Starcraft 64 may not quite live up to it's PC counterpart, but it still offers a solid play for any fan of the genre.

User Rating: 8.8 | StarCraft 64 N64
Starcraft 64 is basically a compilation of Blizzard entertainment's hit game series Starcraft and it's expansion Brood War. Both games come together in this affordable package, although you will need an expansion pack for you N64 to take full advantage of the game. For anyone who bought Majora's Mask though, this shouldn't be a problem. Starcraft 64 is the staple gather, build, invade type of RTS game. You will start off with a command building and 4 worker units and proceed to mine resources to expand your base and military which you will use to crush the opposition on the map. Gameplay stays similar to the PC version, although there are a few noticeable additions. You will notice right away that workers will automatically auto-gather resources after being built now. No more going back to your base periodically just to send one or two workers off to that mineral patch in front of their faces. The command interface is not nearly as efficient as the PC version, which is understandable since you have a rather large limitation using the N64 controller instead of a keyboard and mouse. There exist new master build menus which can be access anywhere and you can queue things to be built while still watching a large scale battle now. The N64 controller is a bit clunkier than the PC mouse, so sometimes you might have to move back and force to catch that unit you are trying to click on, but it's not usually a problem as long as you use the grab box. Overall the N64 controller works better than expected at handling a game which uses many keyboard actions and quick clicking with the mouse.

Some drawbacks to the transfer between platforms are noticeable. For example, there is no world editor and obviously no online play, this means that your stuck with the default maps, you cannot create your own nor edit the ones that already exist to include more minerals or alter the layout of the terrain. One of Starcraft's major draws was that it had superb online play, which downloadable maps and customizable gametypes. Of course all of that is missing from the N64 version which although expected, still is disappointing. Multiplayer does still exist via split screen, and although it is sometimes a bit laggy, the overall quality of multiplayer is quite good.

Graphics are of good quality, although not great. You can still easily tell between the units and the background, there is depth to the terrain and most of the doodads and tilesets are still intact. Although there are a few limitation for certain. Unit portraits are no longer animated, the water is stationary. It doesn't live up to the quality that Starcraft created, but it will more than suffice.

Sound is hurt though, mission briefings are all text based which is disappointing because that is how the high majority of the story was conveyed. The storyline just won't draw you in without the deep psionic voices of the Protoss or the rumbling voice of the Zerg Overmind to inform you of your next objective. If your getting this game for story, do yourself a favour and stick with the PC version. The music is largely intact, Sound clips for units are mostly there, but they lack the usually funny sound clips that are played if you repeatedly clicked on the same unit more times than would ever be necessary.

Starcraft 64 is a solid buy, and a bit of a rare gem nowadays, be sure to grab a copy if you run across it.