Nintendo just released a trio of games on their Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack’s Nintendo 64 app. Let’s have a look at them!
Here’s what I thought of each:
Nintendo 64 App
| Game | Genre | # of Players | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080 Snowboarding | Sports (“Xtreme”) | 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen, Online) | B- |
tl;drIt’s surprising just how well the visuals in this game have aged (as long as you can overlook the pop-in and low-poly character models), and the use of rumble here is phenomenal. On the other hand, the gameplay has aged somewhat less gracefully – 1080° Snowboarding is extremely unforgiving, and players will find themselves collapsing after anything less than the most perfect of landings. It’s still a lot of fun if you can learn how to feel out its gameplay, but less patient players will probably want to skip this one. | |||
| Harvest Moon 64 | Management Simulation | 1 | C |
tl;drThis is the fourth game in the franchise, but it’s the first game since the original that truly tries to push the series forward, adding multiple new elements to the gameplay (including menus, finally!), more variety in livestock and crops, and being surprisingly closer to what we expect from modern entries in the genre. Its only real failings are its forced isometric perspective, its refusal to let players use the D-Pad instead of the analog stick, and the archaic graphics. Still, despite these flaws this game holds up okay and fans of the genre may want to give it a look. | |||
| Jet Force Gemini | Third-Person Shooter | 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen, Online), 2-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen, Online) | D+ |
tl;drThis Rare-developed Third-Person Shooter may have been impressive for its time, but by today’s standards its controls are absolutely miserable, and with only two control layouts to choose from (both bad) and no way to adjust analog stick sensitivity or reverse axis, this is a game only the nostalgic or masochistic will want to play now. | |||
Are you surprised by the Jet Force Gemini grade? I know I was. For some reason I actually remembered this game being good. All I can say is we tolerated a lot in 3D games before dual-analog controls became standard.
Both of the other games have their good points, but Harvest Moon 64 is hideously ugly by today’s standards, and woefully simple compared to every modern “farming RPG”. 1080 Snowboarding would actually fare pretty well if the gameplay wasn’t so darn unforgiving, but this is one I can see people warming up to as they get accustomed to its controls and gameplay.
All in all, this isn’t a horrible month for Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack, but two of these games have aged poorly, and the best game of the bunch was sorta’ niche even when it first came out, and remains so now.
tl;dr – The Nintendo 64 app gets three games this month, but both Jet Force Gemini and Harvest Moon 64 have aged very poorly, and 1080 Snowboarding’s high difficulty level makes it a game not everyone will like. It’s not a bad trio of games, but definitely not great either.
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