Viewpoint 2064

Viewpoint 64 is an unreleased N64 game by Racdym and Sammy. It’s an on-rails shooter in the same vain as Star Fox 64.

You can download the ROM from its download page by using the password almoststarfox, or by getting it from the internet archive. Note: I wasn’t able to get this running on the N64 via a flash cart or with the Ares emulator where it stalled after the opening logos, it worked on Parallel Launcher though.

About Viewpoint 2064

Viewpoint 2064 is a shoot ’em up game on rails. It’s a bit hard to describe in the sense that it’s halfway between a 2D shmup and a 3D rail shooter like Star Fox. I guess you could call it a 2.5D shooter. While this might seem like a limitation, it means that the camera can reposition itself around the action as needed rather than always being behind the player.

You move across a horizontally scrolling stage while firing at enemies in your path. Your main weapon is a forward-facing laser, and by holding the fire button you can lock onto up to six targets to launch homing missiles. These missiles allow you to hit enemies positioned above you that would otherwise be out of reach, kind of like the mech stages in Sonic Adventure 2.

There are of course bosses in the middle of the stage and at the end that fire in some more complex patterns and have to be whittled down barrage after barrage. It’s a bit more of an endurance round than anything else really.

I couldn’t find much about why it was cancelled, but I guess that its development went right through to the year 2000 which is when N64 games were generally either delayed onto the Gamecube or just outright abandoned.

Review and conclusion

This game is great if you’re looking to scratch that Starfox / Lylat Wars itch on the N64 but have already played the game to death. The graphics are nice, music is vibrant and it’s a joy to play through. The story text is in Japanese, but the menus and interface is in English so it’s very easy to navigate.

If I really had to complain about anything, it would be that the game doesn’t feel hard per se, but rather that the boss battles are a bit of a slog to go through. You’re spamming your attacks and dodging theirs for so long that you’ll eventually slip up somewhere.

The ROM is pretty much complete so you can play it from start to finish. This is a great win for both people who want the challenge of a scrolling shooter on the N64 (there weren’t many) and those who want to 100% complete video game preservationism.