N64 Magazine Issue 23

Introduction

Back in 1998, there was only one game on every gamers minds - Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the magazine came with a spectacular promise of a review of this great game. However, the review only actually covered the first part of the game, with Wil Overton only really being able to play the first dungeon at an event he attended. This also meant that the magazine couldn’t give a score at the end of the review - having promised that they would complete all games before they gave a score - instead they asked readers to come back next month to see the final score, they did promise that it would be a star game, and hopefully gave readers (and readers parents) enough of an incentive to buy the game as a Christmas present.

The magazine came with quite a unique free gift, the game rack, with space for up to 6 game cartridges. There was a feature in the magazine where each member of the team came up with their 6 best games of the Christmas season, to fill their game racks with. Unsurprisingly every member of the team chose zelda, whilst games like Turok and F-Zero were also mainstays. There was also a look at the worst games as well as the games that noone had chosen but were still great - like Glover and V-Rally.

Actually reviewed this issue were Wipeout 64 and XG2, and combined with F-Zero (reviewed the previous issue) it proved to be the fastest Christmas on record! Wipeout scored 88% and XG2 scored 85% - with praise across the board for both games - Wipeout winning out based on its soundtrack. There was another NFL head to head with Martin pitching Madden 99 against NFL quarterback club 99. Quarterback club got the slight edge scoring. 90% to Madden's 88%. They also re-reviewed Turok 2 as the release was delayed by a few weeks to try and improve some issues with the game - although the score didn't change.

There was a V-Rally guide in this issue, which also doubled up as a chance to win a brand new car. The “i’m the best at Banjo" competition also reached its conclusion this issue - with some excellent times allowing readers to win some hard cash. At the back of the mag Dr Kitts also made his first appearance, with a quiz to test readers knowledge on videogames and to inform them of where they should go to get more information.