If you are not familiar with Viewpoint then you are in for either a treat or a controller throwing experience. It all depends on how you feel about tough games. Viewpoint 2064 was to be the games debut on the Nintendo 64 by Sammy Corporation in 1999 but that never happened. For some reason, completely unknown to this day, Sammy canceled the release. Now, the “master” edition is available to download and enjoy by anyone that wants to.
Sure, companies like Nintendo would love to keep emulators and ROMs out of fans hands but while we can, we need to enjoy these things. Companies certainly are not doing much to keep even titles they did release available, let alone doing anything about unreleased ones.
With Viewpoint 2064, we are getting a wholly new title that took a previous release into the third dimension in a unique manner.
Viewpoint was originally released on the Neo Geo arcade/home platform, then ported to the Sega Genesis (but not Super Nintendo) and again to the Sony PlayStation as well as the Sharp X68000 and some other computer formats. All were isometric affairs like Zaxxon, a classic Sega arcade game that saw many ports to home platforms in the 80s.
Viewpoint was well known for being a quarter muncher, this meant it was as tough as a Waffle House employee when a chair is thrown at them. You were not going to one man this game, let alone “no damage run” it.
You certainly will not see speed runners taking this challenge either. Partly because it is an auto-scroller, but it is also hard.
Viewpoint 2064 is a 3D affair that has branching levels in a similar manner to the Darius games (a classic 2D side scrolling shooter franchise). Unlike Sega’s Zaxxon, you are limited to low flight, but you can move a reticle around above you to lock onto enemies and hit them with a barrage of weapons. This is a mechanic that has been around since the Xevious days and popularized in games the Raystorm.
Special thanks to Hard4Games on YouTube for breaking the news and releasing the dump to the world. Also special thanks to GamesRadar for providing the link to Archive.org to download Viewpoint 2064 on Nintendo 64.
