Just two months ago, I referred to the N64 game Glover as one of the many 3D platformers that ‘fizzled out in the new millennium.’ Now, it looks like my words have come back and slapped me in the face with a white anthropomorphic glove, because Glover is due to launch on Steam and GOG today.
The return of Glover means that the game comes to PC for the second time (the first being back in 1998). Developer Piko Interactive managed to get their hands on the original N64 version’s source code, meaning that the game is very much as we remember it, with high-resolution graphics and widescreen support being the most notable improvements. According to Piko, they used the N64 code because it was superior to the PC code (the less said about the infamously awful PS1 version, the better).
The game is locked to 30fps, which may not sound like much but it’s still double the framerate of the N64 version. Piko says it doesn’t run at 60fps because “the programmer said that the mechanics of hand ball made the math calculations for it to run at 60fps incredibly difficult.” Looking at the Steam page, it doesn’t sound like anything’s been remastered in the way of textures, models, soundtrack or restored content, but it does seem to have better draw distances than the foggy original.
Glover was a 3D platformer of its time, taking place across six distinctly themed worlds where moving platforms mysteriously floated in space and spinning collectable sprites beckoned you towards danger. It was as much a puzzler as a platformer, with the goal being to guide a ball towards the finish line in each level. The interactions with the ball were a delight, as you could bounce it around, throw it as a weapon, dribble it, and transform it into different forms like a bowling ball and a ball-bearing to smash through walls or solve puzzles.
Piko Interactive said back in 2018 that once Glover is released, they intend to finish and release Glover 2, which was originally announced as an N64 back in 1999 but never saw the light of day.