Glover (remastered)

Glover (remastered)
After you find out what Piko Interactive really does, then you'll understand why strictly focusing on nostalgia pandering isn't good, if at all.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Xbox One Xbox Series X Release Date: Microsoft Windows April 20, 2022 Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X TBA Developer(s): Interactive Studios Publisher(s): Piko Interactive

Glover is a 3D platform game developed by Interactive Studios (later went under the name of Blitz Games) and published by Hasbro Interactive in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows, and in 1999 for the PlayStation under the Atari Interactive banner.

In April 2022, Piko Interactive, the current owners of the property, released a "remaster" of the game on Steam that also came bundled with the PlayStation version of the game. However, it is incredibly flawed.

Why It Always Lost Its Gloves

Altogether

1. The whole idea of a "remaster" that mostly relies on emulation just sounds ridiculous and comes more across as Nostalgia pandering to Nintendo 64 fans more than it's being a celebration of the game.
2. Both the "remaster" and PS1 versions are listed as "Play Glover" on the Steam menu, which makes it complete trial and error to find which version is which.
3. It costs $20 for what is basically just half-hearted emulated versions of the game.

Remaster

1. False Advertising: The game isn't even a proper remaster as what it claims to be, it is simply the Nintendo 64 a source code version ported with source code but the Windows version and N64 version split source code and started at a diffrent time. onto a port upscaled to a 16:9 HD ratio.
   • What makes it worse is that an original Microsoft Windows version of the game exists, so they could have released that version (even though it is hard to get working).
2. The graphics look almost identical to the Nintendo 64 version, in fact, they look far worse and lack polish due to the poor upscaling.
   • Some of the new texture changes, color pallete and lightning specifically look dull.
3. There are many graphical glitches all over the place that were not in the original version of the game. Such examples include:
   • Pixels becoming out-of-color and out-of-place in areas.
   • Text font and textures becoming blurry.
   • Sounds cutting in and out, playing the wrong tracks, or not playing whatsoever.
   • Enemy sprites remain after being defeated and respawn when the pause button is pressed, which causes memory leaking and potential crashing.
   • A weird-looking question mark icon appears at the end of the command when trying to add codes in the cheat menu.
4. Even the intro glitches out, due to it being game-engine based and not FMV based like the original Windows version.
   • In fact, even the logo sequence looks awful. All the logos are replaced with Piko Interactive's logo, so when Glover hits the ground, his bouncy ball now just appears out of nowhere rather than it coming out of the Hasbro Interactive logo in the original game.
5. Playing with a controller is an absolute mess, with the default button controls not applied to the correct spots. Even using a Nintendo 64 controller won't solve this issue, either.
   • The Accept and Cancel buttons cannot be separated from the controller bind process.
   • The framerate selection is almost broken other than on the default 20FPS: Trying to play with an unlimited framerate will refuse to boot up the game, and trying to play using 30 or 60fps mode will only cause more bugs and glitches than ever.
6. Achievement names are incomplete, complete with dummy text files when achieving them (eg, #NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_1_6_NAME) which shows how lazy the "remastering" really is.
7. A complete lack of basic anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering options. Also, they can force anti-aliasing from throughout the control panel.
8. There is absolutely no way to exit out of the game without manually quitting (eg, Force Quit on Mac), once again due to this "remaster" port based on N64 source code, but later it was added in 1.1 not 1.0.

PlayStation version

1. Firstly, while it seems good to include the PlayStation version despite being the major porting disaster that version is, it is very bare-bones, mainly as simply a copy of the freeware application PCSX-Reloaded with the PS1 version's ROM slapped onto it.
2. Due to it being emulated, there are absolutely no changes made to this version whatsoever, so everything (including the Hasbro copyright and Atari logo) is all intact unlike the remaster.
3. The default controls are poorly configured and will need adjustment to match the PS1 version if so.
4. As with the "remaster" there is no Anti-Aliasing of any kind, which makes the game's graphics look even worse than they already are.
5. Once again, due to it being a full-on emulated version of the game (and that widescreen hacks of the PS1 version do exist), there is no widescreen support.
6. In fact, what makes this even more of a ripoff is that the exact same emulated version of the game can be played online for free on the cloud-gaming website Piepacker, so it doesn't feel like you are getting a good deal anyway.

Redeeming Qualities

1. It is interesting to see both the "remastered" N64 version and the PlayStation version in one package, not to mention, it provides new time gamers a chance to play Glover, and it can even make adults who played Glover as a child nostalgic.
2. Glover is still a good game (at least the original N64 and PC versions are), but it's just this Steam remaster that is flawed.
3. Playing with a Mouse and Keyboard, while awkward unless you've played the original Windows version, is somewhat passable.
4. The Prototypes for the original Nintendo 64 game and the canceled Glover 2 are also included.

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