Even Nintendo themselves were surpassed by the west in showing what the N64 was capable of. Japanese support sucked for the console in general but this was like a curse. Generally, Japanese 3rd party developers simply couldn't code properly for the N64.
Games like World Driver Championship or (ΙΜΟ) Rush 2049 (a bit ugly art direction but very complex backgrounds) or Beetle Adventure Racing, or even Stunt Racer 64 (with it's crazy animated backgrounds and long view distance) are much more representative of what the N64 can do if used properly.
RR64 looks good but it also doesn't make full use of the hardware like RR Type-4 does for the PS1 (or at least that's what i think, the game is one of the best looking racers for the PS1). Them being able to take care of monster lairs played into that.When i do comparisons, i usually compare the best looking games of one console with the best looking games of the other.
The whole point of the game is that you teach the people to the point where they don't need you. There's also a sort of tower defense minigame that seems to work a little like Final Fantay VII's Eagle Rock. Instead of villagers taking care of monster lairs, you now descend for a short 2D fight against spider-pod-like monster generators. I've played a bit more and there's some interesting additions to the town mode. Instead of mismatched sprites and textures, here it's like the animation is pretty smooth but the textures look and feel more like Donkey Kong Country from the SNES and not exactly in a good way. Yeah I think the FF remake is a good analogy for this. In an era that actually appreciates great pixel art (Celeste, et al), it’s completely inexcusable that we keep doing this. I’m not exactly a purist when it comes to these things, but… yeech. It’s almost like we’ve learned absolutely nothing from the terrible Final Fantasy VI remake from a few years ago. They don't really pop out at me, and just kind of mix together. While they are in higher resolution, they just don't seem to have as much style as the 16 bit sprites. They could, of course, avoid that, and have Peach as a fully realised and empowered character that is friendly to Mario and Luigi, but not romantically linked to either of them. ** Presuming, of course, they go with romance between Mario and Peach. * Not because Bob Hoskins defined the role or anything, just because he was at least the right body type to play the character. At least then the obvious problem with casting someone who doesn't look like Bob Hoskins* as Mario is somewhat ameliorated.Īnd the problem with Pratt playing against a romantic lead substantially younger than him**.Īnd the really bad makeup from the original movie. I saw the fuss on social media about Pratt being cast, but didn't realise it was CGI animation. You don't make it clear if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Sadly Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper are dead, and John Leguzamo won't touch a Mario movie with a ten foot pole.