Super Robot Wars 64 (N64 Strategy/RPG [Import])

For ages, it's been thought, and perhaps rightly so, that the N64 was
anything but an RPG machine.  Cursed with only a scant few titles, some of
which were either poorly received (Hybrid Heaven) or ill conceived
(Quest 64).  With all this, most people's list of good RPGs on the ol' Fun
Machine would be made of only three titles, Ogre Battle 64, Harvest Moon 64,
and Paper Mario.  All good games, but for those of whom would venture into
the World of Imports, I've got a fourth one for your list...  Super Robot
Wars 64!

It is After Colony 195.  The One Year War (See Mobile Suit Gundam, Saturday
nights at 12:30 on Cartoon Network) has taken its toll on the Earth.  As
everyone struggles to recover from the war, the Muge-Zorbados Empire arrives
and beats the already weakened Federation forces into submission.  Now, while
being kissed up to by the Romefellor Foundation and Earth's other criminal
elements, the Empire seeks to crush all remaining opposition.  The time has
come once more for the heroes of Londe Bell, the Federation's best battle
group to date, strap into their Mobile Suits and Super Robots cockpits and
continue the fight for justice!

Gameplay

If you've played Tactics Ogre or Shining Force, you'll know what to expect
from SRW64.  You have a ton of individual units, each with special
capabilities and skills that you grow and customize as you send them out
against armies of bad guys.  The main difference of course, is that instead
of dealing with wizards and knights, you're dealing with mobile suits,
fighter craft, carriers, tankers, and various other miscellaneous combat
units.  Additionally, instead of MP, you have EN (used for special attacks)
and SP (for casting spells) to deal with.  And just like most other SRWs, you
spend the cash you gain on missions to upgrade your units and equip them with
items confiscated from enemies to better their chances of survival.  Of
course, every SRW title tries to add something new to the mix and SRW64's no
slouch in that department, adding 2 completely new innovations and 1
innovation from the Playstation versions of SRW.  The new stuff includes the
Affection System in which characters that have some romantic bond with each
other get a 30% Defense and Offense bonus from being near each other
(Example:  Kouji and Sayaka).  Of course, if you have a character that pines
for another but the other doesn't feel the same way, only it gets the bonus
(Example:  Boss around Sayaka and Jun).  The other new addition is the Combo
System.  This allows 2 or more compatible units (Mazinger+Minerva X,
God Gundam+Rising Gundam) to combine their attacks when they're all close to
an enemy unit with devastating results (Mazinger+Getta=Twin Beam)!  And
lastly one innovation that's only new to the Nintendo side of the series
is...  Experience Points for Support Activity!  What's that mean exactly?
Units like Aphrodite A and Boss Borot can now gain experience from doing the
only thing they can do well, Healing and Resupplying other units.  This is
important because before they could only gain experience from destroying
enemy units and of course that's quite difficult for them to do so it often
meant they got left behind Level-wise.  This now allows them to keep up with
the rest of your party and allows the Healing units specifically to heal even
more as their levels increase.  Apart from that, if you've played a
Robot Wars game before, you know what to expect.  If you haven't... Well,
we'll to that later on...

Graphics

Graphics are a mixed bag in SRW64 as there are places where it they go above
and beyond the call of duty and places where they slack off like Union
flunkies on their eternal coffee break.  Like all SRWs before it,
SRW64 continues the tradition of pretty sprite based animations during
battles, neat animation sequences, nicely detailed maps, and some nice
textures.  SRW64 is also the first in the series to incoporate 3D into its
battle sequences (2D sprites on 3D backgrounds, kinda like Paper Mario) and
while the majority of the textures seen in the 3D Polygon backgrounds are
nice and some (especially nature ones) even richly detailed, there are places
(city scapes, and especially space ports) where the textures are so bland,
the polygons almost look naked!  Perhaps this is a symptom of short deadlines
or something but considering it's really the only major graphical downfall,
it's not that bad.  Something else that's lacking is the quantity and
availability of animation sequences, special scenes that play when certian
things happen like Mazinger's Launch sequence or Combattler's Combination.
Though their quality's high, matching just how the looked on TV, they are few
and far in between.  Additionally, there's no mode to play them back later
which can be annoying.  But these problems aside, here's one of the bright
spots of the game's graphics, G Gundam attack animations!  Especially Shining
and God Finger!  When G Gundams do thing they put on QUITE a show and that
should be enough to satisfy the Graphic Whore in you. ;p

Music

All your favorite robot theme songs are back and with a vengeance!  Sure
they're in MIDI form but they sound a lot better than they used to on the
SNES!  And that's just returning music like the Mazinger Theme and
The Winner!  All new songs await your listening and Kareoke please from all
the new series in the game such as G Gundam and Layzner!  And of course,
there's the game's original music for story scenes and missions which are
fairly catch on their own.  All in all, nothing to complain about!  ^^

Conclusion

And thus I conclude...  If you enjoy Strategy/RPGs, especially ones with
giant robots and would love another RPG for the N64, import this game ASAP!
Granted, it's a little old by now and may be hard to find but you can
sometimes find copies on eBay.  Additionally, worry not about the language
barrier, the game itself is pretty simple to figure out and understand.  With
enough pratice, you'll be warring like an expert without being able to read
a lick of Japanese though the game may teach you a little as you play.

Score:  8/10