LogFAQs > #949003888

#98 - Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA (N64, 1998)

I like the Rush series. It's nothing special, but all the games are pretty solid. They don't focus too heavily on the racing, instead opting to have gravity-defying jumps and way-off-the-road shortcuts. San Francisco Rush was a solid entry, but it was somewhat limited. Sure, the tracks were pretty fun, but they all looked pretty similar.

Here comes Rush 2 to save the day. Instead of limiting itself to one city, it takes place all over the country, and the variety really helps. The Las Vegas course takes place at night, but it still looks bright and flashy, and focuses on strict racing down the strip. The Seattle course is a bit gloomier, but has all kinds of ramps that let you soar over buildings.

But none of this is what puts this game in my top 100. That would be the stunt course. There's no race to be had; all it's there for is to hit ramps and fly through the air and do backflips and barrel rolls and to drive on two wheels and god damn, 10 year old me could not get enough of this fucking mode. Good shit.

#97 - Mario Golf: Advance Tour (GBA, 2004)

This game is a weird inclusion that is hard to rank. It's literally just a remake of the Mario Golf game for Game Boy Color. All the courses, minigames, characters, and story are completely the same. Well, I guess I can't 100% say that truthfully, because while they are the same courses, they have obviously been touched up a bit for the jump from GBC to GBA. But it's the same number of courses and the names are the same. It's really just the laziest way to make a new Mario Golf game ever.

...... but the formula for the game is still just so good, though. You play some tournaments, do some side challenges, level up and pick what stats you want to upgrade, get some special clubs to further boost the stats you like, or give your swing a special characteristic it couldn't get through plain leveling. It's a tried and true, functional gameplay loop that's really addicting. And it's not like they didn't do anything to update it. You can really fine-tune where you want a shot to go,

But the fun part to me is that you can also completely fucking break the game by leveling up in a certain way. Whenever you level up, you have 5 stats to take into account: shot power, shot height, curve, control, and spin. Let's say every stat is a nice flat number, and they all start at, like, 20 out of 500. Whenever you upgrade one stat, you might give it a 5 point boost. But then every other stat goes down by 1. So you typically would want to give every stat its fair share, so your game remains balanced, and they all get better at a nice steady rate.

But let's look at these stats. Shot power is obviously important because you want to hit longer shots. Control is important, because you wanna give yourself some leeway on the timing. Spin is important to try and direct the ball where you want it to go after it lands. What about shot height and curve? If your shot height gets too high, then the wind will really send your ball flying, and a huge curve can make aiming a shot a bit tricky. But those are easily worked around during a round. And the game won't let a stat dip below 0. So we can just take all the upgrades we would've put into those stats and shove them in shot power instead, for 3 times the upgrades to it. You can see how this can get really silly.

I actually found my copy for the purposes of this write-up and checked out my character, and yes, he can drive the ball 428 yards. For anyone who has played any Mario Golf game can attest to how absurd that is. It makes for some really crazy rounds of golf. I checked out my course records and I have a -28 score on an 18-hole course. That's fun.

Also, every time you boot up the game, Waluigi screams "CAAAAAAAMELOT hehehe..." and if that doesn't make for a great game, then what does?

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Xbox GT/PSN name/Nintendo ID: TatteredUniform
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