N64 Magazine Issue 6

Introduction

N64 Magazine went RPG mad in this issue, with a feature including all the forthcoming games, especially Zelda 64 and Holy Magic Century as FuSoYa talked us through everything we needed to know, including his personal opinion on each of the games. There was also a look at what the 64DD might bring for RPGs and a special Ask FuSoYa section. This the first appearance of Wil Overton in his FuSoYa outfit, further helping to show the personality of the magazine, with the photoshoot being reused for many issues to come. There was also a rather large preview of Silicon Valley, trying to explain the concept of the game as best they could and also looked at Rev Limit and Duke Nukem. 

In the news this month Namco finally committed to games on the N64 with their first game announced in the form of baseball simulator Famista 64. This raised speculation that Tekken or Ridge Racer could be released in the N64 - Ridge Racer did make it onto the 64, although it took nearly 3 more years. There was also the first mention that Starfox 64 would be renamed Lylat Wars for legal reasons in the UK.

There wasn’t much in the way of decent new games reviewed in this issue, but Starfox got a US release and Mario 64 and Wave Race got rumble pack re-releases in Japan - which both scored the same as their original reviews. In the UK we got two US sports games, Wayne Gretzky’s 3D hockey and NBA Hangtime, which scored 75 and 52% respectively.

The Mario Kart 64 championship moved into it’s second stage this month, with over 100 entries posted. Zy took Pilotwings 64 to pieces, with a full guide to all the different vehicles and modes in the game and there was also a feature about what your favourite Mario Kart character says about you. I’m the best had an expansion in this issue, moving from the mailbox into a feature of its own, and invited readers to send their scores in for a range of N64 games. 

In the back of the mag feature this month, Tim took a deep look into some of the classic 16-bit games in this issue, and specifically how they were being reinvented for the N64. They covered the usual Shigeru Myamoto/Nintendo games, such as Mario and F-Zero, and a bunch of others, such as Donkey Kong and Goemon. They also touched on some speculative ones, such as Street Fighter 64, definitely over optimistic of its chances!