This video is brought to you in part by Audible! Use the link audible.com/stopskeletons, or text "stopskeletons" to 500 500 to get a free book, two free Audible originals from a curated list, and a 30-day free trial! Lately I've been getting really into Game of Thrones, but the idea of reading one of those massive books as a dyslexic doesn't sound as appealing as listening to the audio version, which is why I recommend you try the first Game of Thrones book from Audible! Members get a free book credit every month, and you get to keep the book even if you leave Audible! That's audible.com/stopskeletons, or text "stopskeletons" to 500 500. Hey, it's Derek from Stop Skeletons From Fighting, and welcome back to Punching Weight, the show that celebrates the weird, ambitious and unnecessary. In this episode, we're gonna be talking random or procedural generation in games, specifically in a place where you'd least expect it. Now, random/procedural generation has been around in video games for a while: From Cave Noire, to ToeJam & Earl, to Diablo, even all the way up to No Man's Sky and the glut of indie Roguelikes, and of course, fan-made mods and the emulation community, randomly generating game content is not all that rare of a game feature. However, this feature is almost completely missing from one system's library: The N64. This episode was actually voted on by our Patreon supporters, and we love 'em, but if only I'd known what we were in for, I'd maybe not let them do it, but I'd do it again! We are here to talk about four Nintendo 64 games that have randomly generating features, maybe a few games you own, but didn't realize had almost infinite content! We're gonna start with one of the most graphically impressive games on the system: F-Zero X. Visually it might not look like much, but F-Zero X's claim to fame is its silky-smooth graphics and blisteringly fast speed! Maybe not the best game on a pure aesthetics level, but it prioritized framerate above everything else, which is not something you can say about a lot of N64 games. The fact that you can have 30 characters on-screen at once and still run like this is amazing! It's also a pretty fun racer on top of all that, with a great soundtrack and tracks that are futuristic and over-the-top, it's just bonkers! It's a game so good, you'd wish you could play it forever! But what if I told you that you could? Enter the X Cup. On top of being the coolest name for a mode ever, the X Cup functions like any other cup, in that it's the best of six races. However, all of the racetracks are randomly generated! No two tracks are ever the same, you never know what you gonna get! It's fun to play just to see what the game throws at you! Unfortunately, and probably because the devs didn't want you to end up with impossible tracks, some of the more outrageous track features like loop-de-loops and cylinders are left out, but things still get wild! Maps can have sudden bends and sharp curves that might result in launching you off the course. The AI-controlled drivers also typically don't handle these tracks very well, so, in a way, the X Cup is one of the easier cups. It does let you play on all difficulties, which by the way, means tougher opponent drivers, not tougher tracks. But if you really wanna level the playing field, grab three buddies and play four-player splitscreen! And if you wanna get the best time on a track you'll never be able to play again, hey, play on practice mode! Who cares?! It's a shame that this is the only F-Zero that ever had a random track mode, it's a damn shame that GX didn't have one also. If Nintendo doesn't include this mode in their battle royale reboot, F-Zero 99, we riot! We wanted to get the word out because honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know this mode existed! It's not mentioned on the box or in the manual, this is one of my favorite racers on the system, and I can't believe I didn't know about it! I mean, I knew about the track editor in the Japanese-only 64DD version... ... okay, I dunno, maybe I was the only one who didn't know about the X Cup. But there is a bit of a barrier to get it: To unlock the X Cup, you have to beat the Joker Cup on Expert, which is basically completing the entire game, OR do what we did and put in a code, and just go nuts! Because you shouldn't have to work that hard for some good ol'-fashioned dumb fun! Or, if you wanna have some dumb fun out of the box, our next game's got you covered: Excitebike 64 is an underappreciated racer that came out kinda late in the N64's lifespan. It's pretty fun, but it also has SO many cool modes and cheats, like an emulated version of Excitebike for the NES, a 3D remake of Excitebike for the NES, and a soccer mode that's basically Rocket League, but 15 years earlier! The story goes that Miyamoto himself told the devs to tone it down on the bonus stuff and focus on the main game. Luckily for us, they didn't listen. We don't have time to talk about all the cool things in this game, because we're gonna focus on the Desert mode. Desert mode is unlocked from the start, and it's very different from the X Cup, though it is, again, not advertised on the box, Desert mode is not a track, it is a procedurally generated 3D open-world desert where you can go in any direction! Your only goal is to hit ten campfire checkpoints before five other AI bikers. Driving up and down the dunes is fun, and it IS fun to try and beat your opponents, but dude! You don't have to do ANY of that! When we were researching this game, we came across something really interesting in Excitebike 64's writeup in Nintendo Power: Beyond claiming that the desert is "endless", they also say that the game remembers the landscape even after it's out of sight, so you can turn back and race over your favorite jumps. Wait... Wait... 'scuse me? Stop. What?! So, basically what this is saying is that not only does the desert generate in real time, possibly forever, it also stores everything it's generated in the game's memory?! Are you kidding me?! We had to test this. The first thing we did was put our back to the first campfire and drove 27 minutes in the opposite direction. The game didn't crash, didn't slow down or start chugging or anything! Then we turned around to see if it would take 27 minutes to get back to the campfire, and sure enough, it did! Can't say for certain if it was the exact same terrain, as you can see it's all very similar, but it did know how far away we went! And then it spawned nine more campfires, and we finished the race! Though we think our opponent drivers just vanished. Can't really say, we only tested this once because it took an HOUR, and we regret nothing! Well, that's what we thought, but then our editor Soberdwarf came through with some emulation testing, and it turns out, if we had driven another 90 seconds, we would have seen the hour time limit, which means that, in a literal sense, it's not endless, or if it is, we can't test it. It's definitely one of, if not the biggest physical area in an N64 game. As far as if the entire area is randomly generated every time...? Well, at the very least, the beginning area is the same, with the main variable being do you get a tree or a cactus. Also, we did our initial test without the Expansion Pak, which makes it all the more impressive! While it likely isn't generating in real time, we think this map was randomly generated by the developers and then placed inside the game, which I guess means that maybe Excitebike 64 doesn't actually belong in this video, but we thought all this was just so cool, it needed to stay in the video! Desert mode is a massive, maybe the biggest open world area in an N64 game! The only thing that could make it more bonkers is if it was also multiplayer, which, it's maybe no surprise, is not the case. Our next N64 game with a random mode is another racer: Top Gear Rally 2! And look! It's actually advertised on the box! Top Gear Rally 2 is a sim racing game, which has never been my thing, and it doesn't disappoint in this regard, as far as I can tell. And what I mean by that is this game got depth, and is also hard. And if the random tracks mode had not been advertised on the box, I probably wouldn't have given this game a second thought. The problem is that Top Gear Rally 2 has really confusing menus, and the random tracks mode is not mentioned in the manual, which luckily we have. So when we looked up how to unlock this mode online, all we found was this IGN review from 1999 that said the mode unlocks "once initial tracks are cleared". I'm gonna come clean: I am not good at sim racers, I am not good at this game, I'm not even all that convinced this is a really good sim experience on the N64, but Punching Weight is a show for the people, and I was determined to bring random tracks to the people! Ten hours I played this game. Our Patreon asked us to put in the hours, and we did! And I was only able to finish all the cups by cheating. But I'd do it again! [Grace chuckles off-screen] There is no "unlock everything" code in Top Gear Rally 2 like there is in F-Zero X, so I made do with what I could: No damage, 100,000 credits, AI driving, and even intoxicated AI cars. No shame anymore, I literally watched a drunk driver finish the game for me. [ EUROBEAT INTENSIFIES ] And after me and my drunk chauffeur finally finished the last cup, I couldn't find the random track mode anywhere. It was only then, in a state of panic, that I went into the Multiplayer menu... ... and found it. And then I, as a test, I took out the memory card and reset the game... ... and yep, it's unlocked from the start. Ugh, Top Gear Rally 2, I'm about to throw you out the window. Okay, and before we all dunk on IGN, it's possible they were reviewing from an early version where the mode was an unlockable bonus, it's probably not their fault, but whatever! We finally got the random tracks mode! [CRASH!]
it's probably not their fault, but whatever! We finally got the random tracks mode! And the first thing I noticed is that this mode actually gives you a lot of choices! There are four terrain categories: Farm, Desert, Jungle and Mountain, and three weather categories: Clear, Rain and Snow. but you can't do snow in the desert and jungle, which is dumb! Ugh, I just wanna have fun, Top Gear Rally 2, why can't we just have fun?! But what I did NOT see was extra specs for cars in multiplayer. Gone also is car damage, like brake failures and blown tires, which means the random track removes all the simulation stuff I personally didn't enjoy, and presents a more arcade-like experience, which I actually think is pretty fun! Overall, this is the least random random mode we're gonna be talking about in this episode. It's not really randomly generating tracks as much as randomly assembling them through familiar chunks. I consistently saw the same type of setups over and over again. I started to notice that, for example, every time I picked a mountain track, I would usually get the bridge, the cave and/or the hairpin turns. This held true for other terrain styles, and it makes me think that while it might be using a similar system as F-Zero X, at least F-Zero X makes it an experience. Having this many choices literally makes it less random, which takes away a lot of the magic, and then it just kicks you out to the menu once the race is finished. Presentation-wise, it's about as barebones as possible. Overall, this is my favorite part of the game, but my least favorite random mode. Now don't get me wrong, it's still super cool this mode exists at all, and to be fair, unlike Excitebike 64, this can be played four-player splitscreen! But just like Excitebike 64, it is unlocked from the start, no matter what you read online. Alright, so far we've been talking about random generation, but we're gonna wrap up this episode with something slightly different: Our old friend, the port of Resident Evil 2 on N64 has an exclusive randomizer mode! We've already talked about how this is an amazing port in other videos, how it features all four Leon and Claire campaigns, complete with CG cutscenes, on one 64-megabyte cartridge, which is still impressive, despite the recent revelation that Resident Evil 2 could have fit on one 700-megabyte PlayStation disc. In any case, the randomizer mode in RE2 64 is different from the modes in the other games we brought up earlier, because it's not creating new levels or environments, it's randomizing ammo and health items. There are some weird rules to this, and we had to test it a few times to understand the quirks of the system. It doesn't change the placement of key items, like keys, medallions and rubies and so-on, so you're still able to theoretically finish the game. Second, item locations don't change, for instance, there's always two items hidden behind the desk in the east office, but what items you find change. However, saving and loading didn't produce different items for a specific playthrough, so it looks like they're set when you start the game. Also, items don't start randomizing until the police station, and near as we can tell, ink ribbons don't get randomized either, which the designers probably did to ensure that the game wasn't too difficult. But once you get the keycard from Marvin, things start to get drastically different. Like the item found on the Licker room corpse, for example: In our first two playthroughs, we got two different amounts of handgun bullets, but on our third playthrough, we got flame rounds! Leon gets the small key in the interrogation room like normal, but one time for Claire it was an herb, and another it was 25 grenade rounds! One thing we did notice is that when you find ammo, you're usually given way more than you would normally find. Like... WAY more! We think that the mode has extra bullets added into it, again, to make it easier. For my first run, I got almost nothing but red herbs and magnum ammo, which are completely useless by themselves this early in the game, but things turned around, and by the time I got to the sewer I was drowning in shotgun shells! I was just shootin' everything for the hell of it! Like the spiders! I NEVER bother to kill the spiders, but hey, I got the extra ammo! Though things can get tense, this does make the randomizer mode kinda easy. This is very different from most fan-made randomizers which, while usually still completeable, can be absolutely brutal, like our editor Soberdwarf's playthrough of the Resident Evil Remake randomizer mod: SOBER: ... why was Barry... Why is Barry replaced by a Tyrant?! Why...? Alright, d- do I got- Oh gee, ow! C'mon... DEREK: RE2 64's randomizer mode is less of an extra challenge, and more of just a dumb, fun good time! Which hey, that's enough for us! And this may be the first time a randomizer ever appeared in a console game! The way you unlock it is you beat all four campaigns, and it's a shame it wasn't really advertised. It's not mentioned on the box, in the instructions, or even in the dang strategy guide! Why did no-one other than Top Gear Rally 2 think to advertise these awesome random modes?! But hey, it's awesome that they're there in the first place, and whether or not you knew about them... well now you definitely do! We appreciate our patrons for voting on this episode, look, I know I was a little grumpy throughout this episode, but we had a lot of fun makin' it, and I'd do it again! And you can join their ranks by joining our Patreon and helping support the channel, if you enjoyed the video, hey, also just give a like, give a comment... ...smack the bell, I dunno, all that stuff, if you wanna see more ridiculous, amazing, fun games, subscribe to Stop Skeletons From Fighting! Thanks for watching, and we'll see you again real soon!
