NES-Hacks: Your home for Wii and DS Hacking!

What a wonderful series it has been. Starting off from it's roots on the SNES, Starfox 64 promised a lot more in terms of graphics, speed, and communication. The game was designed completly around your cockpit view. It's hard to believe you would ever get control of your ship at first, but after a few minutes of playing, the phrase "Do a Barrel Roll" will mean something completly different to you!

Well, the storyline isn't much. Andross is trying to take over, you (Fox McCloud) and your team are called in to save the universe and whatnot. So take control of your ship and fly to Corneria, a major city that has been destroyed by enemies. The game sets you off with a lot of open space at first in which to practise your flying skills. Which will come to help later in the game. Within a matter of minutes, you're flying with your 3 team members into the city ready to shoot up any enemies in site. The game progresses in a steady pattern, so there isn't any way to go backwards or leave the predetermined trail. You have to be careful of buildings, enemies, and look out for upgrades and bonuses all the time. As you can imagine, the game can be lucid at some times, but can also turn into a blitzkrieg style rampage on some of the "busier" stages.

Starfox 64 in itself was pretty revolutionary for it's time. I mean, come on, you fly a plane over cities, water, and enemies. It was no less than an engineering accomplishment to say the least. The physics involved are the game are more arcade style than realistic, but it all adds to the fun and design of the game. The game makes it so that you are always aware you are controlling your aircraft, but at the same time plants the foucs on destroying enemies. One of the best features about the game is the on screen cursor. It points you in the direction you're flying, but moves in real time. It takes the game physics GREATLY into effect by making sure that the movements aren't overprecise. After getting used to the game though, you start to rely more on your own aim and skill, but it tends to give an easy introduction into the game. The rumble pack just added a whole new dimension to the game. A relativly new invention at the time, swiping something or getting hit would cause a violent rumble that could so much a jar you off course. Accelerating would give you that feel as well. It was a great step towards realism!

Now now now, if this game has one problem, it's that it is short. If you put your mind to it and know the game decently, you could blaze through it in an hour. That isn't to say it's not fun. It does take considerable skill to collect every item in the game and all of the rings on each level... something I still have problems with to this day. But this game is on the list just because of it's fun. It's a good introduction to First Person Shooter type games, because it is, but it isn't. You do take control of your plane (from a 3rd person view) and fly it yourself, but there's also the element of destroying enemies. It's the introduction to a lot of fighter combat games. Something else I think is great is the learning curve. I got this game when I was little, and remember taking a while to learn the controls. After a while though, I had no difficulty flying. However, I could not (as was my age) collect all of the rings on each course. Sure, it was fun to pick up adn play, but I played it for different reasons then than I do now.

All in all, Starfox 64 was fun! It's one of those games where you're not satisfied until it's over. Each level is different, but it still follows your storyline through the galaxy. The game only gets faster towards the end, when you WILL find yourself in a frantic frenzy to stay alive. The game was not overly difficult, but was something you can find fun. And while the multiplayer mode was not too deep, it can be one of the best features of the game when you get 4 really good players in the room. The maps are large enough to spread out so you can plan your attack, but small enough that they're not too many places to hide. It's a great mix of fun and beauty from one of Nintendo's most well-produced titles!

Not the first Mario game ever, but defiantly one of the most refined. Super Mario World for the SNES latched on to Super Mario Bros 3’s use of the overworld to create a (at the time) cutting edge game. You encounter different terrain and enemies as
you  travel through different places, and have the opportunity to unlock MANY secrets during gameplay. The game was the launch title for the SNES, and to this date is one of the best selling games of all time, and indefinitely the best selling game on the SNES. It was the true introduction of Yoshi, and (before Super Mario 64) captured the essence of the Mario franchise.

If you’ve played Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES, you will notice the basis for the game is very similar. From the main map (overworld) you select the level you wish to go to, and press A to enter the level. The level is a side-scrolling level filled with enemies, power-ups, and sometimes treacherous terrain. Your job is to make it to the end of the level. This may seem easy, but when you factor in rows of Koopas, moving platforms where there is no ground to fall on, and even giant spikes dropping at break-neck speed from the ceiling, the game proves to be tough. On top of that, there is a castle at the end of each “area” on the overworld with a unique boss. On top of that, there were hidden levels in every area (except the first) which could only be unlocked through careful level exploration. If you haven’t heard of Special World (or more sad: Star World) go bury your head in the sand for a few years. The game had secrets that people would be stumped on for ages. What were those two pipes for in Donut Plains? Why was there a fortress above butter bridge?

The game set a staple and an exclamation point on the Mario series up to this point. This game incorporated everything from the first 3 NES Mario games: You had awesome, addicting gameplay, you had Koji Kondo’s unforgettable tunes, you had new graphics never before seen in the video game industry, and you revitalized Nintendo. The story that goes deeper into this game was that Nintendo needed something to knock of the Sega Genesis and it’s franchise series, “Sonic the Hedgehog”. Big N upped the ante to push out a game so stunning that Sega sales could not compete. In the process, Nintendo created a timeless game. If you say SNES to anyone, the first game that pops into their heads is this one. Nintendo chose not to focus so much on beating the game, or too much importance on unlocking secrets, but they made the game fun. To this day, people are still trying speed runs for this game, and reliving it on their SNES. The game itself was the first game to say “buy this console to play this awesome game”. In fact, the only complaint many people had about the SNES at this point was that it wasn’t backwards compatible. But did that stop sales? The SNES quickly surpassed anything the NES had (in North America at least) to become Nintendo’s biggest platform (until the N64)

Think about it. How memorable is this game to you? If you’ve played the game before, let’s go over some things: Hum the theme to the first level, replay the first level in your head, count how many switch palaces there are, count how many levels there are in star and special world, how many rooms are there to choose from in bowser’s castle? Like it or not, the game was memorable. Not even the next Mario installment (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island) could surpass sales.

In conclusion Super Mario World is a timeless game. Changing the video game industry into more of an interactive stage for the gamer, it converted fans of the NES into hardcore fans of the SNES, Nintendo did not make a single fault in the game, creating something that will be played for decades. The icing on the cake is the Virtual Console title for the Wii, which has the 2nd most sales behind Super Mario 64. The Mario franchise hit a revolutionary point with SMW that likely won’t be reached again by another Mario game.

Racing games are hard to come by… or should I say were hard to come by. There wasn’t much doing in this world. We started with Super Mario Kart, which was one of the first real racing games (other than Pole Position) and progressed to F-Zero. However, people wanted something, fun, and a bit more realistic. And when Nintendo does it, why not throw Mario into it along with the N64’s new 3D graphics? Throw all of the goodies in together to get Mario Kart 64, one of the most monumental racing games in video game history. So what if it wasn’t realistic cars driving around at top speeds? It was a fun game with replay value to this day.

The premise is extremely simple: Choose your character, choose the tournament that you want to compete in, and select your difficulty. Simple right? Well, the racing itself is a whole different style of driving. You can try and pull your “Pro Auto Racer” moves and hit every apex, but you still won’t win. You can try to drift through every corner, but you still won’t win. So what does it take? All around skill. You need to be able to get a good start, so that when the first block of items come, you’re able to get an item. And since every Kart is evenly matched, you have to worry about trying  to build your lead. One mistake can have the whole pack flying past you, but the use of a mushroom in the right place can send you soaring through the field. Once you master drifting around turns and using items effectively, you can start to gain an advantage on the rest of the pack. You also need to watch out for the different terrain in tracks, such as no walls to save you from falling off of a cliff, or water which will slow you down.

In this way, it’s really anyone’s game. My 6 year old cousin to this day can manage to beat me at some tracks. If you can’t use items effectively, you can’t win races in the higher difficulty ranges. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t too hard, but it makes you take a different approach to driving. There is a lot of slide when you steer, so you will definitely need to overcompensate a lot. It’s also pretty hard to take turns correctly when you have 3-4 other drivers around you. This defiantly is more of an arcade style racer, but when you incorporate  sim racing elements, the game gets fun! Try beating star cup on 150 CC difficulty.

I think the true nature of the game relies in multi-player mode: Battle and Versus. Battle is exactly like it sounds: You drive around in an arena (of which there are many to choose from) and use items to try and hit your enemies. Three hits and they’re out! If you get three other people who have been playing the game for a while, it’ll get really hard to win! Versus is the multiplayer mode we all think about: everyone gets put on a track and see who can finish first. What makes this mode so effective is the nature of the game. When one of your friends is tailing you ready to make a pass, throw a banana behind you to spin them out. You can be leading by a few seconds, but when a red shell comes from behind you’ll be instantly back in the pack.

There’s more to racing to  just racing itself.

All in all, Mario Kart 64 set the standard for racing games to come. While realistic driving simulators won’t take any cues from this game, most people will have a ton of fun playing it. Even though Super Mario Kart came before Mario kart 64, the camera angles, 3D graphics, and the levels were memorable. Battle mode was the impeccable multiplayer mode at the time for killing friends and foes alike. We even have remakes of the levels and characters living on from Double Dash, to Mario Kart DS. Mario Kart is a franchise that does a great job attempting to modernize itself with each new iteration of the game.