Play SpaceStation Silicon Valley Online

Summary

I first stumbled on Space Station Silicon Valley when hunting for oddball N64 gems, and was instantly hooked by its off‑beat premise: you play as Evo, a tiny robotic microchip that can hijack the bodies of dead animals to solve puzzles. The whole thing feels like a love letter to Plasticine animation, a style the DMA Design team embraced after the N64’s soft‑focus rendering turned their models into something that reminded them of Wallace & Gromit.

Development began back in September 1995 under a three‑game deal with BMG Interactive, but when Take‑Two scooped the publishing rights the project pivoted to the Nintendo 64. Using Silicon Graphics workstations to feed directly onto N64 dev boards, the crew praised the console as “the most powerful hardware available in the building,” yet they let the hardware’s quirks dictate the game’s quirky British humor and B‑movie‑style soundtrack.

Critics were almost unanimous in their admiration: IGN called it possibly the most original N64 title, Next Generation hailed its level design as superb, and the game scooped IGN’s Game of the Month and Most Innovative Game awards. Reviewers loved the intuitive animal‑swap mechanics, the vibrant colour palette, and the cheeky soundtracks, even if some found the music irritating or the graphics a step behind Banjo‑Kazooie.

Despite the praise, sales never took off—launching the same week as Ocarina of Time drowned its visibility. A notorious glitch blocks the Fat Bear Mountain souvenir, preventing access to the bonus round, and the Expansion Pak can even cause crashes. Still, the hidden gold trophies and the game’s experimental spirit keep it a beloved, underrated treasure for anyone who enjoys a quirky platformer with a dash of British wit.

Storyline

In 2001 the space station SpaceStation Silicon Valley was launched, packed with countless robotic animals. Seven minutes after lift‑off it vanished, and for a millennium it was presumed lost. The station mysteriously reappeared, now hurtling toward Earth on a collision course. The duo Dan Danger and Evo are dispatched to investigate; their ship crashes inside the station and Evo’s body is shredded, leaving only a microchip. Dan, trapped in the wrecked craft, assigns missions and comments on the player’s performance. Evo scours the wreckage for his missing parts, repairs his body, and works to fix the control station before it reaches Earth. When Evo reaches the control room he confronts the Evil Brain, a sentient core fascinated by Evo’s abilities and eager to add him to its collection of robotic animals. The Brain threatens to annihilate the planet with a shrink ray, but Evo defeats it. The station, however, continues spinning out of control, slams into New York Harbor and releases the robotic animals across the city, which Evo then terminates before they can terrorise the world.