Nintendo 64 In High Resolution.

   Recently I've discovered the wonderful world of high resolution texture packs for N64 emulation programs. Basically what they do is replace the old crusty texture files with new shiny ones. While I love the crusty old textures, it's nice to see some of my old favorites with a new look. And after talking about some of these games I really want to go back and play through them again and this is a great way to inspire me to do that. While only a handful of games have a decent texture pack, the ones that do look great. Here are some photos to give you an idea of what they look like.

Both Zelda games have been re-textured, but these are all OOT. 

  Here is Mario Kart. The characters themselves haven't been re-textured because of the sicking amount of images for each one.

 

  Mario 64. 

   A different more classic looking Mario.
    

  Paper Mario.

 Banjo-Kazooie.

And probably my favorite looking one Perfect Dark. This one looks fantastic.

   With games that look this fancy, I have to play with my pinky extended. If this is something you would be interested in here is a link to an excellent forum post with a definitive list of each game with each pack. Please don't ask me for installation instructions, that's what Google is for.
 

Nintendo 64 Nostalgia Part 2

   Since everyone seemed to enjoy my Nintendo Nostalgia post, I thought I would follow up with a few more. Again this is not a definitive "Best" games list, it is simply some of my favorites that I enjoyed as a kid, and is in no particular order.

   Perfect Dark. Yesterday I talked about GoldenEye, well Perfect Dark is basically GoldenEye 2.0. The basic setup is the same, but this game had some awesome weapons, and awesome levels. I'm not sure if it is harder, but it seems like this game kicked my ass more than GoldenEye ever did. But my favorite part of the game was the co-op. This is one of the first games I remember to have co-op, and me and my neighbor would spend hours playing this game.

  Pilotwings 64. In this game, you just basically flew around in different types of flying machines completing objectives. While I enjoyed the normal gameplay. The best part for me was just flying around exploring. This was the first sandbox type game that I remember playing, and it had a huge impact on me. I will never forget putting on those giant wings and just flying around, and sometimes into those flames burning myself.

   Starfox 64. No, I haven't forgotten about this one. This is still, quite possibly, the best flying game I have ever played. I have beat this game hundreds of times, in any possible combination. I'm not sure what else I can say about this game. It's just simply amazing, if you have never played this game then you are seriously missing out.

    Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. That's right, the beginning of the Tony Hawk franchise. I was so excited when this game came out. Me and my friends were huge Tony Hawk fans, we even formed our own group that we were going to take to the X-Games. While nothing ever came of that, we still had the game. Flying downhill at break-neck speeds, grinding, flipping. But most of all the soundtrack in this game was just awesome.

   Extreme-G 2. I don't think I've put a racing game on this list yet, and we all know Mario Kart is a great game. So I'm going to talk about X-G 2. This game has you racing 2 wheeled vehicles at insane speeds. It's all you could really want in an arcade style racing game. It has heat-seeking rockets, lazers, mines, bombs, machine guns and more. This game is HARD, it kicked my ass relentlessly. I remember watching my cousin get farther in 1 hour, than I had ever gotten, and was just in awe.


   Ok, thats five more for you. I still have a good bit more which I will probably get to eventually. I also have a lot of NES and SNES games that I can get to if you guys want to see some of that.

   For part 1 click here
   For part 3 click here 
   For part 4 click here 

Nintendo 64 Nostalgia

   Earlier this week I posted a blog about NFL Blitz, so I figured I would post some of my other favorite N64 games, mainly for the nostalgia. This list is not necessarily a "best games" list, just some of my favorites that I remember, and in no particular order.

 Let me get some of the obvious ones out of the way first.

   The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Out of the two N64 Zelda games, I can't really pick a favorite, but I'm going to put Majora's Mask on this list because it doesn't get the praise that it deserves, while Ocarina gets plenty of praise. The 3 day system really made the world feel alive, and made you feel like you had an actual impact on it. I really enjoyed the mask system, being able to play some of the classic Zelda races. And the Fierce Deity Mask was just bad ass.

   Mario 64. Theres nothing I can really say about this game that hasn't been said already. It was Mario's jump into a 3 dimensional world. It showed us how good a 3D platformer could be. Yoshi even makes an appearance when you collect all the stars.

   GoldenEye 007. Another game that everyone knows and loves. GoldenEye was the grandaddy of 3D multiplayer FPS games. Going back and playing it now, this is one of the few games that just hasn't really aged well, mainly due to the controls. But back in the day GoldenEye was king.

   Banjo-Kazooie. Another 3D platformer. A bird and a bear team up to save Banjo's little sister Tooty from the evil witch Gruntilda. This game is just awesome. It's funny, the characters are great, the music is great. You can shoot eggs, fly and smash things, and visit the local witch doctor who will transform you into something useful. But what really stands out in this game for me, is the environment. Each level is very well done, and feels very involved. My favorite was Click Clock Wood, I loved that place.

   

 Jet Force Gemini. Yes another Rare game. Jet Force Gemini is a sci fi, third person shooter. You travel around from planet to planet collecting things to save your friends, or something like that I don't really remember the plot. The plot isn't really important, what is important is the game play. With lots of awesome guns, 3 playable characters (one being a flying dog with lazers on his back), and a co-op mode, this game truly is a gem...imi. Although it does suffer the same dated controls as GoldenEye.


   Okay thats 5 games, I'm going to end it here even though I'm not even a quarter of the way though my list I made. If you guys want to see some more, leave a comment and let me know.

  For part 2 click here.
  For part 3 click here.
  For part 4 click here.

NFL Blitz Awesomeness

   NFL Blitz is the greatest football game ever. Before Blitz, football video games consisted of titles like Madden which tried to simulate the sport in a realistic fashion. That may work fine today, but for me it just wasn't fun. It was tedious and frustrating.

   But hold onto your asses because here comes Blitz. They made a game that cut the bullshit and replaced it with action, lots of action. No more refs, or penalties . Any sense of fair play is gone, because this game will cheat you so hard, you will be on your knees screaming. This game was accountable for most of my broken controllers.

   Do you remember those old Blitz arcade machines with the memory card readers? You could play your own team on an arcade machine. How many games have done that? Although it seems a little redundant, it's just icing on the awesome cake that is Blitz.