PixlBit

Too bad this was before Diddy had a rocket barrel...

Sometimes, it seemed a bit odd how quickly Nintendo used new characters to star in spin-off games. A bit less than two short years after his debut game, Donkey Kong's nephew Diddy Kong switched his pursuit of tasty bananas to silver coins in this kart racer from the once-proud Rareware. Even stranger, Donkey Kong himself is nowhere to be found. Weirder still, most of the other characters are original creations just for this game. Regardless, this ragtag racing team appeared in a game that offered just enough variation from Mario Kart 64 to have made it worth a look.

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More like deadly farts.

Released by Konami in 1998, Deadly Arts appears to have attempted to capitalize on the lack of fighting games for the N64 at the time. The game strives for something more like martial arts than fantasy combat, which just means that it contains a limited variety of moves and generic characters. A couple of novel modes try to spice things up, but it isn't enough to make the game worthwhile.

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Speak loudly and carry a big sword.

As one of the creators of such first-person shooters as Wolfenstein 3D and DooM, the name John Romero should be familiar to any longtime FPS fan. His name certainly had meaning in the late 90's, as he would go on to form his own company and begin hyping up its first game, Daikatana for the PC. What started with a trash-talking advert and grew to three years of delays ended with such poor critical reception as to land it on the top ten list of gaming's biggest failures. None of this seemed to deter Kemco from releasing a Nintendo 64 version of the game, which appears to have been ported in three months. Playing the game, it sure seems like that's true.

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Imagine my disappointment when I found out this is, in fact, not a game about virtual tiger maulings.

As one of the first games to feature famous golfer Tiger Woods, and the only Tiger Woods endorsed game on the Nintendo 64, CyberTiger is an odd mix of realistic-style golf with light fantasy elements. The main twist is in the form of powerups that can be used in a variety of ways. I don't know why EA didn't think that a traditional golf game was good enough, as there weren't many to choose from on the Nintendo 64.

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Around the world in 80 minutes.

Released around two years after the arcade version, Cruis'n World is more than just a port. Offering new modes and features,  it's a more complete package than its predecessor, making it a worthwhile experience. Some things don't change however, and it still contains the same lackluster presentation that the series is famous (or infamous?) for.

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