Nintendo is adding a welcome fifth game to its grown up Mature section of the Nintendo Switch Online on September 4, with the arrival of 1998’s Forsaken 64. The six-degrees shooter is a total classic, and a superb addition to the top-tier version of Nintendo’s subscription service–although you’ll be hard-pressed to work out why it’s still considered an M.
In the mid-90s, with the arrival of 3D graphics cards, developers were suddenly handed a whole other axis in which to explore. The stand-out example of this new-found freedom was 1995’s Descent, know as a “six degrees of freedom” game, where you controlled a floating ship that could orientate itself however it wished in 3D spaces. That shooter was created by Parallax Software, a name you might not recognize until I tell you the studio split in two, one half becoming Volition. (The other half became Outrage Entertainment which developed the incredible Descent 3.) So, the developer best known for Saints Row and Red Faction essentially launched a whole new genre, and it was into this that publisher Acclaim Entertainment released Forsaken in 1998.
OK, that’s perhaps a somewhat generous way of observing just how derivative Probe Entertainment’s Forsaken was of Descent and its 1996 sequel, but it remains the case that Forsaken was outstanding in its own right. While wantonly lifting weapon types, power-ups and indeed the entire concept of flying a ship through 3D tunnels from its–uh–inspiration, the game became a pioneer of the growing 3D graphics market, and a solid six-degrees shooter in its own right.
The N64 version of Forsaken came out just a week later, despite being partly developed by a different Acclaim studio, Iguana UK, and even having its own unique version of the storyline. The PC and PlayStation version of the game had you playing as a nefarious rogue attempting to plunder a nuclear-destroyed Earth for its treasures as a get-rich scheme, while Forsaken 64 took a more noble interpretation, casting you as someone trying to take down those looters. It plays out the same, but Nintendo players had the moral highground.
It’s obviously this version that’s due to arrive on the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service September 4, as part of its higher tier “Expansion Pack.” Except, for reasons that aren’t immediately clear, Forsaken 64 is to be part of the separate Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics: Mature app. That currently hosts Perfect Dark, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil and Shadow Man, all of which were originally released with an M rating in the ’90s. However, Forsaken 64‘s rating is a bit more confusing. The game was released with an M rating in the US, both on the box and the cartridge, but despite the ESRB then and now rate the game as a T. There’s some speculation this might be because the game featured a cheat where pressing Z, Down, C-Up, C-Left, C-Left, C-Left, C-Left, C-Down on the Start screen would unlock a Gore Mode, which would easily bump the game up from T to M in those days. If that cheat has been preserved for this release, then Nintendo presumably erred on the side of caution. Although of course this is all made a nonsense given Golden Eye 64 remains a T and in the main app! And it all looks so gorgeously innocent and mild some three decades later.
This release will support all the original 4-player multiplayer modes, which are still super-satisfying today. The only real challenge this faces is being added on the same day Hollow Knight: Silksong comes out.