Coin Rush

Coin Rush is a homebrew minigame for the N64 by HailToDodongo, and released on 13 December 2024. It’s a minigame where four little soldiers fight their way through a level to see who can gather the most coins.
You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password minigamemadness
and the source can be found here. Note that this is the same ROM that includes all the other minigames released for the competition.
About Coin Rush
Coin Rush is a 3D sidescrolling brawler, where the objective is to gather as many of these hollow pentagonal coins as possible. They are strewn throughout the level, and more can be found by breaking destructible objects throughout the level, primarily grass, large clay pots and wooden crates.


The level scrolls rightwards throughout a bunch of platforming challenges with some impressive 3D graphics. If your character falls down to the abyss, you lose a bunch of coins. You can jump with A and swing your sword around with B. You sword can break boxes and knock back the other players, but it won’t make them lose any coins unless it causes them to fall down.
At the end of the level, you encounter a snake-like boss that looks kinda like Moldorm from Legend of Zelda. Each segment is covered in spikes except for one, and you have to attack that one exposed segment to release a bunch of coins. Hitting the spikes makes you lose coins. After dealing enough damage, the boss dies and the minigame ends.
There’s also these weird stage hazards in the form of purple crystals that create these giant gaps in the polygonal models themselves, causing you to fall to your doom.
Credits
The game is made by HailToDodongo, but it did use stock music and some stock sprites.


Review and conclusion
Coin Rush is the kind of game that goes above and beyond for what a minigame is supposed to be.
The graphics are very impressive, every object in the game has a miniature diorama feel to it, kind of like you’re moving around little paper figurines on a desk. What I found the most interesting was the ‘Tiny 3D’ soda can which appears to have both a textured surface and reflections on it.


The gameplay is quite slow, a single round takes over four minutes and you’ll find yourself constantly waiting for the screen to scroll by. There is little reason to go to the left side of the screen, so you’ll find most of the characters huddled on the right side waiting for the next coin container to appear on the stage. It’s also a little bit frustrating that the swords do so little since you really want to spend your waiting time attacking your opponents.
That said, it’s really just nitpicking an excellent game. Even if it might be a bit slow at times, the visuals do give you something that you can gaze at while your opponents nick your coins.
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