The four of us were crammed onto my mate's crusty beige sofa, controllers gripped like lifelines, when Tommy did what Tommy always did—picked Luigi and immediately drove backwards into a banana peel. The rest of us erupted in that particular brand of teenage mockery that only comes from watching someone fail spectacularly at something you're all supposed to be good at.Mario Kart 64 does that to people. Makes them do daft things. Makes sensible human…
The dusty plastic smell hit me first—that familiar cocktail of old electronics and childhood weekends. I'd just pulled out my Mega Drive from the storage box in the loft, carefully wrapped in the same old towel mum used to dry the dishes. Beneath it sat a stack of cartridges, their spines faded but still readable. And there it was, wedged between Streets of Rage 2 and Gunstar Heroes: Contra: Hard Corps.Christ, what a game that…
You know that feeling when a game hits you sideways and you're not quite sure why? That's exactly what happened the first time I slotted Majora's Mask into my N64. I'd been riding high on Ocarina of Time for months—that game was pure magic, the kind that makes you forget there's a world outside your telly. So when I heard there was another Zelda coming, I figured it'd be more of the same golden formula.…
You know what's funny? I spent most of my childhood thinking RPGs were these incredibly serious affairs. All those Final Fantasy games with their brooding heroes and apocalyptic plots, Dragon Quest with its medieval gravitas—even the lighter ones felt weighty somehow. Then Paper Mario landed on the Nintendo 64 in 2001, and suddenly I'm staring at what looks like a pop-up book that's somehow learned to move.I remember picking up the cartridge from Electronics Boutique…
The summer of 1994, I was standing in Electronics Boutique with twenty-five quid burning a hole in my tracksuit pocket—money earned from a weekend washing my uncle's Ford Sierra until the metallic blue paint practically glowed. The sales assistant, a lad with curtains who probably knew more about Mega Drive hardware than most engineers, was holding up this peculiar cartridge that looked like it had been designed by someone who'd never seen a game before."It's…
There's this weird thing that happens when you're rifling through a charity shop's games section and you spot something that instantly transports you back twenty-five years. Last Saturday, wedged between a copy of FIFA 99 with a cracked case and some Racing game I'd never heard of, sat Mario Golf for the N64. The cartridge was pristine—no sun damage, no marker pen scribbles, not even a rental sticker. I bought it on the spot for…
You know what's funny? I was digging through my old Mega Drive collection last weekend—the usual Saturday routine of "I'll just reorganize these for ten minutes" that somehow turns into three hours of nostalgia—when I pulled out Castlevania: Bloodlines. That familiar weight in my hands, the satisfying click as I popped it open to check the pins. Still pristine. Amazing how some carts just age better than others.I remember when this one hit the shelves…
Something weird happened the other night. I was sorting through a box of old Genesis carts—you know how it is, just meant to grab Streets of Rage 2 for a quick nostalgia hit—when I found my copy of Castlevania: Bloodlines wedged behind some Ecco the Dolphin nonsense. The plastic was slightly yellowed, that distinctive cream that screams "I've lived through the Clinton years," and suddenly I'm sixteen again, arguing with my mate Dave about whether…
There's something magical about watching four mates lean forward on a sofa, each clutching their own third of a three-pronged controller, while Rainbow Road's neon barriers fly past and someone inevitably yells "BLUE SHELL!" like it's a war cry. That was Mario Kart 64 in its natural habitat—your living room, circa 1997, with the smell of microwaved pizza rolls and the distant hum of a CRT warming up.I've spent the better part of twenty-five years…
I was digging through my Switch game library the other week, looking for something to show my nephew who's visiting for half-term, when I landed on Super Mario 64 sitting there in the 3D All-Stars collection. Funny thing—I'd been putting off writing about this one because, honestly, how do you review a game that practically invented the language every 3D platformer still speaks?But here's the thing about playing Mario 64 on Switch: it's weird in…