N64 Magazine Issue 8

Introduction

The N64’s first Christmas in the UK began its buildup in earnest this month. Starfox was on the cover once again under its new Moniker Lylat Wars for copyright reasons. The team took great pleasure in announcing that Lylat Wars was a near perfect PAL conversion, something that had been dogging UK gamers for years with slower games and borders. Jonathan gave it 90%, praising it across the board, although he did take 4 points off the Japanese score as he confessed that the game was annoying him more than it should. Elsewhere Jonathan also pitched Top Gear Rally and Multi Racing Championship into a battle of the racers, comparing every facet of these very similar games. Top Gear was the winner, scoring 86%, whilst MRC could only manage 71%.

There were 4 import reviews this month, including the highly anticipated Baku Bomberman, which unfortunately Zy was severely disappointed with, scoring it a measly 50% as issues with the move to 3D were raised along with the lifespan of the game. The US translation of Go Go Troublemakers - now known as Mischief Makers also scored 90% - now that Jes could understand what was going on! There were also 2 Japanese footy titles reviewed this month, J-League Dynamite Soccer scoring 66% and Jikkyou World Soccer 3 aka ISS 64 version 2 scoring 91%.

Racer San Francisco Rush was the big preview this month, as Atari’s racer neared completion. There was also the latest info from Earthworm Jim 3D and a first look at Konami’s Nagano Winter Olympics game. In the news this month they looked in more depth at Lylat Wars’s PAL conversion as well as news about a reduction in price for N64 games. There was also news on Diddy Kong Racing as the team had received an almost complete copy shortly before going to press. As always there were plenty of N64 accessories reviewed, as well as all the latest shots from Ocarina of Time as they were drip-fed from Nintendo. Max reported back from the Tokyo Game Show as well as his summer holidays at Tokyo Disneyland.

This month's guides looked at all the hardest bits of Blast Corps as well as the battle mode on Mario Kart 64. There was also a competition to win a bunch of N64 goodies, the Nintendo Hotline looked at 10 commonly asked questions, and the Tips Extra section showcased the teams top 5 tips of all time.