This is one particular game that my perspective has wildly changed over time, I'm still on the fence how good I consider it to be.
What I can say for sure is that you will not find another N64 game that has so many unique and risky ideas crammed into it, it doesn't always stick the landing and can come off as incoherent at times, but no matter what the game is fun (about 90% of the time anyway) There's so much "charm", style, and personality that really comes through in this game, in a way that few games of this genre have. It's one that I can tell the developers actually enjoyed making.
The story of this game is complete nonsense it's very quirky and random, there is a plot but this is not a game you should play for story and it isn't meant to be taken seriously, even though they clearly spent a lot of time on it, the game is full of cutscenes and character interactions, the best aspect is how much character is given to the main protagonist.
The movement in the game is perfect, you can cancel other moves into each other and this creates opportunities for more skilled play. The movement and variety in what control you have is amazing and extremely well polished.
One problem most players will probably deal with is that the way you control the game is also completely non-traditional and will take some time to adjust to, it can be a lot to come to terms with.
The point of the game is to grab, throw, and shake things and there's secrets and small simple puzzles built around it.
The bosses are very unique and fun to fight, mostly a test of reaction and problem solving.
I went back to play this years later and noticed how easy it was to break, and how some bosses are just a pattern of moves you repeat until it's defeated, and many levels are a gimmick and nothing more, at times it's so easy it's mindless, few parts were truly challenging it felt shallow in ways I hadn't noticed before.
Even worse is that the game doesn't have any "real" levels until halfway through world 1, they knew the controls would be hard to learn so it's a disguised tutorial that teaches all of the mechanics, this is great your first time, but repeat playthroughs these aren't as fun.
Now I tried going for 100% and then speedrunning it, and I realized what the developers were going for, sometimes the game is expecting you to create your own difficulty and try a certain playstyle and it isn't inherently difficult.
It's a lot of fun dashing through levels, and defeating bosses quickly without making damage, this game can be fun in that when you're good it makes you feel invincible and it is rewarded with a letter grade for how fast you were.
The sports competition level (yeah there's a sporting event level) is the big low point of the game for me and I never look forward to it, it doesn't really fit the rest of the game and doesn't add anything worthwhile character or story related.
There are a few places where the frame-rate drops sometimes in the 20s or 15s and those stick out unfortunately, the game typically will run at 60 and when it really counts and matters (when precise timing is needed) it doesn't slow down thankfully.
The worst thing I can say about this game is that it just ends too early, it feels likethere should have been a bit more, the final world is just a few empty levels with some (very good) bosses at the end, it feels a bit unfinished but it doesn't overstay it's welcome.
A few of the bosses really are just throwing them over and over for 3-4 minutes while they do nothing and those are just bad.
The main boss fights are definitely the best part of this game, I replay them the most and they are varied and have mutiple phases, in addition to just looking really cool, even for an N64 game there are moments that left me speechless because of how stylish and impressive they were, this game can be technically and artistically impressive sometimes.
The soundtrack fits the game, it's super weird but extremely catchy and has a good number of themes, most levels will have their own theme so they don't get repeated to much, and the boss themes really create intensity and tension that adds a lot to the "feel" of fighting the harder enemies.
It's unforgettable, for better or for worse you might hate the wierd music.
Characters have voice lines that are very memorable too, so there's that.
The game is 2D, meaning not polygonal, it's almost entirely pre-rendered so if you typically like or dislike that look you will probably feel the same here, the game does this quite well, and the animations are expressive and detailed the backgrounds are nice to look at.
Overall this game is hard to rate and even harder to sum up because it's all over the place, a real mixed bag, it just so happens that I enjoy a large portion of what it has to offer.
This is a very devisive game but you will never know what to expect and it's one that will likely stick with you. If you enjoy a unique challenge this may become one of your favorites but it may take some time to come to terms with it's strange quirkyness, there really is no other game like it.
It has several shortcomings, but the highs make up for a lot of it to me, you might not be so forgiving though.
What I can say for sure is that you will not find another N64 game that has so many unique and risky ideas crammed into it, it doesn't always stick the landing and can come off as incoherent at times, but no matter what the game is fun (about 90% of the time anyway) There's so much "charm", style, and personality that really comes through in this game, in a way that few games of this genre have. It's one that I can tell the developers actually enjoyed making.
The story of this game is complete nonsense it's very quirky and random, there is a plot but this is not a game you should play for story and it isn't meant to be taken seriously, even though they clearly spent a lot of time on it, the game is full of cutscenes and character interactions, the best aspect is how much character is given to the main protagonist.
The movement in the game is perfect, you can cancel other moves into each other and this creates opportunities for more skilled play. The movement and variety in what control you have is amazing and extremely well polished.
One problem most players will probably deal with is that the way you control the game is also completely non-traditional and will take some time to adjust to, it can be a lot to come to terms with.
The point of the game is to grab, throw, and shake things and there's secrets and small simple puzzles built around it.
The bosses are very unique and fun to fight, mostly a test of reaction and problem solving.
I went back to play this years later and noticed how easy it was to break, and how some bosses are just a pattern of moves you repeat until it's defeated, and many levels are a gimmick and nothing more, at times it's so easy it's mindless, few parts were truly challenging it felt shallow in ways I hadn't noticed before.
Even worse is that the game doesn't have any "real" levels until halfway through world 1, they knew the controls would be hard to learn so it's a disguised tutorial that teaches all of the mechanics, this is great your first time, but repeat playthroughs these aren't as fun.
Now I tried going for 100% and then speedrunning it, and I realized what the developers were going for, sometimes the game is expecting you to create your own difficulty and try a certain playstyle and it isn't inherently difficult.
It's a lot of fun dashing through levels, and defeating bosses quickly without making damage, this game can be fun in that when you're good it makes you feel invincible and it is rewarded with a letter grade for how fast you were.
The sports competition level (yeah there's a sporting event level) is the big low point of the game for me and I never look forward to it, it doesn't really fit the rest of the game and doesn't add anything worthwhile character or story related.
There are a few places where the frame-rate drops sometimes in the 20s or 15s and those stick out unfortunately, the game typically will run at 60 and when it really counts and matters (when precise timing is needed) it doesn't slow down thankfully.
The worst thing I can say about this game is that it just ends too early, it feels likethere should have been a bit more, the final world is just a few empty levels with some (very good) bosses at the end, it feels a bit unfinished but it doesn't overstay it's welcome.
A few of the bosses really are just throwing them over and over for 3-4 minutes while they do nothing and those are just bad.
The main boss fights are definitely the best part of this game, I replay them the most and they are varied and have mutiple phases, in addition to just looking really cool, even for an N64 game there are moments that left me speechless because of how stylish and impressive they were, this game can be technically and artistically impressive sometimes.
The soundtrack fits the game, it's super weird but extremely catchy and has a good number of themes, most levels will have their own theme so they don't get repeated to much, and the boss themes really create intensity and tension that adds a lot to the "feel" of fighting the harder enemies.
It's unforgettable, for better or for worse you might hate the wierd music.
Characters have voice lines that are very memorable too, so there's that.
The game is 2D, meaning not polygonal, it's almost entirely pre-rendered so if you typically like or dislike that look you will probably feel the same here, the game does this quite well, and the animations are expressive and detailed the backgrounds are nice to look at.
Overall this game is hard to rate and even harder to sum up because it's all over the place, a real mixed bag, it just so happens that I enjoy a large portion of what it has to offer.
This is a very devisive game but you will never know what to expect and it's one that will likely stick with you. If you enjoy a unique challenge this may become one of your favorites but it may take some time to come to terms with it's strange quirkyness, there really is no other game like it.
It has several shortcomings, but the highs make up for a lot of it to me, you might not be so forgiving though.