64 in 64: Episode 55—Plats All, Folks! Part Seven
by mento
It's time for an angry tongue-lashing on this episode of 64 in 64, or at least there would be if the two games featured this time weren't actually great. Sometimes it's easy to forget doing a feature like this that the N64 had some bangers.
On this very special edition of 64 in 64, Mento finally catches a break. The two games featured in this episode also happen to be the two I was looking forward to playing most this season, at least beyond the Banjo-Kazooie revisit. Of course, that means the finale will now have to cover the two remaining licensed dregs, but that's a problem for Future Mento. I've only heard positive things about this duo and they might even have a decent chance of entering the top 50 of the overall list, though I daren't count my ducks before they've twisted (as the saying goes).
The rules are the same. Two N64 games in 64 minutes. Games are randomly picked from a small pool comprised exclusively of 3D platformers for now. No NSO stuff unless I arbitrarily decide otherwise. Full rankings so far and all the links right here. Same ol', same ol'.
Instead of all that, this time I figured since we're covering the last Disney game on my 3D platformer shortlist here that I'd do another one of those round-ups. The following are all the Disney properties on N64 that I'm aware of in release order, with their genres and (where applicable) the 64 in 64 episodes that covered them:
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Action-Adventure): Episode 33. Now with Dash Rendaring technology.
Magical Tetris Challenge (Puzzle): Unranked. Goofy T-Spins sound like something I should be pulling off in THPS.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Sim): Episode 42. They made it canon that Luke named his X-Wing squad after the movie where everyone died. Bet his squadmates were thrilled.
Disney/Pixar A Bug's Life (3D Platformer): Episode 54. Deeply strange movie tie-in from what later became one of the most cookie-cutter platformer devs. How'd that happen?
Star Wars Episode I: Racer (Racing): Unranked. Now this is N64 racing!
Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2 (3D Platformer): Episode 29. There's a collectible in my boot!
Tarzan (2D Platformer): Unranked. Being responsible for the Tarzan tie-in platformer in a world where Donkey Kong Country exists must've felt like a lay-up.
Tigger's Honey Hunt (2D Platformer): Unranked. Loses points for not spelling it "Hunny". Lore's important, guys.
Mickey's Speedway USA (Racing): Episode 37. If you thought Luigi had a death stare, he's got nothing on King of Toxicity Donald Duck.
Spider-Man (Action-Adventure): Episode 8. The system's only Marvel game. Huh. Well, unless you include THPS cameos.
Dance Dance Revolution Disney Dancing Museum (Rhythm): Unranked. Closest thing to a Kidz Bop rhythm game.
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (Action-Adventure): Episode 46. A.k.a. Indy tries to set up his printer/scanner for a whole weekend afternoon.
Star Wars Episode I: Battle for Naboo (Sim): Unranked. "Gavyn Sykes" is just a regular-ass name. They could've worked harder on that one.
Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (3D Platformer): Unranked? Well, about that...
PAF#13: Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers
2000-12-05 (NA), 2000-12-08 (EU)
365th N64 Game Released
History: Donald Duck Goin' Quackers is a 3D platformer starring everyone's favorite irascible duck that isn't the other one, whom we already covered a few episodes ago with his N64 game Duck Dodgers. The story sees roving international TV news reporter Daisy Duck kidnapped by Merlock, the villain of DuckTales the Movie that isn't the usual malevolent magic-user from that show (Magica de Spell's been on the phone with her agent ever since), prompting Donald and his rival/cousin Gladstone Gander to rescue her. So far, so Uncharted. Donald has the edge thanks to his friend Gyro Gearloose's teleporter inventions (and the sorta help of his three nephews) but he first needs to supply Gyro's technology with power to reach new areas, conveniently introducing the collectathon aspect. Developers Ubisoft built the game to be more kid-friendly given the target demographic, lowering the challenge level and shrinking the size compared to their own 3D platforming efforts like Rayman 2 and Tonic Trouble. It originally released on PlayStation but due to the late timing ended up being released on "next gen" systems Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and GameCube in addition to N64 and PC. It also saw modified GBC and GBA ports.
French gaming giant and lover of tall places Ubisoft probably doesn't need an introduction: Goin' Quackers was the ninth of ten games they published for the N64, the fifth and last that they developed themselves, and the sixth we've covered on here so far. The studio assigned to making this version of the game, Ubisoft Casablanca, got their start with this port and later went on to develop scaled-down DS and 3DS ports of major Ubisoft games. Their last release was one of those endless runner mobile games, only for Rayman specifically. Seemed like a good fit if those musical levels in Rayman Origins/Legends were anything to go by, but Casablanca was instead shuttered soon after. Guess they didn't have such a beautiful friendship with the Guillemots after all, though at least they'll always have Ubisoft Paris.
As you can see in the above list, there weren't too many Disney platformers for N64 that weren't direct tie-ins for recent movies, unlike the 16-bit and 8-bit generations where they were more plentiful. Donald, the reliable and reliably pantsless second fiddle to the main mouse Mickey, had a pretty good track record in this arena: Maui Mallard and Quackshot were well regarded for their gameplay and visuals alike, and he's also tangentially related to one of the best NES platformers of all time in DuckTales (and its sequel to a lesser extent). I'm not going to suggest this is probably the best version of this game but I suspect the short and snappy pace will serve our purposes well here.
16 Minutes In
The levels might as well be racecourses with how linear they are. The checkered finish line doesn't exactly hurt that comparison either (those are actually checkpoints).
Curses, deceived again. In this case, this isn't a true 3D platformer: it's one of those duplicitous Crash Bandicoot-style 2D hybrids where you're stuck to a single plane for many levels and even the free-roaming 3D types are strictly linear. Even so, the game's not half bad: you begin with a double-jump and it feels built for speedrunning (there's a time trial mode, after all) so it moves quick when you're just jogging and juking through these levels. I've already outlined the plot, but Donald needs to warp over to the forests outside of his home city of Duckberg to establish a radar dish before he can unlock the next world of... Duckberg. What, did his front door jam or something? Each world has four levels, and there's a piece of a boss teleporter pad you have to find in each of those to assemble the route to the boss fight to conclude that world and move onto the next. Pretty straightforward stuff.
Other mechanics include collecting stars along the route—they're not essential collectibles, but they will give you 1Ups if you have 100 of them—and you can also de-curse up to three of your nephews' toys per level, like Merlock has nothing better to do than to create teddy bears that give worms to ex-girlfriends. Earning both the boss pad segment and all three uncursed toys activates two of three lights for each level to signify their completed state; the third is a time trial, and I've yet to figure out how to activate those. Maybe after the boss is defeated? You tend to move so fast in these levels that I wouldn't be surprised if during the testing phase the devs found too many players accidentally beating the target times just going through the levels normally since there's very little room for detours.
32 Minutes In
I can't see anything ahead but maybe if I just follow these star pick-ups they won't lead me directly into a pit or a solid wall. Surely not, right?
I'm getting more into the groove here but it did confirm the one fear I had once I realized Goin' Quackers was a Bandicootalike, and that it was inevitably going to introduce one of those obnoxious chase levels where you can't see where the hell you're going. I swear, the crimes on platforming that malign marsupial has committed can never be exonerated. You unlock these chase levels only after completing a nephew's request to uncurse all their toys and, at the end of the chase, Gladstone pops up to taunt you which then unlocks the time trial mode. The time trials not only require accuracy without stopping for anything but if you hit the red boxes that normally drop stars they'll add more time to the clock: rather than a time to beat, you're simply trying to get to the end before it runs out like it was one of those arcade checkpoint racers. The time trials are another of the conditions needed to fully complete a world and were no doubt included for a vital bit of added longevity. Given our own time here is limited, though, I'll just skip those and go on ahead to the next world.
To counter the above negativity (why'd it have to be chase levels?) let's instead talk about some other fun ideas this game has. For one, Donald can take two hits as far as I can tell: the first really sours his mood, giving him a temporary invulnerable state (milkshakes do this too) where he crashes the eff out, and then spends the remaining time on that level doing an angry walk with his head leaning forward instead of his usual jovial gait. The milkshake item will put him back in high spirits again and even if you do die it feels like extra lives and checkpoints are numerous enough.
48 Minutes In
Almost all the enemies in the Duckberg are honest working stiffs in the construction and maintenance industries. Don't tell me Unca Scrooge has Donald out union busting again?
In this single sixteen minute space of time I managed to complete all four of the regular levels of the second world, the mean streets of Duckberg, and have only the boss and extras left. Once I've completed those, I'll have hit the halfway point of the entire game: told you it was a short one. Even so, I greatly enjoyed this set of levels as the hazards have now been amplified and, while I'm still rarely dying, the peril feels more real and thus all the more satisfying when I'm able to overcome it. Duckberg's levels start you off on street level but quickly elevate matters, having you leap atop high-rise construction sites and across rooftops for its later, more dangerous courses.
Something I've noticed is that there seems to be a pattern to how these levels are built. The second level is always a fixed-perspective side-scrolling level that plays much like any 2D platformer, switching things up with vertical sections and U-turns to create more snake-like level design. The fourth level, meanwhile, has more of a Z-axis affectation where you're heading into the screen while avoiding hazards and pits as they loom into view. This switch in perspective can make it harder to judge where objects and platforms are—or, specifically, how close they are to you or you to them—so I can see why the developers saved those as the final hurdle of each world. Anyway, looks like Duckberg's own Beagle Boys are up next so let's send 'em back to jail and see how far we can get into the third (and penultimate) world before our time is up here.
64 Minutes In
I'm not sure why Dewey forced his orange-hued cousin Phooey to speak for him, but is it that important he gets a bunch of cheap teddy bears and toy trains back? Don't most kids his age have Xboxes? Then again, talk about cursed.
World 3 is Transylvania of course—have to maintain the Carl Barks duck platformer tradition of "suddenly Draculas"—and because these levels are getting longer and tougher I only managed to complete three of them before the time ran out, sadly not quite getting to try out the fourth and last level here "Earie Alley" (alas, unless walking on giant ears is an element of that level it's yet another typo in a game filled with them). Also slowing me down here is that I had to defeat the previous world's boss before the third world became available, which turned out to be a Beagle Boy in the singular sense as he tried to smoosh me with a wrecking ball. The boss fights haven't been all that insurmountable so far even with only two HP to spare; maybe best not get too complacent though.
The Transylvanian levels have provided some entertainingly cheap traps so far, including a floating coffin with a green arrow sign that will suddenly switch to a skull sign as spikes pop out of it (didn't see that coming) as well as pumpkins that set themselves alight when you get close (in case you thought about jumping on them, like I did) and more swinging spiky balls with extremely fast cycles. The boss, from what I can tell from the incomplete boss pad icon, is going to be Magica de Spell so I guess her and Merlock are talking again. That's going to be it for our time here however, though given how close I am to the end you better believe I'm polishing this off as soon as I'm done writing.
How Well Has It Aged?: Might Not Rewrite History. It's very much a game for babies but I'm not going to hold that against it, nor the choppiness of its frame rate (which is far more likely an emulator issue), but it does feel a little... sloppy? Like a few other PS1 games that made it over to the N64, such as THPS3, there's some half-assed aspects like the typos in the script, the way the nephews and Gladstone always have the same statements after each world, and some other cut corners here and there that dampen the enjoyment a minor amount as the N64 aged out of whatever relevancy it once had and became more of an afterthought for multiplatform developers (like how the NES kept getting weirdly busted ports of SNES/Genesis games for a while into the '90s). Otherwise, it's a pretty good alternative to Crash Bandicoot if your system of choice didn't have it and you've seriously no better 3D platformers available, which seems unlikely. Presentation's good too, with the right degree of personality for its hero and his poor anger management skills.
Chance of Switch Online Inclusion: Maybe If They Get All Their Ducks in a Row. While A Bug's Life and co. feel less palatable for NSO inclusion due to how long ago those movies came out, hardly a "strike while the iron's hot" scenario, there's no such impediment for this evergreen pissy duck game. However, the one thing I'll say that if Nintendo does hash out a deal with Disney and Ubisoft and whomever else needs to sit at that table and have Scrooge McDuck money bags tossed at them and they eventually do add Goin' Quackers to NSO, it'll more likely be the shinier GameCube version. (I realize Nintendo has a strict GameCube NSO release schedule that's approximately one game per Halley's Comet visit but I could still see it being part of that exclusive club.)
Retro Achievements Earned: 29 (of 64). Pretty standard set with one achievement for each of the three goals per level. With sixteen levels total across the game's four worlds, that accounts for three quarters of the set already; the rest being critical progress ones for defeating bosses, those malevolent chase levels, and a few miscellaneous types like having 30 lives on you at once (not difficult) and earning at least one 1Up from collecting stars (you'd have to try especially hard to not just earn that one incidentally).
PAF#14: Chameleon Twist 2
Japan System Supply / Japan System Supply (JP) + Sunsoft (NA/EU)
1998-12-25 (JP), 1999-04-14 (NA), 1999 (EU)
171st N64 Game Released
History: It's all reptilian twists and cunning linguists once again on 64 in 64 with the return of Japan System Supply's dextrous lizards in a sequel that launched just a year after its predecessor. We covered Chameleon Twist not too long ago as part of this all-platformers season but the idea is that in addition to the usual hopping around you have a maneuverable prehensile tongue that can be used to swallow enemies, to pole vault for higher jumps, to grapple onto posts, or to swing around said posts to get to the opposite side of that area. These mechanics, in addition to the game's pace and discrete room-based level design, meant the game moved quickly and was ideal for speedrunning. Chameleon Twist 2 is very much working in the same business with a few minor gameplay additions and a visual makeover, changing the chameleon anthros to look more like their original selves rather than the odd Mewtwo looking things they were in the first game.
We covered developers Japan System Supply back when we did the first Chameleon Twist, but in short they were a company based in Osaka that largely kept to the PC market. The two Chameleon Twist games were the only ones they produced for N64, though an unfinished project called Cavalry Battle 3000 (despite the name, it's a motorcycle racer) might be floating out there in a prototypal state. Sunsoft, the company best known for a number of classic NES and SNES games (and more recently repugnant military AI tech), also published Chameleon Twist 2 outside of Japan and despite their ubiquity elsewhere only had two N64 games in their ludography also. Perhaps they saw a kinship between Davy the Chameleon and Freeon-Leon from their own game Ufouria.
I've been looking forward to this popping up on the schedule ever since I polished off the first game after its spotlight episode a few months back. Unlike that first game, I've never played this sequel before and hearing it's a mild improvement is definitely promising news. It reviewed terribly back in the day, but then so did the first game, so sometimes you have to take these things with a grain of salt (the fact both games could be completed in a handful of hours probably didn't help when trying to justify a full price purchase).
16 Minutes In
These heavy ass birds weigh down the balloon, but sometimes that's what you want.
Man, I get the uncanniest feeling from this game. Maybe because I'm so used to the first? This feels like some weird ROM hack that begins on a level of difficulty that the previous game ended on—this first world with flying islands and windmills has been no joke so far—and demonstrates a few new mechanics including a glide (why does the chameleon have a parasol that pops out of his backpack? Is that a thing with chameleons? I'd buy it easier if it was some aerodynamic skin flaps or something) and the ability to spin around vertical poles as well as horizontal ones. Naturally, combining the ability to spin up in the air while deploying the glide can get you some reasonable distance, so I suspect this'll be an important tool in the more vertical levels ahead. They also swapped the crowns for coins which, well, I guess that's fine if you're going to be a Nintendo exclusive. Maybe there'll be a place to spend them all later? Anyway, the levels are clearly longer in this game because there's no end in sight here. Me and my trusty heavy-lidded pal Fred are going to have to navigate this bizarre new world together.
This is irrespective of the playthrough to some degree but there's a handful of time trial achievements for the training rooms (you have three accessible from the main menu, the rest appear to come from finding the white rabbit across various levels) and they are absolutely diabolical. Between those and the elevated challenge in the standard level design this definitely feels like a sequel where the devs completely expect you to have already mastered the previous game. Kind of a bold move, especially now where most sequels still can't wait to drop a dozen tutorials on you as soon as you hit start, but then maybe JSS anticipated their main audience for a sequel to a game no-one bought would only be the true sicko tongue-heads out here.
32 Minutes In
More like Samba de Portobello.
I eventually managed to get to the end of Sky Land, this first level, and defeat the boss seen above but only by the skin of my teeth. As was the case in the first game, there's exactly 20 of the shiny gewgaws to be found though now they unlock new costumes for your chosen chameleon if you grab all of them in a single world (as opposed to getting jack shit in the prior game). The mushroom boss has a small invincibility period after getting hit and spits out a dozen shiitakes at a time, so the strat I ascertained involving using the single-shot mechanic (hold L when spitting out foes with the B button) seemed to do more damage. Overall, Sky Land was pretty tough and had a few branches in its path that made hunting for collectibles a little harder than making a beeline for the end, especially a maze of flying platforms where you were given a few choices and they'd either return you to an earlier spot or just collapse and kill you. I'm glad falling off the stage still only does one point of harm here because I would've been screwed otherwise.
Next level appears to be carnival/circus themed, and from spotting the grayed out icons it looks like there's going to be an ice level after that and another toy-based one further down the line. I saw penguins jumping off pagodas in another stage icon, so I've no clue what might be going on there. It's still only six levels total but if Sky Land is any indication they do at least seem to be much longer this time around.
48 Minutes In
Dang, that YouTube Shorts guy was right: these things are bad for me.
Carnival Land is your typical theme park level with gondolas, Ferris wheels, and rollercoasters to navigate around or over as well as a menagerie of carnival food themed enemies, like a popcorn container that throws its whole bucket at you for you to quickly sweep up with your tongue, and if anything it feels a little more gentle than Sky Land with fewer death pits to worry about. I think I'm about halfway through the level (I have 11 of the 20 coins, but no guarantees that I didn't miss any) and I eventually found my first "star heart": a gray heart with a star at its center that instantly refilled my health meter, which was very welcome. I've yet to run out of health but in the first game it meant getting kicked back out to the level select screen: given how much longer levels are in this, I'm trying not to get hurt too often trying some risky venture to reach high places to see what's up there. The new glide is definitely helping with survivability, even if starts to slow down pretty quick after activating it.
Speaking of star hearts, I've so far neglected to mention another new mechanic in CT2: there's a golden star that sets off a power-up roulette that might double or triple the number of projectiles you spit out, make you temporarily invincible, or increase the size of your head (which also increases the size of your projectiles, making it easier to hit things). It can also reduce your speed or tongue length though, so they're not always useful. I even spotted a few of the heart items with the same golden hue and ring around them that those stars have: these instead activate a healing-focused roulette, which might boost how much health you get back. In both cases, you can also get nothing whatsoever, and that option seems to trigger more often than the others. Well, it always feels great when they temporarily get my hopes up.
64 Minutes In
Let's see Yoshi pull this off.
The last timer went off the second I walked into the boss arena for Carnival Land, after having spent a good chunk of this level attempting to master the vertical spin on the above ship's masts to reach its highest-placed goods. I did make the executive decision to crush that boss while I was there but since it wasn't part of the 64 minutes I'll gloss over its play-by-play here. Carnival Land felt like a better intro level than Sky Land and not just because it had less pits to fall down: Sky Land relied on some cheap tricks and branching paths that made it feel like more like an intermediate stage, pulling the rug out from under you just as you were getting settled in, but Carnival Land's little set-pieces like the aforementioned rides were both a much kinder onboarding ramp and an able demonstration of what this updated engine could do. That said, the game still definitely has this budget look to it that it didn't manage to shake between games but if anything it just adds to the charm.
Had I managed to defeat the boss in the time allotted that would've meant a 33.3% completion rate of the game, which is a slight improvement over the ~70% I hit by the end of my hour with Goin' Quackers. I am still a little apprehensive about its harder, later levels kicking me out of the stage if I take too many hits or pitfalls and the game does love its little newbie-killer trolls—one enemy is a dead ringer for the coins you're trying to collect, and I've met so many now that I instinctively use my tongue to catch all coins instead just in case—but for the most part it's the same chill, puzzle- and acrobatics-focused 3D platformer as the previous.
How Well Has It Aged?: Just Needs a Fresh Lick (of Paint). It took a while to adjust to its new challenge level and visuals but it's pretty much the same game here, just with a few new techniques to help things along (another one I didn't mention is that you can stick to walls and use that to jump up, but only once before landing). Whatever your thoughts on the first Chameleon Twist might be are no doubt going to apply here too. I'm a big fan—it's not quite a hidden gem to the same level as, say, a Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon but it's close enough—so I was pleased to see they didn't rock the boat too much here.
Chance of Switch Online Inclusion: Can't Spell "Switch Two" Without "Twist". I'll just say what I did last time with Chameleon Twist: if the rights to these games are in Sunsoft's pocket, they've been on a tear lately revamping or rebooting their older original games (like the long-delayed sequels to Mr. Gimmick and Ufouria) and could do the same here, perhaps skipping NSO entirely. If those rights instead stayed with developers JSS, I've no idea who might have them now.
Retro Achievements Earned: 9 (of 31). Similar spread here that we've seen in some other games, where the full collectible set for each level as well as a vanilla clear multiplied by the six levels available equals a good chunk of this set. The others are for time trials in the training areas (as brutal as they were in the last game) and some level-specific challenges: the first two of which require you to locate all those star hearts in their respective levels, which tend to be the most hidden, while later levels might require banning a certain button or no-damage clearing the boss. Approachable but far from a cakewalk.
Current Ranking (3D Platformers only)
*NEW* Chameleon Twist 2 (Ep. 55/PAF 7)
*NEW* Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (Ep. 55/PAF 7)
Looney Tunes: Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck (Ep. 52/PAF 4)
Looney Tunes: Taz Express (Ep. 51/PAF 3)
Earthworm Jim 3D (Ep. 53/PAF 5)
Carnivale: Cenzo's Adventure (Ep. 49/PAF 1)