I never thought I would see the day that there were people celebrating the look of Nintendo 64 games. Yet here we are with Born64 by ReCollect64. This is a 3D action adventure being created using Unreal Engine 5 but within the perceived limitations of the Nintendo 64 art style. This is an interesting design choice to say the least. One problem I see already is lack of blurred textures and fog. They must be using an expansion pack in their version of the N64 art style.

If It Works, Run with It

Looking at a few of the videos available, Walk Around – Born64 first, we see the game world is the main focus. Graphically, Born64 looks good already, obviously they are not going to be able to match the Nintendo 64 perfectly as far as limitations, but they are close here.

I know I poked at them in the opening paragraph but obviously there are going to be liberties taken. There has to be. The developer cannot be expected to literally program in quirks of the N64 console such as random slowdown.

What they have created so far is interesting and is on my watch list for development. I enjoy 3D adventures that are linear – I don’t care to wander around a huge world map for days trying to figure out what to do next – help me out a bit, I only have a few hours a week to play anyhow.

Get off my lawn too.

Game Mechanics Are a Focus

Looking at Swimming we get a sneak peek at an element many 3D games flat out avoid. Swimming. Right now, the character is simply treading water, but it is more than what many other similar titles give gamers.

This opens up the game world quite a bit. If they add diving and other swimming animations, then the game world could open even more. This means more quests that are even more epic than just being limited to land.

So far, Born64 is developing quite nicely. If you have not heard about it yet, check it out. Swing by the Born64 YouTube channel and give the developer some encouragement, a like, a subscribe, any of that can go a long way with independent developers.