I've received an offer that's almost too good to be true and I'm being whisked away to Hawaii with my older brother and his family and my little sister and her boyfriend. It's a little tropical reunion for the skankcore family and while I'm away I'll regrettably have to skip a few episodes of my journey through every Nintendo 64 game published in North America. If you've been following the project or just now tuning in, here's a few episodes of my most recent play sessions to tide you over while I'm gone.
Episode 59 - Turok: Fog Hunter
This episode is technically not the start of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, but it is where I decided to cut my losses and restart the game on the easiest difficulty. We're here to roll credits on these games for skankcore64, not play them forever, so I decided to make it as quick and painless as possible.
Episode 60 - Cerebrally Boring
More Turok on Easy in this episode, but the game was starting to annoy me just as much as before with all of the insta-death platforming sections. I don't mind a little jumping in my first-person shooters, but if there's a finite life system involved with game over screens, that just makes it annoying to the point of insult.
Episode 61 - Ready Turok Steady
On my third episode through the restarted Turok, I decided to throw traditional skankcore64 rules aside and activate some cheats in the game. Cheat codes were a huge part of this franchise to the point of the game rewarding you with them as you progress through its campaign. As the death toll climbed higher and the threat of losing hours of progress to a 'game over' neared, I decided to embrace the dark side and enable some cheats in order to make the game fun again.
Episode 62 - Are you cool enough Turok a VW Beetle
The long awaited and much desired finale of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. I started to warm up to the game in its final hours as it showed some really odd enemy variety, discrete setting changes, and excellent boss battles in the eighth and final level. Of course, it couldn't be a stellar ending since Turok isn't exactly remembered for its amazing story and gripping conclusion. The ultimate face-off was pretty disappointing but the overall ride wasn't nearly as bad as I made it out to be.
After rolling the credits in Turok, deservedly or not, it was on to a much more entertaining title in my opinion, Beetle Adventure Racing. Electronic Arts was cashing in on a pop culture craze for a car that has since been discontinued and this game stands as a prime example of being better than it has any right to be. Full of excitement, shortcuts, and an announcer that has no setting other than eleven, Beetle Adventure Racing is a great racer that I can't wait to get back into after my vacation.
Have fun while I'm away, Shacknews! I'll see you soon!
