Review: Glover Could Use a Helping Hand

While the Nintendo 64 ended up not providing much competition to the massively successful Sony PlayStation, some of its games had a major impact. Right from the first day, Super Mario 64 laid down a template that influenced most 3D platformers that came after it. The game’s popularity naturally led to several similar games being released on the console, with varying results. One such game that is likely a familiar memory for many who owned a Nintendo 64 is Glover, and it’s now available on just about every modern platform courtesy of QUByte Interactive.

Glover is an oddly ubiquitous sight in many a Nintendo 64 collection, and it’s not entirely for good reasons. According to a former employee of the game’s developer Interactive Studios, an employee at the publisher made the decision to double the planned production run of the game. Because of this, there were tons of surplus copies of Glover that ended up being blown out at ridiculously low prices. It was not unusual to see racks full of copies of the game being sold for under ten dollars. Quite a deal for those days, and one that likely ended up serving as a useful gift to many a child.

Don’t feel too sorry for those kids who got the game, though. Glover is actually not that bad at all for its time and place. As you might expect from a 1998 3D platformer, it has a lot of less-than-elegant features. The camera in particular can be a royal pain, frequently sticking itself in the least useful position you could imagine. But Glover has some fun ideas, interesting stage designs, and has its fundamentals down pretty well. You could do a lot worse on any of the platforms it originally released on.

With that said, 1998 was a long time ago. In terms of 3D platformers, a very long time ago indeed. That leaves us with two things to consider with this new release of Glover. First and perhaps most important for those who simply want to relive their happy memories is the matter of how this particular version has turned out. The other more general concern is in how well the game itself has held up over these two decades and change.

This new console release of Glover is based on the recent Nintendo 64-derived PC port of the game that was released a few years back by Piko Interactive, the modern owners of the IP. It features a number of changes from the original, with some of them being unambiguously welcome and others a bit more controversial. The game is now displayed in widescreen with crispy high-resolution visuals. Some extras not found in the original game are included, such as achievements and a gallery of production art. There’s also a graphical filter you can apply if you like, though I think the game looks better without it.

Some of the level designs have been altered in subtle ways, and one can’t help but wonder if the Nintendo 64 source code used for this port was not the exact same build as what we saw on the actual console back in the day. Certain elements and gimmicks are missing or non-functional, and there are numerous instances of textures not being applied to objects that had them in the original release. Many of these textures were useful for calling the player’s attention to the object in question, and if you don’t already know what to do their absence can make things trickier to suss out. Some sound effects are different, and I can’t tell if that’s intentional or not.

Then there are things just seem like straight-up bugs, like the bizarre way that enemies leave partial remains of their sprites after you defeat them. Unlike in the original, the enemies also respawn under certain circumstances. If you keep killing them and respawning them you can end up with a bunch of weird parts littering the stage. At least one of the bosses has some serious changes to how it can move and interact with the arena, and it works in such a weird way that I can’t buy that it’s meant to be that way.

Still, most of this amounts to nitpicking that only diehard fans of the original will care much about. Purists should certainly be aware of them so that they come into this release with their expectations in check, but I imagine the average player isn’t going to notice anything terribly amiss. For the most part, you’re getting that original Glover experience. Which is to say, most of the things that appear to be clunky or weird are probably that way by design.

Glover tells the story of a pair of sentient gloves that belong to a wizard who rules over the Crystal Kingdom. One day a magical mishap leads to the wizard being turned into a statue, the crystals that power the kingdom being scattered, and one of the gloves being turned evil. The usual sort of thing. The good glove, Glover, has to explore the corrupted kingdom to recover the crystals and save the day. The crystals themselves are incredibly fragile, but Glover wisely used his magic to turn them into rubber balls before they hit the ground.

The Crystal Kingdom has a convenient layout, with the wizard’s castle standing at the center of a hub with six portals that each lead to a different world. In each of these worlds, you’ll find one of the crystals-turned-balls. Pick it up and guide it through a few themed stages and one boss battle, then take it back to its rightful place at the castle. Easy-peasy. Naturally, there are a lot of things that are going to get in your way as you do that. Tricky platforming, deadly enemies, and the most dangerous opponent of all in a 3D platformer of this era: a troublesome camera.

Glover has a solid assortment of moves that make for a rather unique platforming experience. When he isn’t carrying a ball, he plays a lot like any other 3D platformer hero. He can pull off a double-jump, crawl, and butt… er, fist-stomp. He can also do a cartwheel that seems useless initially but is eventually required to pass some obstacles. Glover can also pick up special power-ups that give him temporary abilities like climbing up walls or growing big. You can actually get a fair bit of work done in each stage without the ball in hand, and you may indeed want to do that to make life easier on yourself.

It’s when Glover picks up a ball that his list of moves gets a bit wild. First of all, you won’t be walking your finger-feet anymore. Instead, Glover cradles the ball and you roll it along the ground. You can dribble the ball if you need to make short jumps, or toss and slap the ball to deal with larger gaps. Fist-stomping on the ball will result in a big jump, and you can ride on top of the ball to move more quickly or move along the top of water. You can’t ditch the ball, as you need to bring it to the goal to finish the stage. It’s also needed to activate certain switches and gimmicks. If the ball is destroyed, you lose a life. You can also lose a life if Glover takes too many hits. The stages can get pretty long at times, but there are checkpoints you’ll respawn at when a life is lost.

Glover has the ability to change the ball into a few different forms. While the rubber ball is certainly the most versatile form, it can be transformed into a heavy bowling ball, a ball bearing, or returned to its original crystal shape. Each one has its uses, though the crystal form shatters very easily and should be used very carefully. You get double points from the cards scattered around if you’re using the crystal form, so you should really only use it if you care about points. The game tracks how many of those cards, called Garibs, you’ve found on each stage. Getting them all will unlock an extra stage in each world. The game also records your best time in case you need more reasons to come back.

The game features some creative stage designs, and you’ll have lots of good reasons to make use of everything Glover can do. It’s a better game than you might expect for its era, but it is very much of that time. The camera is assigned to the second stick here, but it’s still behaving like an early 3D platformer camera. It’s not always clear what you need to do in order to progress, and the way collisions work isn’t always intuitive. Whenever you have to deal with enemies, things have a high potential of getting very awkward. This isn’t going to surprise anyone with clear memories of the state of the genre in the late 1990s, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re coming in fresh.

This version of Glover is a flawed port of a game that wears its age on its sleeve. Nothing here is bad enough to chase away those with warm memories of playing the game on Nintendo 64, but there are some differences that will likely chafe for some fans. If you don’t have any particular fondness for Glover, it’s hard to recommend with much vigor. It was decent enough in its time, but enjoying it now requires you to be very tolerant of the rougher aspects that come from such an early example of the genre.

Glover (QUByte Classics) is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox One/Series.