15 years ago, when the 1990s were in their waning years, the world was a much different place– or at least it seems that way now when looking back. Pop culture had this ethereal and bubbly feel to it, as if nothing else mattered. You just had to be there, man.

In particular, many video games of the time had this in-your-face attitude about them, pumped full of licensed music and extreme sports. These games were mostly forgettable and unremarkable, but one extreme game stood above the rest. It flew in the face of expectations by emphasizing realism over showmanship, and it came to us from Nintendo EAD of all studios. This was 1080° Snowboarding for the Nintendo 64.

Producer Shigeru Miyamoto stepped away from the fantasy worlds he was familiar with and supervised this game about realistic and responsive snowboarding. Luckily, it turned out great. Nintendo’s reputation for polish in all aspects of a game is always dependable, and it definitely applies to snowboarding in 1080°. The game managed to perfectly translate the feel and control of boarding, sliding, turning, and jumping onto a controller.

Seriously, I haven’t ever played another sports game with more precise and complex controls. Your pitch and angle of turning in 1080° is guided by incremental twists of the joystick, not a one-to-one ratio of direction. Jumping has to be timed at the crux of momentum for the best results, and just because you get up in the air doesn’t mean you’ll safely land; you have to level up your board with the ground to complete the maneuver.

Oh, and the tricks are insane. 1080° is a snowboarding game for the trick perfectionist. Do you like effortlessly doing twirls and flips in the air with a perfect landing every time? Don’t play this. You actually have to rotate the stick 360 degrees while hitting the appropriate button to execute a full spin. This compounds for every trick with additional spins, so it’s no exaggeration to say that pulling off the revered 1080 will take hours, if not days, of practice. I can barely do the 540. These actions take some serious finesse, which you’re only going to have after mastering the game’s complex controls.

However, despite its depth, simple joy can be found in 1080° Snowboarding from the pure fun of racing and boarding. These modes require little technical knowledge of the game, and are easily playable by those who are still stuck on the bunny hill. You get a great sense of speed and momentum when your boarder goes careening down a snowy mountainside. Sliding back and forth is a ton of fun, as is shoving other racers into the snowdrifts with a firm nudge. It’s also interesting to try out the various playable characters to test out their respective boarding styles on all sorts of terrain.

However, if you don’t think snowboarding is inherently amusing, 1080° most likely won’t be a worthwhile investment of your time. There’s no special item attack, no loop-de-loops, and no cartoon effects. It’s a bit uncharacteristic for a first party Nintendo game, but so it goes. The developers were aiming for realism and precision here, a prolific example of a solid snowboarding video game, if you will. But there is a place for the wacky snowboarding, in the form of the excellent Atlus game Snowboard Kids, also for Nintendo 64.

But the serious and technical nature of 1080° is probably why it remains so playable today. Great care was put into the collision physics, polygon display, and accurate portrayals of inertia and momentum. Contemporaries of the time were blow away by the level of depth found in this simple snowboarding game, and I don’t think there has been such an advanced game in the genre since. The sequel, 1080° Avalanche, had the technical control scheme greatly scaled back in favor of faster speeds and flashier tricks. Avalanche fell back into the entrapment of the 1990s that the original N64 game tried so hard to escape, the typical in-your-face spectacle of extreme sports.

It’s interesting, then, that we have not seen a new entry into this series for a decade now. What happened? Is the world just not ready for a new snowboarding game from Nintendo? While we ponder these questions, 1080° Snowboarding for Nintendo 64 still soldiers on. It’s been on the Wii Virtual Console for a while now, a testament to its staying power. Something tells me that the game will also make an appearance on the Wii U Virtual Console at some point as well.

1080° Snowboarding tests player mettle, endurance, and tenacity. It’s a great showcase of the Nintendo 64′s technical power and still remains an enjoyable snowboarding romp to this day. Why not break out the old cartridge (or Wii download, as it were) and hit the slopes once again? It’s time to… “Work ya body! W-Work ya body!”

I often find myself thinking of racing games in rather unflattering terms. Certainly, their emphasis on ‘get to the thing first’ puts them very firmly in the gameplay-focused category of video games and my penchant for a strong story and engaging characters often means I can’t find a lot to get excited about. Nintendo seems to be a company that feels much the same, having only two popular racing series among their repertoire– the quirky and fast-paced Mario Kart games and the futuristic high-speed racing of F-Zero.

When I bought my first Nintendo 64 back in 2007 (for I was one of those annoying kids born too late for gaming’s golden age) I got hold of it with six games, but the one I was least able to tear myself away from was F-Zero X.

F-Zero X follows much the same trajectory as the other F-Zero games in that it takes place on a series of airborne tracks populated by about two dozen jet-fuelled racers zooming around at frankly unsafe speeds. What distinguished this game from its SNES predecessor, though, was the improved hardware of the console. It allowed for the use of 3D effects which simply had not been possible on SNES, and instead of merely handling tight turns and jumps, players could now direct their character to wrap around angled and circular sections of track, such that it really did feel futuristic and exhilarating.

In these days of high definition and bloom effects all over the place, the graphical fidelity of F-Zero X is probably not tremendously impressive, but it’s worth noting that, in my opinion at least, it had some of the finest visuals on the Nintendo 64. The menu graphics were all well-drawn and suitably arcade styled, while the aforementioned airborne tracks had high-polygon models and very vivid visual effects. Of particular note are the racers themselves, which look fantastic– almost GameCube quality– and zooming around the track gave them a particularly large draw distance.

Still, I would be remiss not to mention the real draw of the game, and that’s its many different modes and options. Sure, you could easily push through the main tournaments in a few hours if you had reasonable patience and enough beta blockers to stave off the insanity brought on by the maddening difficulty. You could leave the game there, never touching the other modes, but then you’d be missing out on what made F-Zero X such a classic game– of course, I’m talking about Death Race.

Death Race was a minigame of sorts, but it managed to occupy a dozen hours of my time in my younger years. Rather than following the race format of the other F-Zero X modes, Death Race was, as the title suggests, a fight to be the last racer alive from a starting pack of thirty. It was based on zooming around a track bashing other cars at extremely high speed in order to kill their occupants– subject matter rather adult for a Nintendo game, it has to be said. It was hard, too. Colliding with other vehicles harmed yours too, and unless you wanted to meet your maker in a fiery fashion, it was in your interest to keep healing using the pads on the side of the road. Don’t repair often enough? Death for you.

It would be very refreshing to see F-Zero revived for a new generation, since it’s been a whole decade since the GameCube installment and Mario Kart is a little slow for my tastes. Hey, if we can bring back Earthbound, anything can happen!

Recently, I picked up The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia from Dark Horse Comics. If you haven’t read it, it’s a must have for any Zelda fan. Feeling nostalgic, and a little bit guilty for not getting too far in Skyward Sword, I decided to try out a Zelda game that I received as part of the 3DS’ ambassador program: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. While Zelda games tend to be highly regarded, The Minish Cap is one that I’ve never heard all that much about, which only piqued my curiosity more. What I found is a game that deserves to be held in much higher regard.

The game starts out with a sorcerer named Vaati invading the kingdom of Hyrule while searching for the mythical Light Force. After shattering the Picori Blade, he unleashes monsters on the land of Hyrule before turning the game’s titular princess to stone. Knowing that only the Picori Blade can stop Vaati and that only children can see the long lost Picori race, the king enlists Zelda’s childhood friend, Link, to rescue his daughter. Along his journey, Link encounters a talking hat by the name of Ezlo, who grants him the ability to shrink to the height of the Picori, and the two set off on a quest to fix the blade, save Zelda and rid Hyrule of Vaati’s evil.

The Minish Cap is a bit of an odd Zelda title. For starters, it deviates quite a bit from more traditional Zelda games. When the game came out in early 2005, there were very few games in the series not to feature Ganon or the Triforce. Instead, the game provided us with origins and backgrounds for Vaati and the Four Sword, neither of which had ever really been fleshed out when they first appeared in earlier Zelda titles. While the Zelda series has recently started to steer towards new villains and stories, The Minish Cap can be viewed as one of the earliest examples of this. The game has the same 2D top-down Zelda core we’ve seen since the ’80s, but it brings in a lot of new ideas that make it feel fresh at the same time.

The game’s focus on the ability to shrink and grow to solve puzzles and defeat bosses adds a unique wrinkle to the gameplay. While Zelda fans have always been hesitant to embrace “gimmicks” (such as Link’s ability to turn into a wolf in Twilight Princess), I enjoyed the way that puzzles required you to switch back and forth between different heights. The game’s design takes full advantage of this, as Link must ride on leaves to cross small ponds, and sometimes minor enemies like the Chuchu become boss battles when Link is smaller.

This also brings us to the game’s art design. The Minish Cap is a really sharp looking game, and the whole world is really complemented by the perspective we see when Link is shrank down. While the land of Hyrule doesn’t look all that different from what we’ve seen in other 2D Zelda games, the world gets a neat makeover when we see it from a Picori perspective. The guys at Capcom did a wonderful job of designing the Minish Village and other smaller areas that Link must navigate. I also really liked the design of Ezlo. He’s probably the best “sidekick” Link has ever had, and I’d love to see him pop up again sometime. Unlike Navi, you won’t be sick of him by the end of the game.

The game’s music is probably some of the best to come out of a Game Boy Advance title as well. Familiar Zelda songs and sounds are breathtakingly recreated. My only recommendation is that you use a pair of headphones. The Game Boy Advance’s speakers (and the 3DS’s) just don’t do the music the same amount of justice.

That’s not to say the game is without its shortcomings (no pun intended). Many die-hard Zelda fans have found that the game length leaves a bit to be desired as The Minish Cap only features six dungeons in total. While I found this to be ideal for the handheld format, I can see why some Zelda purists would be turned off by it. Some of the game’s puzzles can also be really, really hard to solve. There were more than a few times that I had to hunker down, look at the map and troubleshoot an area with just about every tool at my disposal.

The game also introduces a system called Kinstone Fusion. Throughout the game, players will find items known as Kinstones, which look like a medal broken in half. By combining these Kinstones with other NPCs, “something good will happen,” as the game vaguely puts it. This results in rupees and hearts showing up in random places throughout Hyrule and, sometimes, even major puzzles being solved. The problem is, Kinstone Fusion almost feels a little too forced in those puzzles. Instead of feeling natural, like using the Gust Jar to push your leaf raft across a pond, it feels like the game could have made you do just about anything in these scenarios.

Another problem is that The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap will KILL your hands towards the end of the game. While I never had too much difficulty with extended play, the final boss battle left my hands and thumbs aching. After dying on my first couple of tries, I actually decided to throw on a movie so I could rest my hands for a while before I went back and finished off the game.

While The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap will never be as highly regarded as series titles like Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past, it’s certainly one of the more underrated games to bear the Zelda name. There’s an undeniable charm to the Picori people, Ezlo and just about everything else unique to the game. It also added new concepts to the series and provided us with the origins of both Vaati and the Four Sword. Fans of the Zelda series would do well to give the little guy a chance if they haven’t already.

Nobuo Uematsu is about as beloved a video game composer as Zelda and Mario maestro Koji Kondo. In fact, considering he has a regular series of Distant World concerts that celebrates the music of Final Fantasy the world over, you could even say he’s more popular than our favourite Nintendo songsmith…

But where’s the fun in making a list of tracks that everyone already knows and loves? With such a large repertoire at his disposal, even discounting the non-Nintendo tunes, such a task would be almost impossible. Instead, I’m going to count down my Top Ten alternative Final Fantasy songs– because for every iconic character theme and heart-thumping boss battle, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of slightly lesser known songs that are just as stirring and soulful as all those other tracks everyone keeps on harking about. So get ready to turn up those speakers, because this is going to be one musical journey like no other…

Despite Nintendo’s international presence, it’s still a Japanese company through and through. Nearly every single game published by Nintendo comes from Japanese developers, save the few exceptions like Retro Studios. Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America are left with the lofty task of bringing these games from Japan to Western territories. It’s a long process that involves translation, tweaking, licensing, and distribution. America and Europe are much larger than Japan, both in population and geographical size, so releasing a game in each territory is no small task.

Of course, the vast majority of releases from the Big N go on to become hits around the world, but there are many games that never see the light of day outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Why is this? Some games are deemed “too Japanese” for Western release, some games don’t get the sales to justify a wide release, and others are just left in limbo for what seems like no reason at all. The popularity of many Nintendo series and the rise of downloadable games have helped bring some Japan-only games out of the country, but many others remain stuck in their country of origin. And we weep. And then we import, we emulate, and we translate. Let’s take a look at some games which have still never had an official release outside of Japan to this day. Behold, the Top Ten games to never leave Japan!

]]> http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/top-ten/top-ten-games-that-never-left-japan/feed 8 http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/versus-snes-or-n64 http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/versus-snes-or-n64#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:00:18 +0000 Nintendojo Staff http://www.nintendojo.com/?p=90397

Hello everyone, and welcome to Versus! This is where various Nintendojo writers debate and discuss all manner of gaming issues. Today, Andy and I are talking about a big question. Which is better, Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64? Andy will be pulling for the SNES while I present the case of the N64. I’ve got my work cut out for me! Andy will get the first word, so take it away!

Cake walk time!

If you’re like me, you have a plethora of consoles with countless controllers dangling off cables or sitting about, free from wired constraints. Shapes and colors vary from generation to generation and manufacturer to manufacturer, but I bet there’s something all those controllers have in common: four face buttons on the right side, some sort of directional input on the left, “Start” and “Select” buttons in the middle, and a couple shoulder buttons on top.

Think about it. More than twenty years ago, Nintendo effectively set the standard for what the world would expect from the way it interacted with video games. Sure, certain designs have tweaked the formula, adding a button or two here or throwing in a couple of sticks over there, but the basic shape, layout and functionality is effectively unchanged. Heck, even when Nintendo decided to turn the world upside down with the Wii Remote, they still understood that some games simply require that classic design, and thus released Classic Controller – an obvious throwback to the SNES trailblazer we all know and love.

And I already know what you are thinking: “N64 gave us analog sticks!”

Yes, it did… and they are awesome, but it did it in one of the strangest, most obtuse designs the world has ever seen. Had they just stuck a stick on the SNES pad the world would be a much better place today.

You had to bring up the controller first, didn’t you Andy? I’m already in the hole here. Yes, yes, I must concede to you that the Super Nintendo had an all-around better controller than the Nintendo 64. But that does not count the N64 out, no way! Despite how strange the trident controller is typically considered, I believe it is one the most creative controller designs ever. Nintendo wanted to create an all new way to operate in 3D space by giving us this gamepad of endearing awesomeness. Sure, they could have rested on their laurels and gave us a rehash of the SNES controller, but that would have been no fun at all! Instead we got an iconic controller that came in dozens of amazing colors. SNES can’t boast that.

But what really matters are the games we play using those controllers, right? N64 had games in spades. Yeah, so maybe SNES had some of the greatest games ever made. N64 took those and put them in three dimensions. Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Kart 64, Body Harvest, GoldenEye 007… I could do this all day. N64 also rules the land of multiplayer. There is no way you will have as much fun with your friends playing Super Nintendo games. SNES may have the classics, but games on the N64 changed how we play forever, and we haven’t gone back since.

Seriously, play Body Harvest for N64. It’s a criminally underrated game.

It would take a fool to deny that N64 had some great games, wrote the book on 3D game design, and introduced the world to the wonder of four person multi-player. But it would take a bigger fool to ignore the fact that SNES simply had more truly amazing games.

Yes, there was Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Kirby Super Star, and all the other Nintendo norms, but those impress with every release, so lets look at what SNES did different. Actually, a lot of those Nintendo norms were born in the 16 bit world: Super Mario Kart was the first mascot kart racer, Donkey Kong Country turned a woman snatching bad guy into banana loving hero, and Star Fox was introduced into the world in all its polygonal glory.

Oh, and I would say that SNES had the better Metroid game, but N64 didn’t have one. I repeat… N64 was completely devoid of Samus Aran.

And let us not forget something that SNES did better than any other Nintendo console – it had third party support! Youngsters might not remember that there was once a time when Final Fantasy was synonymous with Nintendo, and Square even went ahead and released other amazing games, like Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana. Capcom gave us Street Fighter II, Mega Man X, and perhaps my favorite mix of nostalgia and masochism, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. And maybe this is a little too personal, but I maintain that the SNES era NHL games from EA are the best sports games ever!

Only SNES players could be bad enough dudes to fight ghost and goblins.

And one more thing! EARTHBOUND… and N64 had no Metroid.

]]> http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/versus-snes-or-n64/feed 9 http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/retro-scope/retro-scope-kirbys-adventure http://www.nintendojo.com/features/columns/retro-scope/retro-scope-kirbys-adventure#comments Fri, 01 Feb 2013 04:00:57 +0000 Mel Turnquist http://www.nintendojo.com/?p=89082

While Kirby’s Dream Land may be the first installment of the Kirby series, make no bones about it, THIS game is the first real Kirby game. This is the one that set the blueprint for all the Kirby games to come. Released in 1993 at the tail end of the NES’ run, it not only cemented Kirby’s place in Nintendo lore, it also gave folks a convincing reason to keep their NES systems around for a little longer.

The plot of the game is quite simple, by Kirby standards. Kirby is unable to dream and comes to find out that King Dedede has stolen the Star Rod and broken it up into seven different pieces, enlisting his minions to keep hold of them. Kirby travels throughout Dream Land to defeat the seven and put the Star Rod back together. Simple, right? Well, it turns out that King Dedede broke apart the Star Rod to save his people from the evil known as Nightmare. Maybe it wasn’t the most cunning plan, but you got to give him credit– he does care about his subjects. Once Nightmare invades, King Dedede then sets Kirby off with the Star Rod to go defeat Nightmare (in both forms). And then everybody lives happily ever after…at least until the next Kirby game.

The only complaint I really have is such a nitpick and comes from the result of playing almost every single Kirby game known to man– the controls. Having been so accustomed to the usual controls, I forget how to adjust to the NES controls. I keep wanting to press A twice to float but it’s not like that with the NES version. You’ve got to press up in order to start flying. Then you try to figure out how to dash and you can’t really press right twice at all. And on top of that, the transformations only have one real action, which can be a little tough to remember when you’re so used to having so many different actions per form.

That being said, once you get accustomed to it, it’s still just as much fun to play as it was when I was a kid. The graphics are pretty awesome even today, considering that this was released on NES. There’s actual textures and scenery to the game. The gameplay is still slick and still easy to maneuver (once again, once you get used to the controls), and it’s still just joy personified in a lot of ways. Some folks may give the game some grief for being “too easy,” and while you can breeze through quite a few levels, you try to tell me that Nightmare is a piece of cake to get through.

I actually have a minor confession to make– I actually had a hard time beating this game. I know, I know…but Nightmare is pretty hard. You try maneuvering through those little star bits, aiming to get a good shot on the ball of Nightmare. It took me longer than I’m proud of to finally defeat him. I felt like such an ass afterwards, but thankfully, my brother didn’t try to challenge me on it. Then again, he thought Kirby was for babies.

One thing that I like about the game is that it’s also the first instance of the Kirby series referencing itself. In the last level of the game, we play through Green Greens, the first level in Kirby’s Dream Land. Hearing that 8-bit goodness and the black and white colors really brings you back to the first time you played Kirby’s Dream Land. While I still argue that Kirby’s Adventure was the one that started it all, I still have a fond appreciation for the first one.

And how could I go without discussing the music? This game along with Final Fantasy were the two that opened my ears to video game music and made me realize that it’s more than just background music. The composer Hirokazu Ando did a great job bringing the mood to all the different levels, giving us an iconic soundtrack for the ages. No matter how many remixes I hear of the songs, I still love them, but I hold a special place for the 8-bit sounds that made me fall in love with the soundtrack. And I’m certainly not the only one who loves the music…just ask Wiz Khalifa, who sampled the World 4 music in his album. (Yes, this actually happened. He also sampled Chrono Trigger.)

Kirby’s Adventure is up there in my pantheon of All-Time Favorites which includes Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Bros. 3, A Link to the Past, and Pokémon Blue/Red/Yellow (please don’t give me grief about two of these games being current). I wasted plenty of time when I was in 3rd grade playing this game– well, at least when I would be able to get the NES from my brother and sister’s hands.

If you’re browsing this website, you’re probably a Nintendo fan. Nintendo offers some of the best video game experiences ever made, and its lasting legacy has inspired generations of gamers and developers. Nintendo has time and time again proved itself to be a successful developer, publisher, and business. Unfortunately, the people at Nintendo are only human, and it’s not a perfect company– far from it, in fact. I will always be one to vouch for the Big N, but even I admit that it’s a company that has had some huge missteps, oversights, and screw-ups happen under its watch.

So today, throw all of your admiration for Nintendo out the window because we’re going to be taking a look back at some of the most disappointing, humiliating, and downright embarrassing blunders in Nintendo history.

It’s everybody’s favorite yet least favorite thing about the internet: memes. The little inside jokes or catchphrases that come out of various avenues of entertainment. There’s a meme in everything– sports, cartoons, anime (especially anime), and video games. Naturally, Nintendo and its games have their countless upon countless memes that have evolved over time. However, which Nintendo-related memes are considered the best? I can’t give an definitive answer for that, but I can at least list my personal favorites. My only rule is that I picked one per franchise. It’s not fair if I tack it on with like five Mario ones or five Zelda ones.

So let’s skip the overly saturated introduction and let’s get down to the Top Ten Nintendo Memes!

Have you ever played a game that permeated your very soul? It started out simple enough, but soon you found yourself irrevocably drawn to the game, and it became your passion, your obsession. For me, one of those games was Harvest Moon 64. It’s not just a farm simulator, but then again none of the Harvest Moon games ever are. They are life simulators that just so happen to focus on a life where your livelihood is a farm. Harvest Moon games are very personal life simulators, as they focus on a very small village or town and the intricate relationships within. Of course, you also have the prices of produce to worry about and animals to feed.

Many fans of Harvest Moon consider the Nintendo 64 entry to be the best one of all, and I definitely agree. However, the appeal of Harvest Moon 64, or any Harvest Moon for that matter, is difficult to explain. It’s a concept that is dull on paper but fantastic in execution. Think of similar titles like Animal Crossing. How would you explain why you love these games to the uninitiated without putting a controller in their hands? But I digress.

Harvest Moon 64 tells the story of a young man, who is you. Sorry ladies, there was no female player option back then, but the role of the player is quite gender-neutral aside from the marriage system. Your grandfather has passed away, leaving his farm on the outskirts of Flower Bud Village to you. So, you decide to leave the bustle of city life and settle down by yourself on the farm with little more than a pocket full of change and a couple tools. You have to manage a profitable farm, and you will meet your new neighbors to find friendship and even love.

So, how do you make a successful farm? You plant crops, you raise animals, and you sell things. This is an ever-repeating cycle that will gradually net you more cash, allowing you to expand your home and farm. Farming is not so much a goal as it is a means. Well, that’s not entirely true because your father evaluates your farm’s progress at a certain point. However, you can keep playing Harvest Moon 64 for years and years (in-game years, I mean) on the same file. The daily grind of milking your cows and plucking your veggies only serves to fatten your wallet.

While the farming aspect of Harvest Moon 64 is fun and very satisfying, I found the greatest appeal to come from the world. This world feels alive and full of spirit, and its small land area affords it massive depth. Seasons pass, weather changes, and people grow up. Some townspeople get married, celebrate events, and even die. It’s not a comprehensive world by any means, as only certain people get married, but it makes the world rich. Every single person in the game has a home, and they have unique dialogue depending on the season. What’s more is that every person has specific likes and dislikes, and they all can become your friend. Future Harvest Moon titles have expanded upon these mechanics, but Harvest Moon 64 was really the first game to do it right. While Harvest Moon for SNES laid the groundwork, the 64 version made the game infinitely more enriching.

The world in this game is also very relaxed. Unlike a game such as Animal Crossing, the world in Harvest Moon 64 is at your mercy, and not real time. True, the days can go by in like 30 minutes, but you can walk away from the game and pick it back up years later and still continue exactly from where you left off. When I first got Animal Crossing: Wild World, I played it nearly every day for a solid 9 months. I spent so much time maintaining my town. I ended up putting the game down for a while, and when I came back, it was all ruined with weeds, cockroaches, and missing villagers. It was like I was being punished! I consider that to be a game holding your time at ransom. A game like that doesn’t respect your time, it expects to own it. Harvest Moon 64 on the other hand, is entirely inside of its own clock. I picked this game up after at least 4 years and started right off farming and visiting like nothing had changed.

This is the entire world within the game. It seems small, but it’s dense!

Harvest Moon 64 is not perfect by any means though. The game is notorious for being littered with localization errors and severe typos– Natsume doesn’t even spell its own name correctly on the title screen! There are also a myriad of strange glitches that can occur under certain circumstances, but knowledge of these can help you avoid them. However, like any game with a cult following, the flaws of Harvest Moon 64 are somewhat endearing. I think of Shenmue, whose piss-poor deadpan voice acting still manages to be captivating to those who are acquainted with its idiosyncrasies. Such is the case with Harvest Moon 64, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Harvest Moon 64 is still an incredibly engrossing game, even over 13 years later. It’s addictive, it’s endearing, and it has heart. If you pick it up for the first time now, you might not be so enthralled, but it remains a solid game nonetheless. Harvest Moon 64 comfortably sits on the list of my favorite games of all time, and I spread its gospel to any Nintendo 64 fans willing to listen. Who would have thought that a farming game would be so good?