As you may know by now, I have been enthralled with the PC version of StarCraft after having previously only been exposed to the Nintendo 64 version of the game. I will always sing the praises of StarCraft 64, but after having spent so much time with the PC version in just under a week, I now begin to draw conclusions and comparisons which I would like to share with you, the loyal readers here on StarCraft Fan. This will be a series of articles that compares the two versions of the game, giving the pros and cons of both (if any).
In this first article, I’d like to touch on the in-game cinematics of StarCraft. I remember playing through StarCraft 64, seeing a few cinematics and thinking, Whoa! This is so freaking awesome! I was genuinely impressed with the cut-scenes in the game, and with good reason too. I mean, they were pretty awesome and still are to this day. But then I noticed something when I started playing StarCraft on my PC. The cut-scenes in the N64 version of the game were shortened! So for all the awesomeness that they exuded, it seems that the cinematics in StarCraft 64 were pretty much just chopped versions of those found in the original game. Such a shame.
Now before I go any further, I know that the Nintendo 64 was somewhat limited due to its use of cartridges, so I won’t vilify Nintendo for this. They did what they could along with Blizzard and Mass Media Inc., and they did a damn fine job overall of putting the game on a home console. I just can’t help but feel that the complete cinematics in the PC version are easily one of the reasons to recommend that version of the game over StarCraft 64.
When you’ve got a game with a story as strong as StarCraft’s, then you really need those complete cinematics because they help flesh out the experience even more. Yes, StarCraft 64 did a good job with the game’s cut-scenes, but StarCraft on the PC is the winner here.
