Glover is a real Nintendo 64 cult-classic, one of those games that many owners of an N64 remember well. A traditional 3D platformer of its time including a mascot character, a hub world and multiple diverse, yet small 3D zones to explore with many items to collect. Whilst some platform games from the era have held up well – Super Mario 64, Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie for example – the majority haven’t. Glover is unfortunately one of that hasn’t.
When Glover was announced for modern consoles I was really excited, I have very fond memories of the cute ball-rolling glove from my childhood. So, when Limited Run Games announced physical versions of the console release during summer last year, a pre-order was a no brainer. Based on my time with the Xbox One / Series version played for review, that Switch copy will likely stay in the wrapper on the shelf till the end of time.
Story
The story places you as the cute and charismatic Glover, the four fingered glove of Wizard. Wizard’s other glove has turned evil and becomes Glover’s nemesis, Cross-Stitch. Glover has an innovative take on platforming which has players rolling, slapping and bouncing the ball across 30 levels spanning six well-made worlds. This includes six bonus and boss stages that offer alternative ways to use the ball and glove duo.
Let’s start with some positives, Glover’s core gameplay is still clever and something that we haven’t seen notably replicated since the 1998 launch. Glover is a likeable character, their original animations still hold up well and made me smile whenever they occurred. There is a good array of enemy types across the varying worlds and each boss battle is unique. There is also a healthy amount of game time here, completing every level and unlocking all Xbox achievements took me a healthy 8-9 hours.
Technical and visual issues
Whilst I wasn’t expecting a full remaster with this launch, the problem with this version of Glover is that there has been next to no effort made in bringing the game up to modern standards aside from widescreen support and some HD textures. This version (QUBYTE Classics) of Glover has been on Steam since April 2022 where it currently holds ‘Mixed’ user reviews status. The new console releases are straight ports with seemingly minimal optimisation. Whilst the issues are numerous the primary issue is controls, there is basic button remapping but that is all. Controls feel archaic and one cannot fathom how a modern gamer playing this for the first time would fare. The developers simply didn’t include basic controller adaptation options to make the game more accessible to modern gamers.
By default, the horizontal camera is inexcusably still inverted leaving the player to turn the right analogue stick left to turn right and vice-versa – a control system that should be banished to the era of early 3D platformers. What makes this even worse is that on the few occasions where you use the right stick to move the camera vertically, that is not inverted. Whilst I can’t remember how this worked on the original, a lack of even basic options to make the game more accessible to players isn’t acceptable. It is a truly frustrating experience that caused me to die multiple times, including the camera frequently turning itself around mid-jump leaving me to fall to my death. Furthermore, during the Fortress of Fear stages lightning effects blinded the screen making it essential to stand still until it was possible to see again.
The next issues to highlight are performance and fidelity, I tried the game on both Xbox Series X and Xbox One and couldn’t notice any difference. Somehow, the developers haven’t managed to increase the frame rate to a higher FPS despite Glover being 27 years old. What’s worse, is that at regular intervals the game slowed down significantly to around 15fps. The game has received an increase to resolution on some assets including Glover and the ball, edges are generally sharper than the original N64 game, but there are many visual issues. The highlight being at one section where I was crossing moving platforms, the game was sending my character in completely the opposite way to which the floor was moving.
Finally, the game is riddled with glitches. To name but a few, enemy corpses remaining on the map next to their respawned incarnations; and electric wires being visible when looking from one camera angle but not another. Then, during a fight against a Frankenstein-like boss they simply fell out of the map – though considering how stressful the camera was to control during the fight I was genuinely pleased they disappeared.
Summary
Glover is a beloved title of an excellent era of 3D platformer games, so it’s really disappointing the developers did not adapt the game to be playable to modern standards. The game didn’t need a rebuild, but it clearly didn’t get the quality of life features it needed to be accessible to first-time players, especially frustrating given the title has been on Steam for so long. If you’re a big fan of Glover and are confident you won’t be frustrated by the old-school controls, then this will be perfect be for you. However, if you’ve no affinity for the game I strongly recommend you avoid or wait for a significant store sale.
A review code was provided by the publishers for the purpose of the review. Glover is now available digitally on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 & 5.
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