Rayman Review

Hey everyone welcome to my review of the Playstation game known as Rayman.

Before I get into reviewing this game I want to throw out there that this game along with Crash Bandicoot 2 were the two games that actually got me into the Playstation. Until I played those two games I was pretty much 100% a Nintendo player, but Rayman and Crash helped to make me see there was more out there than what the Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo had to offer. With that being said, onto the game!

Rayman was developed by Ludimedia and published by Ubisoft. The game was released in September 1995 on the Sony Playstation. Other ports of the game exist on the Playstation Network, Game Boy Advance, Atari Jaguar, PC, DSIware, and Sega Saturn. The plot of the game is that the evil Mr. Dark has kidnapped the Great Protoon. This kidnapping caused all the small electoons to lose their stability and scatter. Mr. Dark would then round up all the electoons and imprison them in cages. It is up to Rayman, with the help of Betilla the fairyto rescure the Great Protoon and the electoons and save his colorful world from the dark fate it is facing.

Rayman is a platforming game that starts out fairly simple. You control Rayman as you jump through a variety of levels. After a short time though, you realize that the game is going to become more than a bright and colorful Mario knock off. As you play through the game Betilla grants Rayman a variety of powers from punching to running to cliff grabbing to even using Rayman's hair as a helicopter propeller. Through the game you will encounter the captured electoons that I mentioned earlier. You'll want to be sure to free them all as you cannot confront Mr. Dark without doing so. Some of these cages are pretty well hidden so you will need to use all of Rayman's ability and your own gaming smarts to find them all.  Other things you will find along the way include blue crystal like orbs called tings. Collect 100 of these and you'll get a 1-up. Speaking of 1-ups, they too can be found in levels. You can also find powerups for your punches and ways to increase your health.

The controls for this game are pretty solid. Occasionally you'll encounter the ever famous "I had that" moment as you've probably had with countless other games, but in general everything is pretty easy to get the hang of here. 

Graphically the game is actually very pretty. Rayman travels to a variety of locations including the forest, a world of band instruments, and even a world of pencils and erasers... Okay the world are a little odd, but they are all very good looking! The soundtrack from the game is respectable as well. You'll hear a lot of the same melodies repeat through the levels, but they're generally spaced out enough that they don't become annoying.

Overall I've had a lot of fun with Rayman. In this case it's not just blind nostalgia taking over either as the Rayman series has cranked out quite a few games now spanning a great variety of systems. I'll give Rayman a solid 7.5 out of 10. Rayman does a lot of things right, but the quality of the first installment in the series, while innovative, I don't think is as gripping as games that came out before it. If you asked me what I thought of the game oh say 10 years ago I'd probably have rated it higher, but the small control issues, limited, but respectable soundtrack, and personally the frustration of trying to find every cage of electoons in the game bring it down now for me. 

Final Verdict: 7.5 out of 10. Rayman is certainly worth a try. Some will love it, others probably wont, but if nothing else, this is a platformer that should be given a shot!

Disney Gaming Episode I

Hey everyone so today I want to take a look at a bit of Disney gaming history. In this blog I am going to be looking at a few Disney games through the years that were quite good and some that were quite well... Not so good. Disney movies are the part of many people's lives from the time they are a child to the time they are adults. Timeless classics such as The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and many more have been made into video games on a variety of systems. The classics however are not the only ones to see themselves become games. Wall.E, Tangled, and Brave are just a few of the newer movies that have video game adaptations as well. In addition to the movie games, Disney also has a ton of games that are based off of Disney TV shows as well as sport games and rhythm games. For this blog I am going to be focusing on a few of the games based off of movies and the Disney Parks themselves. I'll look at some of the other games at a later time as there is a ton to go through.

First on our journey through the mountain of Disney video games is Disney Adventures In the Magic Kingdom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This is one of the many older Disney games that Capcom actually developed. Fun fact about this game is that the music was composed by Yoko Shimomura who later went on to compose the music for the Kingdom Hearts series. This game took players through the Magic Kingdom as you collect 6 keys to open up the enchanted castle. Along the way you'll see popular Disney characters, play levels based on theme park rides including The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Also also along the way you'll be met with some Disney trivia as well. The levels are all pretty unique and include platforming, racing, and even first person stuff.

The map layout is apparently supposed to represent Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, but is more similar to Disneyland. Overall this game is a lot of fun, not too difficult, and still one of the best Disney Park based games there is!

I'm sure for some people this thing is a blast from the past. Nintendo was not the only one cashing in on Disney with their games. Tiger Electronics made a bunch of these handheld games. Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book are just a few of the movies that were turned into Tiger hand helds. None of the games are overwhelming and are pretty basic. The Beauty and the Beast one in particular I remember because if you fail to win, Gaston ends up with Belle and Beast is basically crying at their feet. Pretty dark for a kids handheld video game if you ask me.

Fans of Disney Parks your eyes are not deceiving you. Are next little stop is on the Nintendo Wii (also released on PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, but the Wii version always made the most sense to me) where you can play Toy Story Mania. So what is the difference between the above and this?

The answer is the first picture does not have a 60 minute wait time. The other is that the Wii game has original levels and includes more characters and mini games than the theme park ride. It also retains the original levels from the incredibly popular ride. If you are a fan of the ride, chances are you are going to be a big fan of this game. If you've never been on the ride, or don't care for it, chances are you wont care for this game much as in the end it really is a collection of minigames. There is a storyline, but it really doesn't go anywhere. Really I feel like Disney made this game as a fan service for fans of the ride and to try and get kids to be interested in the ride if they've never ridden it. As a huge Disney fan though, I find this game as a great way to bring back memories of fun friendly competition on Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios.

An often forgotten movie, A Bug's Life was a pretty big deal when it first came out. This is one of those games where you play through the movie. There are 15 bug filled levels that are full of hidden seeds, letters, and other objects that can aid Flik in his quest to defend the ants from the evil Hopper. The game (Playstation in particular) did not get much praise. Many critics claim that this game should only appeal to the youngest of crowds. I tend to agree that the game is certainly geared towards kids as it has a low difficulty, but if you love the movie, there is no real reason not to love this game. Each level starts with a cinematic from the movie and additional videos can be unlocked through collecting things. 

I wouldn't say that this game is a must own by any means, but if you are a fan of the movie as I am, then this game is actually pretty fun despite not really being difficult. In fact the hardest part of the game is that it actually slows down a great deal as you move around. Seems like the game cant keep up with itself and for a game that came out kinda late in the Playstation's life, is kinda sad.

Growing up in the 90's, The Lion King was THE Disney movie. Rightfully so too, the movie is nothing short of brilliant and as such inspired a game that can be found on the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Nintendo, Game Gear, and Game Boy. It was developed by Westwood Studios who are best known for their work on the Command and Conquer series. This game however I still feel is one of the best Disney games out there. The game literally screams Lion King. The colors, the challenges, the story. It all feels so akin to the movie that is is really quite impressive. Anyone who has seen the movie will quickly pick up on the familiar tunes played in the game and will quickly remember all the lovable characters from the movie as well. The only real drawback I see with this game is the platforming itself which is a pretty decent part of the game. In many cases a jump that is not perfectly timed will leave you dead.

This game is really a fun time once you get past the minor frustrations it can cause. For a Disney fan, this game should be a must own. For a retro gamer, this is a game that is absolutely worth checking out as it really shows what the Genesis, SNES, and Game Gear in particular were capable of doing in terms of taking a movie and turning it into a beautiful and pretty complete video game.

So with every high comes a low right? Well the final game for this blog is going to be a game that is widely considered the worst Disney game ever made. If the people who put the masterpiece of a movie together back in the 1940's has a crack at this game, they would probably never look at gaming again. This ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls is....

Before I go into the reasons that I am by no means a fan of this game, I have to give credit where it is due. Fantasia actually does do very well in a couple departments. For one the graphics are actually very good I think. They're colorful, you can tell what is what, and it really has the feel of Fantasia. The music, for the Sega Genesis is largely remakes of the classic melodies from Fantasia. Of course the Genesis is no powerhouse for music at all, but for what the Genesis is, Fantasia's music is actually pretty well done. So that's the good. The plot is that Chernabog (the demon from the Night on Bald Mountain scene in the movie) has stolen the orchestra's music notes and it is up to Mickey (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) to get them back. Kinda neat to have Chernabog vs Mickey, but really unneeded as you never actually deal with Chernabog in the end anyway... The sounds outside of the music are simply annoying. The sound when Mickey gets hit is probably the most annoying in my mind. The controls are simply garbage. They are often times unresponsive and slow which for a platforming game, isn't the best thing to have to deal with. The gameplay is slow. Enemies move fast, but Mickey moves slow. There will be times where you feel like you jumped on an enemy, only to take damage instead. Likewise you'll think you missed a jump but somehow the game registers that you landed it. Welcome to hit box problems folks. 

Fantasia is a game that I would not recommend to anyone. Even fans of the movie I tell to keep a distance or go into it prepared for a train wreck. Considering Fantasia is one of my favorite Disney movies, I was severely let down each time I tried to pick this game up. It was a great idea to try and bring Fantasia into the world of video games, but the execution was simply horrendous on almost all fronts.

So we've come to the end of the first of what will be many blogs that will be taking a brief look at Disney games. We've already had some ups and downs here and one would expect that trend to continue as Disney's massive history in gaming is literally full of just that. Ups and downs. My next blog will be a review of the first game in the popular video game franchise, Rayman!

Blog Reboot 2016

Hey everyone. It's been quite a while since my last post here. Many things have happened since then. Planning a wedding for example has taken up a ton of time. I've been itching to get back to things here, but I've been itching to do it in a different way. So far I've been focusing on just reviewing retro games. Well after some thought I've decided that I am going to continue doing that, but mix things up a bit as well. Originally this blog was only going to be covering things from a time in gaming now past. Well a big change that I am going to be making is that I am going to be doing more than reviews and top 10 lists. This time around I will be offering my thoughts on a ton of different topics in a plethora of different games. For example, I might offer some of my thoughts on a specific hero from Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm. Or I might review a retro game as I have in the past. Basically anything goes now.

All in all I expect that this blog is going to still largely be retro based. I'm not anticipating much talk about Xbox One or Playstation 4 games. This is largely due to the fact that I really haven't done anything with either of those systems. While I'm sure there are great things about each of them, I simply do not have any experience with them so I have no opinion good or bad about them. So with that being said I'll be posting my first official blog in quite some time very soon. Stay Tuned!

My Top 5 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies!

Hey everyone and welcome back... Or if it is your first time here... Welcome to Hydra Gaming. Tonight I will be showing off my top 5 favorite Animal Buddies from the Donkey Kong Country series. I know originally I planned on doing a top 7, but honestly I think a top 5 is all I need. Please note that this list only encompasses the original three games on the Super Nintendo and not the Game Boy Advance ports or the newer Donkey Kong Country games on the Wii, 3DS, or Wii-U. My reason for this is largely due to the lack of Animal Buddies in Donkey Kong Country Returns and me having yet to actually play Tropical Freeze (currently being played through for the first time). So With that being said, let's get this mini countdown going!

Number 5: Ellie the Elephant

Ellie the Elephant is considered by many to be the replacement for Rambi in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. Ellie is also viewed by many to be very lackluster compared to the fan favorite rhino. Personally speaking I actually like Ellie a lot. I like that she has the ability to pull far away barrels to her which can save a world of headaches from happening. No, she is no Rambi, but I personally found her ability to shoot water to be quite useful in the levels where you can use it and overall one of the better abilities of all the animal buddies.

Number 4: Squawks the Parrot

Now I know a lot of you are probably wondering how I could rank Squawks the Parrot at number 4. After all, Squawks was in all three Donkey Kong Country games on the Super Nintendo with various abilities. In the first game he simply carried a light as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong forged their way through dark caves. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Squawks lost the light and gained the ability to shoot nuts at enemies. Also featured in the second game was a purple Squawks that couldn't spit nuts, but rather guided Diddy and Dixie in a downward direction. Purple Squawks would gain the ability to fly in various directions and pick up and drop barrels on enemies in the third game in the series. Squawks plays a pretty major part in all three games and he is a lot of fun to play with to boot. Just watch out for his section in Animal Antics in Donkey Kong Country 2... That is probably one of if not the hardest parts of the series.

Number 3: Rambi the Rhino

Rambi, Rambi, Rambi. Easily the most iconic of the animal buddies, Rambi the Rhino was first seen in the first level of Donkey Kong Country. Rambi is one baaaaad Rhino whose capable of busting walls down, taking out the toughest of enemies, and even in Donkey Kong Country 2, charging full force clear through levels. Rambi for whatever reason was forced to take a back seat in Donkey Kong Country 3 to Ellie the Elephant in a move that irritated many fans. He did make it into the newer Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze though, so Rambi once again proves that he is the beast of the animal buddies. I love Rambi. He's a ton of fun to use and when you become him or ride him, you get that feeling that you are going to literally wreck anything you can in your path. 

Number 2: Enguarde the Swordfish

To those of you who personally know me, this should come as no surprise. For those who don't know me, Enguarde the Swordfish is essentially Rambi in the water. He can be seen in all three games and in all three of these games he makes water levels a ton easier. Enguarde is a great swimmer with the ability in the second and third games to charge through the water just like Rambi does on the land. Enguarde does have a major drawback. If he gets stranded on land he really doesn't go anywhere fast at all. Kind swims like a fish out of water... Also known as not good. Despite that though I love playing with Enguarde. It could be the fish lover in me but I just think that riding a massive swordfish and literally stabbing many fishlike enemies is one of the coolest things in the series.

Sooooooo.... There is one Animal Buddy left. One animal on my top 5 list. One animal that I can say I have had by the far the most fun with and probably have spent the most time playing with despite him not being in every game. So without further adeu....

Number 1: Squitter the Spider

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you Squitter the Spider. Squitter debuted in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and was also in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. First of all check out the spider. He wears some pretty legit sneakers. That and his color is pretty freaking cool. So what can Squitter do? He can shoot webs at enemies and actually aim those webs in different directions. He can also use webs to create platforms wherever he wants. Even those webs he can guide in different directions. If you really want you can use Squitter to make a web highway throughout entire levels. For whatever reason Squitter and the other animal buddies besides Squawks and Rambi have been left out of the newer games which I have maintained as a big mistake. When I think of the Donkey Kong Country on SNES series, the first animal that comes to mind is Rambi, but then the best one I point at Squitter on many levels. 

Well there you have it. My top 5 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies. Stay tuned for lots more as always and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving if I don't happen to get another blog up before then. The next blog will probably be a look at Super Mario Land on Game Boy!

The Kirby Series Episode V: Kirby's Avalanche

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Kirby series! Following the release of Kirby's Adventure on the NES, Kirby certainly took some time off from his traditional games. So far we've seen him as both a pinball and a golf ball. What else can Kirby become? We'll find that out later because in this spin-off game, Kirby takes no different forms and in fact you don't really control Kirby at all because this boys and girls is a puzzle game!

The game was co-developed by HAL Labratory, Compile, and Banpresto. It was released by Nintendo on February 1, 1995 and is the Western version of a game known as Super Puyo Puyo.

The story for this game is quite simple. King Dedede challenges the citizens of Dream Land to a tournament of a game called Avalanche or Ghost Trap (Ghost Trap in Europe). Kirby decides to take the challenge and battles his way through many of the series reoccurring characters to reach Dedede for a showdown at the Fountain of Dreams. Just some of the familiar faces Kirby will have to face includes Whispy Woods, Kracko, Meta Knight, and of course King Dedede. *Fun Fact: This is the first game where Meta Knight is actually called Meta Knight. In Kirby's Adventure you never learn his name.*

That's literally it for the story. It's a puzzle game what do you expect? Anyway this game is actually a lot of fun and the gameplay is simple. Two blobs will fall from the top of each player's screen. Once a player lines up four blobs in a row they will vanish and any blobs above them will fall into their place. If the four vanishing blobs happen to set off a chain reaction in which more blobs vanish, rocks will fall onto the other players screen. The rocks cause major issues and can only be cleared if four blobs are lined up while touching the rock. 

So the game does have a bit of strategy going for it and it also has it's fair share of luck as well I suppose. Between each round you will see a short conversation between Kirby and his opponents. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but this is the first time we actually see Kirby really talk to his enemies. We've seen him dance around them in previous games and what not, but in this game he almost comes off as sarcastic and kind of confrontational. Must be in the spirit of competition right? I mean how can Kirby be a mean little guy? Anyway... 

The graphics for this game are beautiful. Kirby's Avalanche was released later in the SNES's life and the graphics and sound for that matter show how far the creators were able to push the system. As with the other colored Kirby games, Avalanche is very bright and beautiful. The soundtrack consists of remixed versions of songs heard in both Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Course. The only original song is the panic music that is actually from the Eastern version of the game, Super Puyo Puyo. 

There really isn't too much more to say about this game. It's a great puzzle game that can get pretty intense especially when playing against friends. On a scale of 1 to 10 I can easily give it a solid 8. It does a ton of things right as a puzzle game while being basically a clone of it's Eastern counterpart with Kirby characters. *Another Fun Fact: There is another clone of Puyo Puyo out there. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine released on the Sega Genesis.* 

Final Verdict: 8 out of 10. Kirby's Avalanche is a great take on a classic puzzle game... With a little bit of attitude!

As always thanks for reading. The Kirby Series will continue soon with Episode VI: Kirby's Dream Land 2 where Kirby returns to his roots on the Game Boy. My next blog though will be a quick top 5 list featuring my top 7 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies! Till next time... 

Disney's The Lion King Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to Hydra Gaming. Before we get started on reviewing The Lion King, I want to take a quick look back at Disney's and Nintendo's gaming past. For those of you who never played a classic Disney game, you are really missing out. The Nintendo Entertainment System brought some of the best Disney games that were ever seen to life such as Duck Tales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. Countless other Disney games were also made with varying success such as Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, but the ones that in my books always played the best and felt the best were those that Capcom was involved in. Even The Little Mermaid on the NES I found to be a lot of fun. Sure some games were geared for younger crowds, but even those had their challenges. That's really something that I feel is lacking in Disney games of today, a challenge. Speaking of challenges, some of the most challenging Disney games I feel can be found on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Games such as Aladdin, The Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse, and The Lion King all stand up today as great and often difficult games. Even Sega had a great exclusive Disney game in the form of Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse. Out of all of those great games, one of them I find stands out as the most difficult and is certainly one of the best made, and that game ladies and gentlemen is The Lion King.

Before going any further, this review will be for the Super Nintendo version of the game. The game was also released on the Sega Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and Game Gear, but I will not be basing my review of the game off of those systems. So... The game was developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive. It was released on the SNES on December 8th, 1994. The game follows the same plot as the movie which goes by the same name.

You start out playing as Simba, a young lion cub destined to be king. You run around the pride lands, get tossed around by monkeys and rhinos to the tune of "I Just Can't Wait to be King", explore the elephant graveyard to the tune of "Be Prepared", experience the stampede that thanks to you're own personal mistrust in you're evil uncle, Scar, and a herd of wildebeest, killed your father and caused you to run into a massive thorn forest. Be rescued by Timon and Pumbaa, grow up in the jungle, and return to Pride Rock to defeat you're now king evil uncle, Scar. Sounds simple right? Well for a Disney game, this is anything and I mean anything but easy.

Now that we have the plot out of the way let's look at the gameplay! The game is largely a platformer with a couple levels that stray a bit from the classic platform formula. The controls are I would say okay for the most part. There are several areas in the game where you have to make literally a split second move or face an instant death. Speaking of death, Simba does have a health bar that will deplete as enemies hit him... Unless he falls into the water, or hit's a random object like a tree branch while riding an ostrich, then he's just dead. Not much else to say really, it's a classic style game that for the most part handles well.

Graphically though this game looks like a movie. In fact Walt Disney Animators actually had a hand in creating the sprites and backgrounds for the game. Added to the movie looks is the movie sounds. As I mentioned earlier, if you couldn't figure it out, the game's music is actually remade music from the movie. So fans of the movie can certainly say they know the tunes I'm referring to. If you've lived under a rock and never have seen The Lion King, then go watch it. I don't know what else to tell you!

  

As you can see from the screenshot above, the game really is a very pretty one. 

Now for the big deal here... This game is very difficult, even on the easiest setting. However, the boss fights, or mostly lack there of are nothing to write home about. Basically jump on the hyena or whatever a few times. Later in the game when you grow up you gain the ability to claw enemies and bosses as well with your massive lion claws. Another ability that Simba, both young and old has is his roar which affects a variety of enemies. 

The real difficulty comes in the platforming and scenarios where you can be killed in one hit. I can't stress enough that this adds a great deal of difficulty because you have to be literally 100% perfect with certain jumps or you are d e a d.  Through all the difficulties though, defeating Scar is not really that difficult, but to get to him you need to do some perfect swinging and platforming. I found that harder than the actual fight against Scar.

Overall I give The Lion King a pretty solid 8 out of 10. The game is pretty well put together, but the sometimes awkward controls and seemingly impossible to survive jumps (till you actually survive one) hurts the game a tad, but it doesn't take much away as far as overall enjoyment is concerned. Other issues are again minor such as the length of the game. In my opinion it's a bit short, but the challenge more or less makes up for that. I would have also liked to have seen some between level text or something so that people who have never seen The Lion King can figure out what's going on in the game. 

Final Verdict: 8 out of 10. The Lion King on the SNES is a real challenge, but an enjoyable one with a few minor flaws and nothing more. 

Thank's for reading as always! The next blog will be a return to the Kirby Series in the form of Kirby's Avalance!

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Review

Hello again everyone and welcome back to Hydra Gaming. People all over the country are going crazy over the final Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer and it's safe to say the hype is real. All the buzz about the movie really made me want to play one of my all time favorite Star Wars games, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, on the Nintendo 64. In my opinion Rogue Squadron is one of the better Star Wars games.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron was co created by Factor 5 and LucasArts and released on the Nintendo 64 on December 7th, 1998. Before this game was released however, another Star Wars game had already rooted itself on the Nintendo 64, Star Wars: Shadow's of the Empire. While Shadows is a good and very challenging game I still find the very first level to be the most exciting. For those of you who have never played the game, I am talking about The Battle of Hoth. Piloting the Snowspeeder left me craving more and when Rogue Squadron myself was seen in stores, myself and many others got their wish... An entire game like that first mission in Shadows!

The game centers around the creation of the group known as Rogue Squadron, The leaders of this squadron are Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles and their objective is to defend the galaxy from the Empire. The game has 16 main missions and a few unlockable levels as well. The time period for you Star Wars fans of this game takes place pretty much through and in-between episodes V and VI and concludes after The Battle of Endor in episode VI. I'm not going to any further into the story as that is for you, the player, to discover and enjoy. Yes many reviews, myself included will go more into the story normally, buuuuuuuut I'm choosing not to do so for this review. 

In the game you will be able to pilot many of your favorite Rebel Alliance spacecraft. The ships that you can fly include the X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, Speeder (pretty much the Snowspeeders seen in The Battle of Hoth), and the new V-Wing. Each ship handles differently, has different setting for attacking, and secondary weapons. Also included in the game are a few unlockable ships as well. What those ships area and how you unlock them I'll leave up to you to figure out. All I can say is no two ships really even feel similar. For example the horrendous speed of the Y-Wing in my opinion is far and away okay on most missions given the sheer amount of hits it can take.Then you've got the V-Wing with it's insane boosters and rapid fire mode, At first you can only use certain ships per mission, but eventually you'll be pretty much able to use what you want when you want with the exception of missions involving AT-ATs as only the Speeder can take them down.

I'd have to say that the controls are pretty good in this game. First time players may find them a little odd, especially given that each craft handles a little differently, but once you are used to them they are actually pretty good. You can play the game in 3rd person (best), first person cockpit (causes a noticeable slow down), or first person. There are also times when the game will slow down a bit regardless of your view. Basically this is caused by the sheer amount of detail that they put into the game. When too much is happening at a time it slows down for a bit. I noticed this mostly on heavily populated levels, but again, it's not like it lasts long or anything. Now I am never one to say that graphics make the game, but the graphics in Rogue Squadron are simply put, awesome. I mentioned the detail that can sometimes cause slowdowns, well check this out.

See what I mean? There's so much going on here. You've got an extremely good looking X-Wing along with several TIE Bombers, a city in which you can see the doors and windows, the canyons off in the distance, people running on the ground, and even dirt roads. That's a ton of stuff going on given what the Nintendo 64 was capable of doing. Not to mention the fact that among all of what's on screen, the TIE bombers are also shooting lasers and often times dropping bombs as well. So much stuff, it's understandable that the game may slow a tick during it. It's not just during gameplay though that things look so gosh darn beautiful! 

Even selecting which level and craft you want to play/fly is a beautiful and detailed experience. Now if you've read any of my previous blogs you know I like music in video games and that I think music does a ton to help a game be something great. Here is no exception. From the moment you load this game up you are immersed in the Star Wars universe at the main menu thanks to the music. The classic Star Wars theme is of course in the game, but most of the music is new or remixed versions of songs you may have heard before in the Star Wars movies. The music will also often change slightly based on what's going on around you. When engaged in battles, the level's music will often shift. Other times, such as flying over the farm on Tatooine, will also cause the music to slightly change. It's such a small thing to have in the game, but it adds so much to it. I still remember the first time I played this game and I was wowed by the musical changes throughout that I would literally just fly around certain areas to hear the music. (Yeah when I was younger I would aimlessly fly around in this game when bored)

Speaking of sounds, the sound effects themselves are also extremely good. The lasers sound straight out of the movies, the explosions sounds like small explosions for the most part, there is a ton of speaking that can be heard in the game, which for a Nintendo 64 title, was not all that common, and surround sound allowed things like shooting down a TIE fighter to become as if the thing was passing you while it crashed. It all sounds brilliant, and hey it looks brilliant to boot too.

Now there is a ton of good to me seen in Rogue Squadron, but there are also a couple issues that I have with the game. One of them I've already mentioned, that being the random slowing down of the game. Another minor issue I have with this game is how it ranks you. The rankings are in the form of medals and they are bronze, silver, and gold as you may have expected, but the requirements for obtaining these medals are sometimes quite frustrating. Your completion time, enemies destroyed, friendly saves, bonuses collected, and accuracy determine which medal you receive. My biggest issue with this is the accuracy as I can't count how many times I've missed out on a gold medal by missing 1% accuracy. In a game where you have unlimited ammo and have many crafts that basically have a slow rapid fire, in my opinion having accuracy as a requirement to unlock things is just a little bit, well, unneeded. Honestly I love just firing as many shots as I can into a mass of TIE fighters as opposed to trying to focus on one and basically fire one laser at a time so I don't have to worry about my accuracy. I will say though that there are fewer satisfying things in the game than seeing this...

Other than that I really can't find much wrong with the game. Some people say that the lack of multiplayer is a huge problem. I disagree with this as yes it would have been great to fly alongside a friend, but given that the game has that slowing down issue, I feel that it would only cause that to become more frequent. Would a battle mode have been nice? Sure it would have been cool to be able to take your favorite Rebel Alliance crafts and pilot them against your friends in 4 player combat, but hey at least we have Star Fox 64's battle mode to pilot against eachother right???? RIGHT??? Sadly though that mode does not exist in this game, but the lack of it I don't think hurts the game at all. 

I am happy to say that I can give Star Wars: Rogue Squadron a 9 out of 10. The tiny issues of occasional slow downs and the frustration with the medal system are such minor things in the grand scheme of this game. If you are a Star Wars fan and have never played this game, I highly suggest you check it out. Don't have a Nintendo 64? Give Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D a shot on PC then! 

Final Verdict: 9 out of 10!

Thanks as always for reading! Coming up next I will be taking a look at Disney's The Lion King for the Super Nintendo followed by returning to the Kirby Series for Episode V: Kirby's Avalanche!