195. Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (1998, Nintendo 64) by Ocean

Current N64 Possible% Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

Hello, agents.  Mission: Impossible, a 1998 game developed by Infogrames and published by Ocean for the N64 and PlayStation, is a 3rd-person stealth/objective-based shooter/spy game, unlike any other.  This game takes a little bit from Metal Gear Solid, a little from Goldeneye 007, and a little from other games such as Planet of the Apes and Rainbow Six… and blends it together into a game that truly captures the essence of Mission: Impossible, making it a surprisingly fun game that fans will enjoy.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is far from perfect, however.  This 1998 game looks and sounds average, outside of some fun songs that make a nice soundtrack.  The controls are responsive, but FAR too sensitive, making aiming nearly impossible (heh), and the fog and low frame rate can make it challenging to shoot those enemies searching for the player, Ethan Hunt (not Tom Cruise).  Your mission is to follow the plot of the movie loosely, with bonus areas added in for flavor.  The scenes you expect are all there from the movie, and they are quite unique and fun!

This speedrun is difficult, but it is very rewarding, with some fun tech despite a lack of glitches… well, intentional glitches, anyways.  This game has some annoying flaws and glitches, including spontaneous crashes, invincible enemies, despawning NPCs, perpetual softlocks, and more.  None of them are preventable all the time, and that can put a damper on your run.  Despite this, when the game behaves, it is truly fun to go for 1-cycle truck jumps, or the fast lasers in the vertical shaft, and more.  With a variety of stages, this becomes a speedrun which is an absolute joy to play through, even if you will lose runs in ways you couldn’t have forseen.

Agents, this is not the easiest run to learn, but it’s doable for anyone that has played this game, or those that have some heart.  Although a lot of your runs will self-destruct in a matter of minutes, once you break through you’ll find yourself jumping on couches and rockin’ out in your underwear in joy!

 

Leave a reply