Shake me baby. (N64 Force Pack)

Member Name: MR.COATES

Product:	N64 Force Pack
Date:	30/01/01 (264 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brings life to games.

Disadvantages: Eats batteries like nothing else.

Ah, fond memories return when I think about this particular accessory.

You may or may not recall this, but there was quite a bit of excitement when the Nintendo 64 console was launched. Some of that excitement was due to the rather unconventional controller design.

It transpired that you could plug in a memory card or a rumble pack.

How bizarre people thought, a rumbling controller – that’s a great idea!

Yes it was and it wasn’t long before Sony introduced their Dual Shock controllers. In fact, can you imagine having a controller that doesn’t have a rumble feature?

Currently the Dual Shock controller is the only one that has the rumble facility built in.
The Sega Dreamcast controller needs an add-on and so did the N64 as you will now discover.

It plugs into the port in the top of the controller – the same one as the memory card does.
This, by today’s standards, produces a problem straight away.

If you want to use a memory card you have to remove the rumble pack and vice versa.
Today of course Sega have jumped on the back of that problem by introducing two slots on the controller. This of course means that the controller is heavier but that is weighed up against the inconvenience of having to swap between the two even if it is only occasionally.

There were a few clever third party manufacturers who created rumble packs with a built in memory cards but of course this meant that they were more expensive too so nobody’s a winner.

The official nintendo rumble pack (in fact I believe it’s ‘pak’) is a well constructed and well performing piece of kit.

It’s a about the weight of a king size Snickers (odd comparison, but it’s about right!) and takes two ‘AAA’ batteries which fit into the compartment at the back.

On that matter – yes, it takes batteries.
The Dual Force pad
from Sony doesn’t need them and the Dreamcast rumble pack doesn’t either and I’ll warn you now – the battery life will be quite low if you’re playing games like Goldeneye.

Saying that though, the rumble is pretty good and precise.
If you have a collision in a racing game like Top Gear Rally then it’ll feel like a collision. If you’re engaged in an almighty ruckus in Goldeneye then the rumble will feel more like the motion of machine gun fire.
Very impressive indeed.

As far as accessories for the N64 go this is actually one of the first ones that I bought – before a memory card even.
The reason for this is that some games (due to the fact that they’re cartridges) have memory for saved games etc so you may want to buy a rumble pak before a memory card.
Of course sales of the N64 have gone rapidly downhill and some stores have now actually stopped re-stocking once they’re sold.

Shame because there are some excellent titles on the N64 and you’ll pick accessories up for much less than you used to.

So if you’re wondering what to buy then this item should be on your list and hey, batteries are included (well, they certainly used to be anyway – check box for details).

Summary: