people wanted Metroid. I can't blame them. Metroid fans, much like Donkey Kong Country fans were given a middle finger for a long time. So I was hesitant in picking this game up, but holy crap am I glad I did. I have zero idea what everyone was complaining about. Of course now Tropical Freeze is regarded as one of the best in the series, but that was not always the case. The level design, soundtrack, graphics, and gameplay all took what Donkey Kong Country Returns had and turned it into a masterpiece. While I did not get the return of all my beloved animal buddies I did get the return of Dixie Kong and playing with Cranky after all these years was a bonus. 

    This game improved on it's predecessor in every way. Even the enemies, the Snowmads, are far more memorable than the tribe of Tiki guys from Returns. I feel like they are literally just one step below the Kremlings. I love this game after playing it a couple time. It's difficult, it's got a lot to find, but neither of those are bad things. Speaking of not bad things... Unlike Returns where the last world was kinda meh... Volcano themed... I felt like I was playing Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. You make it back to a frozen DK Island and fight your way through enemy territory right up till the final showdown. What's more is as you traverse through this final world, you see things from the previous game in the background. Characters frozen in ice, temples and other buildings snowed over, and the all too familiar DK Treehouse. There's just so much to love about this game. It's biggest downfall is that it was released on the ever controversial "failure", the Wii U.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Super Nintendo)

    After all these years, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest remains my favorite video game of all time. This game went a long way into making me the kind of gamer I am today. I do not gravitate towards first person shooters, I do not gravitate to RPGs, I do not gravitate to fighting games. No, I gravitate towards 2D platformers and a lot of the reason for that goes into the first big one I remember playing, Donkey Kong Country 2. In my opinion this is still the best Donkey Kong Country game in the entire series. While Tropical Freeze looks better (clearly... I mean really? Do people actually say Tropical Freeze is better because of graph.... never mind...), it does not have the consistent speedy gameplay and incredible flow that this game has. This game also boasts the best combination of Kongs out of all the games in Diddy and Dixie Kong. The two are so incredibly different in so many ways, yet both can travel through the game equally as efficiently. Dixie has her advantages, and Diddy has his. It's great like that and something I feel was not present in the first and third games where Donkey Kong and Kiddie seemed outclassed by Diddy and Dixie respectively. 

     Another thing I love about this game is the theme and story. By the end of Donkey Kong Country we had Diddy completely transform from a sidekick to hero in his own right. This game features him and his girlfriend invading the Kremlings home turf. Not only will Diddy and Dixie invade, they will eventually achieve their goal of rescuing Donkey Kong from Kaptain K. Rool and do even more than that. Yes I said Kaptain K. Rool. Did I mention the main theme in the game is pirates? I mean come on, reptiles with eye patches and peg legs and striped shorts. Incredible!

    At the end of the day I still love each and every game in the Donkey Kong Country series. None of them are bad games. Even the Game Boy Color game, while incredibly dated now, was still acceptable for what it was when it came out. I never thought a game would come out again that captivated me the way that the original trilogy did, but Tropical Freeze blew my mind and now after playing it a few times I can say it's my second favorite in the series. It's not a game I will pick up and play non stop as I still prefer the style of Rareware's trilogy, but it is one that has left a lasting impression and will be revisited often. 

    This list is strictly my opinion. There is no fact to any of it other than all of these games are good if not great in their own ways. For me, there will probably never be another Donkey Kong Country 2 and I am okay with that. It's a once in a lifetime game to me and it's a game I can talk about and never get bored playing. Both Rare and Retro Studios have created something truly amazing. Rareware's trilogy got me into gaming in a way I never expected. That trilogy continues to keep me into gaming on a grand scale and Retro's duo has been an incredible supplement to the feast of Rareware. I'll continue to play these games as long as I can. Rest assured this is not the last you'll hear about them on this blog (granted you won't hear much about Returns or Tropical Freeze). Thanks for reading as always!

Diddy Kong Racing Revisited

    Have you ever had a game that you know isn't the most popular and often times is forgotten about when talking about the great games of a console? That one game that you have played time and time again yet a lot of people say that it's just not that good. I have a few of those games. One of them is Diddy Kong Racing. I know I've blogged I think three times about this game already, but now being fresh off yet another run through the game, I find myself wanting to talk more about it. Some of this stuff I sure is repeats from my previous blogs, but some should be new too.

****Possible Spoilers Ahead****

    I've said it once and I will say it again. Diddy Kong Racing is one of the best racing games on the console. I'd put it in the top two along with Mario Kart 64, but who wins the crown really depends on what's going on. If it's just me playing or me and a friend playing. I give the crown to Diddy Kong Racing, but when it comes to four player madness, I have to give it to Mario Kart 64. The games are just so different. Both are fantastic, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I find myself more enthralled with Diddy Kong Racing thanks to it's single player modes, characters, story, vehicles, and honestly the weapon system. I've always felt that the game required a higher level of skill than Mario Kart 64 did to succeed. This rings especially true if you are a fan of heavyweights

    This time around I took a break from my lightweight favoritism and explored some middleweight and heavyweight options. All I can say is the difference in weight class is immense. In Mario Kart 64 I main Bowser and Toad. Two complete opposite weight classes. I play them the same way. Foot on the gas and power sliding. It's a totally different game here though between playing Tiptup and Bumper or Tiptup and Drumstick. It's such a big learning curve and one I'm going to keep working on now because the speed of these heavyweights is great. I can only imagine that becoming comfortable with the lackluster handling that the heavyweights have will improve my skills in the game all around. At the end of the day I wound up switching back to Tiptup to take care of a variety of different tracks as well as boss battles. My extra exploration in the game led me to take on a challenge I never bothered to do before. Unlocking T.T.

    Unlocking T.T. is probably one of the hardest things in a racing game on the Nintendo 64. What you have to do to unlock him is beat all of his times in Tracks Mode. Before you can race him though, you need to beat a certain time on each track. Upon beating that time T.T. will challenge you on that track. In order to beat him you need to be significantly better than the time that you needed to make him appear. Some courses this was no big deal. Even in Future Fun World there was a track or two that I felt no pressure. Other tracks like Crescent Island and Darkmoon Caverns found me beating him by the skin of my teeth. I wish the game showed a time comparison after the race. On some of these I would have loved to had seen how close I was to not beating him. With each failure though I could feel myself getting better. I kind of have a new appreciation for Tracks Mode now. The tracks are nowhere near as complicated as the tracks in Mario Kart 64, but I feel like I get more of a reward from practicing on them. I never really felt like I completely mastered a track until now. I felt like I was able master Mario Kart's tracks just by playing 150cc. For whatever reason I could not do that in Diddy Kong Racing.

    At the end of the day, this latest run through of Diddy Kong Racing to me was really just a ton of fun. I did something new with the game in unlocking T.T. and really had zero complaints. Even the silver coin challenges were fun, which a lot of people would not agree with. I don't know if it's because I know where they are at this point or what. I still feel like this is one of the best racing games on the system and in a lot of ways I do think it is the best. I get people's issues with it. Believe me, it is not a perfect game. It has a few issues here and there and it's difficulty can honestly be a bit of a turn off for some people and the less chaotic multiplayer is not as entertaining as other racing games on the system. If you are looking for a good, challenging racing game with some hidden goodies scattered about, look no further than this game. It is worth every second of playtime and will reward practice on a level not seen in other racing games.


   

Nintendo 64 Joystick Replacement and Repair Thoughts Part 2

    The Nintendo 64 controller is easily one of the most controversial controllers in gaming. From it's awkward shape to it's joystick it seems like many people have comments and complaints about the design of this controller. To add fuel to many people's fire, the controller's joystick has proven that it will wear out over time rendering the controller either very difficult to use, if not impossible. In my last blog I went over a few different techniques that can help you fix a troubled controller and help slow down that deadly wear and tear. Today I'll be looking a bit at some of the available alternatives to fixing a joystick.

    The first, most common, and obviously the easiest alternative to fixing a joystick is to simply buy a  new Nintendo 64 controller. These controllers can be found still sealed in their original packaging on Ebay. However, they are by no means cheap. These controllers can go for well over three hundred dollars if they are still sealed in their original packaging. However, you can find used Nintendo 64 controllers on Ebay for thirty to forty dollars pretty easily. In doing this though it is a bit of a gamble as to what you get since you don't know the condition of the joystick till you get your hands on it. Still many Ebay listings with good sticks will mention that the stick is in good shape. Personally, the alternative that has worked the best for me is visiting the local flea markets and garage sales. I managed to get my hands on two controllers that have excellent sticks for ten dollars a piece. You can also visit your trusted retro game store and talk to the owner to see if any available Nintendo 64 controllers have stick issues. One store I would say to avoid is Gamestop. You can buy Nintendo 64 controllers on their website however many people seem to end up with off brand products or controllers with loose sticks, so buyer beware on that one.

    Speaking of off brand. It's the year 2017 and there are a slew of third party controllers out there. These products you can find at most retro shops, Ebay, and Amazon for cheaper than you can find an official Nintendo 64 controller. My experience (albeit limited) has never been great with these controllers. For one I found that they joysticks wear out much faster than on the official ones. On some controllers I ran into dead zones where I'd push the stick to a position and my character on screen would just stop. That was super frustrating in games like Super Mario 64 and Super Smash Brothers. I also had an issue at one point with an Old Skool brand controller where right out of the packaging the controller though I was moving my character left.... Problem is the controller was not in my hand. Tried to unplug it and plug it back in and the same thing happened despite the controller being straight. Overall if I were to ever go for a third party Nintendo 64 controller I would bite the bullet and go for what is called a Hori Pad. The Hori Pad was available only in Japan. It is the only officially licensed Nintendo 64 controller made by a third party. The shape is totally different as seen in the photo below and the joystick is more similar to that of the Nintendo Gamecube in design.

The only downside of this pad is since it was never available in North America, it's price is pretty high. They can be found on Ebay for generally sixty to eighty dollars. I would say this is the number one replacement controller if you have the cash to throw at it. 

    I get that not everyone wants to give up on their old controllers and for those people (like me) you can repair or replace individual parts. Many parts are available online and in the case of joysticks, you can find a couple different ones too. The first is the classic OEM style that is in the Nintendo 64 controller. The vast majority of these you will see are made by third parties. The only first party ones are those that were removed from other controllers. The third party replacement OEM joysticks are a mixed bag. Again, my experience with them is limited, but I ran into a couple problems when using them. Much like with the third party controller, the third party joystick seemed to wear out faster than the original. Another issue I faced occurred when installing the stick. For some reason the housing was a little bit big for the controller so I had to sand it down a bit. I also had to file down the connector into the controller slightly. Not a big deal, but it was a tad frustrating. Another issue was that it was not as precise as the original. Now I get that it's third party and I shouldn't expect a ton, but sometimes is was great. Sometimes it was overly sensitive I thought. Sometimes well... Dead zone. I'd say these sticks are good for general use. I wouldn't use them for any kind of serious gameplay. No tournaments, no high score hunting, no speed running, but just playing around I would totally recommend them. I'd also say they're good if you're looking for a cheap replacement if you do not use your system much.

    While I might recommend the third party OEM style sticks, my favorite of the third parties is the Gamecube style sticks that have come out in recent years. I currently have half of my controllers with these installed. They are very strange joysticks though. If you have a Gamecube controller, you know what the stick looks like. It fits perfectly into the controller and feels really good. The literal only issues I've had is sensitivity issues in some games. For example. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time I had zero problems. Newer versions of these sticks fixed issues that involved rotating the stick, so the spin attack works fine. That being said, when I play Goldeneye 007, I find precise aiming to be difficult as the stick seems over sensitive. That being said, I play Conker's Bad Fur Day and I have no problems again. It's a game to game thing I feel like. Right now I'm using this stick for games that really take a toll on a joystick. Mario Party, Paper Mario, and Super Smash Brothers are three that come to the top of my head. Games that aren't so rough I stick with the originals. Goldeneye, Starfox 64, and other games that require some accuracy I stick with the original. Still though for casual gameplay the Gamecube style sticks are my go to.... Especially with Super Smash Brothers. 

    At the end of the day I don't think any third party joystick or controller (with the exception of the Hori Pad) stacks up with the original. I think the best way to go about continuing Nintendo 64 gaming is maintaining original controllers and sticks through repair and maintenance. I understand those things are not for everyone, but for anyone who truly loves this system, it's games, and even it's controllers, it would be worth while to read some techniques in repair and maintenance and even watch some how to videos on Youtube. It really makes a world of difference and has brought new life to my Nintendo 64. 

    Thank you for reading this blog. This blog and the previous on repairing Nintendo 64 controllers are meant to provoke thought in you, the reader about what to do with your troubled controller. I do not guarantee that you will experience the same things that I have with these replacements or repairs. I hope everything works out for you and you can enjoy your Nintendo 64 console as much as the day you got it.  

Nintendo 64 Joystick Replacement and Repair Thoughts Part 1

    Hey everyone, hope all is well. Today's blog is a bit different as I will be looking at Nintendo 64 controller joystick repair. Over the past couple months, my beloved Nintendo 64 controllers saw their joysticks significantly deteriorate. They had been loose for a long time, but after some intense Starfox 64 play, they seemed to be pretty much shot. So I dove into the world of replacement joysticks. You can find replacement sticks almost anywhere. Ebay, Amazon, and even some retro game stores carry replacement joysticks. At first it seemed a bit overwhelming, but after some research and trial and error I can say that I am quite happy with my discoveries.

    Since I've been doing a lot of work on my old consoles and games, I figured I'd give a shot at fixing my busted up N64 joysticks. If you want to do the same there is some things to consider. First is what is going on with the controller. In my case it was very loose joysticks. Second and far less important is what caused this. Normal wear over the years can be an answer or a game called Mario Party can be its own answer. Regardless the reason, just keep it in the back of your mind for now. To get inside the controller all you need is a small Philips head screwdriver. Make sure all screws are removed before trying to open the controller. There are two hidden screw in the area where the rumble pack/memory card/ transfer pack goes in so be sure to get them too. once opened you'll see the joystick compartment is screwed into the controller. Unscrew the three silver screws, but not the black screw yet. Follow the wires to where they connect to the board. Work the connector at the end of the wires out of the port it is plugged into. I used the flat edge of a knife and just slowly worked it out. The joystick should now be free from the controller.

    Now that you have that out you can go ahead and unscrew the little black screw. The joystick front will pop open, but you'll have to gently unclip the clips in the back to get the whole unit open. From here there are two methods that I tried to fix my issue. The first was a much shorter term fix. Before doing this though look at the bottom half of the unit. You'll see a white bowl, a little computer piece, a black cradle looking piece of plastic laying across and dipping into the bowl, and two wheel looking pieces at the top (under the computer piece) and right side of the bowl. Remember how the bowl sits in the housing and remember how the cradle piece is sitting. Now for the root of the problem. Upon opening the housing you will probably notice a good amount of white powder. Believe it or not, that powder used to be part of the bottom of the joystick and the bowl. It just grinds down over time and games like Mario Party and Super Smash Brothers take a real toll on these joysticks. The ground up plastic can make a joystick feel crunchy as you use it as it takes away the smoothness of the inside and basically clogs it up. Clean out the dust, but do not inhale it... Also keep the two wheel pieces as untouched and clean as possible. They're vital to a working joystick. You can remove and clean up the little cradle piece too. Check that piece for signs of wear and tear. None of mine had any issues with the cradle pieces. once you are done with that put the bottom of the joystick housing back together. Now for the top.

    You should now be looking at the stick itself. You should see another little black plastic piece that is prevented from popping off the stick by the bottom of the stick itself (what I call the hammer. The hammer should also have a small little ball shape in the middle of it so notice that too) Then you should see a plastic ring, a spring, then finally the top of the joystick housing. Turn the black plastic piece so it pops off the stick. Be careful not to loose the plastic ring that will probably fall right off. Clean up the black plastic piece and the stick itself. Also check the top of the housing for plastic dust and what not(I used a little water on a Q-Tip followed by a lint free cloth). Now with your housing  and pieces cleaned up, here's where things get different depending on which of the two techniques I tried you want to use. Both of these techniques involves trying to fill space that has been created by the plastic grinding away. These joysticks were poorly designed, but are quite precise, so I feel like trying to fix them is worth the time and effort. The first one is a short term solution.

    This one is commonly called the tape method and it is quick to do, but has a big downside that I'll get to. First get yourself a roll of tape. The best tape to use for this is something like Scotch tape or some other thinner type of tape. Duck tape is too thick. Now for the tricky part. Get a pair of good scissors and cut two strips of tape. The length may vary, but I aimed for around 5mm with a with of 3mm on my very worn sticks. Take a look at the stick. You'll see the part where your thumb rests, a ball, a small neck, and then the hammer. Tightly wrap your first piece of tape around the neck between the ball and hammer. Now you may want to put the top part of the joystick all back together before doing the second part, so hopefully you paid attention to how the thing is put together. If not an the order is stick goes into the top part of housing and rotates so it locks. Then the larger circle on the spring goes against the underside of the top piece of the housing. The little plastic ring rests on the top of the spring. Getting the black piece back on requires you to push down on the spring. You should be able to have the hammer go through the middle. Once you see that rotate the black piece so it and the hammer look like a funky cross. The ends of the black piece should rest on the plastic ring quite well with the end pieces hanging off. Back to your tape. Take the second piece of tape and tightly wrap it around the hammer. Now assemble the joystick. Keep in mind that the cradle resting in the bowl and the black piece attached to the stick should form a + inside the bowl with the up/downaxis being near the wheel under the computer parts. If it doesn't fit snug, you may need to rotate the black piece attached to the joystick and the stick itself. Be careful it does not unlock otherwise you'll probably have to reassemble the top part of the housing. After you have screwed in the black screw test it out. It should be less loose than it was before. In this case, bulking up the hammer can eliminate the space, but in some cases (like 1 of my controllers), it's not enough due to the sheer amount of eroded plastic. Depending on how much plastic has been eaten away, you may need more than or less tape than I used. As I mentioned before, this is a short term fix. The tape will wear out pretty quickly. That is really the biggest downfall to this method. The tape can start coming off inside the housing and get to a point where you must open it up and replace the tape. That can happen well before the tape is actually worn out. The plus side is for short term use, this technique can close the empty space enough that the stick will feel much tighter. The tape around the neck will also help keep the stick propped up in the housing if the black piece has worn down too. For long term use though I have two things that I'm doing.

    First of all I happened to stumble upon two Nintendo 64 controllers at a flea market recently. These two have joysticks in excellent shape so I started doing an easy maintenance on them. What you'll need for this is a screwdriver and some kind of plastic safe grease. Personally I am using white lithium grease, but I hear that ceramic grease works very well and lasts longer. As I mentioned before, the wear and tear on these joysticks largely comes from the bowl getting ground up into plastic dust. While putting an end to that wear is not possible to my knowledge, there is a way to drastically slow it down. What you will want to do is take apart the controller and joystick housing as described above. There is not much of a need to take apart the top of the housing though other than making sure it's clean. What you'll want to do is use a toothpick, Q-Tip, or other small object and grease certain areas of the housing. The most important thing in greasing is this. DO NOT GET ANY GREASE ON EITHER OF THE WHEEL PARTS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOWL. IT WILL SERIOUSLY DAMAGE IT. Areas you do want to grease include the inside of the bowl (but not too much as it can spill out and onto the wheel part), The bottom and top of the black plastic cradle piece inside the bowl, where that plastic cradle sits on the edge of the bowl, the hammer or the joystick, and the little ball at the bottom of the hammer. Doing this has made my joysticks nice and smooth again and is an important part to the more long term solution. What it does for the controller is reduce the grind of the joystick and bowl, which is an amazing thing. I plan on checking on the grease after a month has passed to see if it needs reapplying. Again, I hear ceramic grease lasts longer. From what I've seen and read this is a great easy to do maintenance that will keep your original joystick working great longer. However, it is only a preventative and will not fix a joystick.

    I've heard of a few different ways to go about more of a long term fix for the wiggly joystick. I've heard of ways of altering the stick itself if the little ball at the end is overly worn, but haven't had a need to do it yet, so I can't share my experiences with that. The way that I have gone about repairing these sticks with a long term approach in mind is as follows. Make note that this is not a fast fix and patience and some precision is required to do the job right. If you ever happen to get your hands on a newish Nintendo 64 controller take a look at the white bowl compared to that of one with a loose joystick. You will easily see that the bowl from the controller with the loose stick appears deeper. That is where the problem is and bringing the bowl back to it's former self is the goal. For this fix I used some plastic safe epoxy, a toothpick, a thin tipped sharpie, a dremel, sandpaper, a Q-Tip, and a lot of patience.

    What you will want to do first is take apart the controller and joystick as described above. Once you have the white bowl removed from the bottom part of the housing you'll want to think about how much epoxy you are going to need. You should know how loose your joystick is and if you have a stick that is in good shape, it's not a bad idea to kind of eyeball it. Apply a small amount of epoxy into the bowl. I used the toothpick and Q-Tip to do this. You still want to bowl to be concave in the middle. How much you need is going to depend on how messed up the bowl is. Be careful not to get any on those wheel parts! Let the epoxy harden. Mine was good to go in about 4 hours. Now is where patience becomes a virtue. Attach a small amount of sandpaper to the end of the sharpie and smooth out the epoxy by gently sanding. Don't go too much yet. You're just trying to smooth it out for now. Reassemble the joystick housing only. See how the stick is. Is it still loose? If so you'll want to carefully add more and wait. Does it get stuck? Not a big deal. What you need to do here is either slowly sand down the epoxy or carefully use a dremel at low speed to do the same. Sand it again afterwords to smooth it out. If it's still getting stuck you can actually sand the bottom of the cradle a little bit without hurting it. If you go too much it will snap so only do this if you feel confident. Once the joystick feels good to you, grease it up as described above. This will not only slow the wear and tear again, but it will help the hammer slide on the epoxy better. I've used this method on two joysticks now and both are working great.

    I've heard of other ways of doing the longer term fix such as super glue instead of epoxy and I'm sure that works fine too, but I found the epoxy pretty easy to work with. It's a shame that these joysticks have the issues that they have, but at least there are ways of making them last longer and even repairing them. I honestly don't know why Nintendo didn't have the insides of these things greased to begin with, but it is what it is. I can't guarantee that these methods will work for everyone and I do not recommend the epoxy fix to anyone who does not know what they are doing with these joysticks. I did these repairs about 2 weeks ago and so far everything has been working great. At the time I had no intention of doing a blog on it, so sorry that I don't have any pictures or video to help. The good news is both the tape and epoxy fixes can be found on Youtube if you need a visual guide. My next blog will be looking at some other alternatives to repairing that I stumbled across in my quest to revive my Nintendo 64's controllers! Thanks for reading!
 

Update

Greetings everyone. I'm doing two small blogs today. This first one is an update as to why I have been absent. I had every intent on moving full steam ahead with the horror blog series I was so, so excited to do since the summer. Sadly I am not going to be able to keep up with it. I am dealing with some things in life right now and need to focus in on those things more than I have been. It's pretty personal, so I'm not going to be getting into it here at all. This update is basically just me saying that I'm alive and I do intend on continuing this blog whenever I have to time to do so. I do hope that a time will come soon where I can go back to blogging how I was, but we will see.

So moving forward I will be continuing as I was prior to trying to start Horror Blogs. Perhaps this is something I can attempt to do again next year, but we will see on that as well. Everything is kind of up in the air. Thank you all for your patience, thanks for reading, and just in general, thank you!