Nintendo 64 Games

[Oswinner]

I’m feeling all nostalgic and going through my n64 games and trying to put them in order of rank. What are people’s favourite Nintendo 64 games? You can write a top-10 list or just generally write about one or two games you love (or hate). Here’s mine;

 

1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Perfect Dark
3. Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
4. Goldeneye 
5. Banjo-Kazooie 
6. Banjo-Tooie 
7. Conker’s Bad Fur Day
8. Donkey Kong 64
9. Super Mario 64
10. Mario Kart 64
11. Mario Tennis
12. Super Smash Bros
13. F-Zero X
14. Jet Force Gemini
15. Mario Party
16. Mario Golf
17. WWF No Mercy
18. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
19. Pokemon Stadium
20. ISS 98
21. WWF Wrestlemania 2000
22. ISS 2000
23. Excitebike 64

[MustardTiger]

Good list, I've got my N64 out recently as the only game my partner will play is Mario Kart. 

 

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is also a good one! I recently tried to play it on the Jedi difficulty but there's a section on the Ord Mantell train level that's almost impossible!

 

Yoshi's Story? Sometimes I get the theme tune stuck in my head.

[bmt]

Donkey Kong 64 was so good

[Sharpe's Fox]

Cool list. Pretty wack that some of the best games of the era were made here in Leicestershire, too. Rare just made classic after classic in the 90’s.

[SemperEadem]

Goldeneye was great.

World Cup 98 with the indoor games.

Pokemon stadium with a rumble pack on.

[VinceNoir]

Wow, nice list! Just last week my brother and I made a list of all the N64 games we have played. Here's mine: 

1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 
2. Banjo-Kazooie
3. Mario Kart 64 
4. Super Mario 64
5. Diddy Kong Racing
6. Mario Party 2
7. F-Zero X
8. GoldenEye 007
9. Super Smash Bros
10. Snowboard Kids
11. Spacestation Silicon Valley
12. Mario Golf
13. Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
14. Re-Volt
15. Wave Race
16. 1080 Snowboarding
17. Mario Party
18. Mario Tennis
19. International Superstar Soccer 64
20. Banjo-Tooie
21. Blast Corps
22. Beetle Adventure Racing
23. Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey
24. Perfect Dark
25. Lylat Wars
26. F1 World Grand Prix
27. WCW/nWo Revenge
28. Pokémon Stadium 
29. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
30. Mario Party 3
31. Pokémon Snap
32. Yoshi’s Story
33. Conker’s Bad Fur Day
34. Micro Machines
35. South Park Rally
36. Jet Force Gemini
37. Star Wars: Episode I Pod Racer
38. Bomberman 64
39. International Superstar Soccer 98
40. Pilotwings
41. South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack
42. Body Harvest
43. FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup
44. Buck Bumble
45. Cruisn USA
46. South Park
47. Wetrix
48. Vigilante 8
49. Bomberman Hero
50. F1 Pole Position

 

This is basically a list of the games I played and enjoyed the most as a kid. I'm no good at shooters hence GoldenEye's relatively low position, and for some reason I never truly got into Majora's Mask, although it's a great game in parts. Kind of a similar story with Banjo-Tooie. 

 

If I were to recommend one game that I presume many on here haven't played, it would be Spacestation Silicon Valley. Magnificently charming and witty platformer which is criminally underrated. At the time, it was simply overshadowed by Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie.

[kingcarr21]

Will never forget being in Toys R Us, with my bday and xmas money. Standing their picking up an N64 with Extreme G. What a game. Then Mario 64 came into my life. Spent hours upon hours on that getting all 120 stars. But the game that really captivated me was Zelda Ocarina of Time. My cousin was the first one in the family to get it and i remember when he called me and my brother screaming down the phone that Link was big now. We had no idea on the story, it wasnt normal to go online and read up about the details of the game. So we rushed round to see Link in his adult form. 

 

I remember being stuck in the water temple. Stuck finding the last Poe. I also remember being stuck in Lon Lon ranch for hours wondering how to get out when the farmer locks the gate. I was just running round on Epona for ages before i ran up to the gate randomly and he jumped it. Couldnt believe it. I still remember the last ever Gold Skulltula i needed was just before the entrance to Zora's Domain. Oh god and typing this i remember being stuck for ages getting inside Lord Jabu's Jabu's belly. That bastard fish, and losing hours fishing. God what an incredible game. One that changed gaming with the Z targeting. Something that is used today that stemmed from Zelda.

 

Majora's Mask. My mum let me have the day off from school to go up town with her to buy it with my bday money. I ditched her in town and caught the bus home . That game has such a good mechanic with the 3 days until the moon catches. Blew my mind. Not quite on Ocarina's level of nostalgia but still a game i adored.

 

Goldeneye. Wow the hours me, my brother and cousin would spend on multiplayer. Proximity mines were a bastard  

 

I could go on and on. The N64 will always be my fave console. Other fave games of mine

 

Blast Corps

Banjo Kazooie and Tooie

Donkey Kong 64

Diddy Kong Racing (Better than Mario Kart for me)

Smash Bros

Space Station Silicon Valley

Body Harvest

Duke Nukem

Jet Force Gemini

ISS 64

ISS 98

 

Good Times

[Oswinner]

54 minutes ago, VinceNoir said:

Wow, nice list! Just last week my brother and I made a list of all the N64 games we have played. Here's mine: 

1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 
2. Banjo-Kazooie
3. Mario Kart 64 
4. Super Mario 64
5. Diddy Kong Racing
6. Mario Party 2
7. F-Zero X
8. GoldenEye 007
9. Super Smash Bros
10. Snowboard Kids
11. Spacestation Silicon Valley
12. Mario Golf
13. Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
14. Re-Volt
15. Wave Race
16. 1080 Snowboarding
17. Mario Party
18. Mario Tennis
19. International Superstar Soccer 64
20. Banjo-Tooie
21. Blast Corps
22. Beetle Adventure Racing
23. Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey
24. Perfect Dark
25. Lylat Wars
26. F1 World Grand Prix
27. WCW/nWo Revenge
28. Pokémon Stadium 
29. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
30. Mario Party 3
31. Pokémon Snap
32. Yoshi’s Story
33. Conker’s Bad Fur Day
34. Micro Machines
35. South Park Rally
36. Jet Force Gemini
37. Star Wars: Episode I Pod Racer
38. Bomberman 64
39. International Superstar Soccer 98
40. Pilotwings
41. South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack
42. Body Harvest
43. FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup
44. Buck Bumble
45. Cruisn USA
46. South Park
47. Wetrix
48. Vigilante 8
49. Bomberman Hero
50. F1 Pole Position

 

This is basically a list of the games I played and enjoyed the most as a kid. I'm no good at shooters hence GoldenEye's relatively low position, and for some reason I never truly got into Majora's Mask, although it's a great game in parts. Kind of a similar story with Banjo-Tooie. 

 

If I were to recommend one game that I presume many on here haven't played, it would be Spacestation Silicon Valley. Magnificently charming and witty platformer which is criminally underrated. At the time, it was simply overshadowed by Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie.

Cool list.

 

Can’t believe you have Conkers Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark so low down and couldn’t really get into Majoras Mask and Banjo-Tooie. Those four games carried my gaming 2000 through to GameCube.

 

That’s the beauty of opinions though. All subjective.

 

Nintendo 64 definitely has my favourite catalogue of games.

[Oswinner]

1 hour ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Cool list. Pretty wack that some of the best games of the era were made here in Leicestershire, too. Rare just made classic after classic in the 90’s.

Rare were golden during this era. Wish they stayed with Nintendo.

[FOXYTALK]

No glover or wipe out? 😭😭😭

[VinceNoir]

1 hour ago, Oswinner said:

Cool list.

 

Can’t believe you have Conkers Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark so low down and couldn’t really get into Majoras Mask and Banjo-Tooie. Those four games carried my gaming 2000 through to GameCube.

 

That’s the beauty of opinions though. All subjective.

 

Nintendo 64 definitely has my favourite catalogue of games.

Yeah, it's my favourite console by a distance. I'm eagerly anticipating the day they'll add N64 online to the Switch. Surely it'll happen!

 

Mm, Perfect Dark was never really my thing - shooters in general are a bit meh to me. I didn't play Conker until about 2015. It was ok but I wasn't blown away by it by any means.

 

In terms of Majora and Banjo-Tooie, I'm sure they're brilliant games in their own right. I think I was a little too hooked on the predecessors to truly enjoy them. Sounds daft, I know! I kind of feel the same way about Better Call Saul. Everyone says that it's an amazing tv show, but I just can't get into it because it's not as good as Breaking Bad. 

 

Having said all this, I kind of feel like dusting off the old N64 and giving Majora's Mask another try. We'll see how it goes  

[Oswinner]

12 minutes ago, VinceNoir said:

Yeah, it's my favourite console by a distance. I'm eagerly anticipating the day they'll add N64 online to the Switch. Surely it'll happen!

 

Mm, Perfect Dark was never really my thing - shooters in general are a bit meh to me. I didn't play Conker until about 2015. It was ok but I wasn't blown away by it by any means.

 

In terms of Majora and Banjo-Tooie, I'm sure they're brilliant games in their own right. I think I was a little too hooked on the predecessors to truly enjoy them. Sounds daft, I know! I kind of feel the same way about Better Call Saul. Everyone says that it's an amazing tv show, but I just can't get into it because it's not as good as Breaking Bad. 

 

Having said all this, I kind of feel like dusting off the old N64 and giving Majora's Mask another try. We'll see how it goes  

Do it. I dusted off Majoras in December. Terrific game. 
 

Tooie and Majoras are both classics, even if the predecessors are ever so slightly better. However, they are both different enough to stand on their own two feet. Tooie is more like Zelda whilst Kazooie is more like Mario 64. And Majoras is just a dark, disturbing game - for all the right reasons.

 

I’m not much of a shooter fan either, but Goldeneye was just class with friends and I really got into all the gadgets and secret agenty stuff in Perfect Dark. The story gets a bit lame near the end but the gameplay is so good that I didn’t care too much. I hear they are rebooting the series. I’d rather Rare Replay got released on the Switch and a spiritual sequel was made.

 

as for spiritual sequels...I’m just at the end boss of Yooka-Laylee, The spiritual sequel to the Banjo games. Not quite as good as Banjo but still, it’s great fun. Had a hoot.

Edited 9 March 2021 by Oswinner

[Bamboo]

Goldeneye and Pokemon Stadium. Superb! I'm actually trying to find a N64 but having no such luck at the moment, a brand new console that is.  

[Tuna]

Spent the entire summer of 2001 playing Perfect Dark, in between furious wanking sessions.

[Blue ROI]

On 09/03/2021 at 10:51, Sharpe's Fox said:

Cool list. Pretty wack that some of the best games of the era were made here in Leicestershire, too. Rare just made classic after classic in the 90’s.

Very hard to get most of the games working nowadays on emulators!

 

Perfect Dark is a great game.

 

Others I like:

 

Mario Kart

Roadsters - Great looking game.

Turok

Mario 64 

Kobe Bryant NBA Courtside 2. Best Basketball game of the era

F-Zero 64 - No backgrounds effects due to the system's limitations but fast and furious!

Mario Tennis. - Great concept.

 

Not really played Goldeneye. FIFA has aged terribly. 

 

Upscaling does wonders for the graphics on these games.

 

 

[One Arm Babba]

Surely a 64 mini will come out at some point??? Unfortunate any of the Rare games willl likely be missing, but there are still plenty to make up a decent compendium.

[Pliskin]

11 hours ago, One Arm Babba said:

Surely a 64 mini will come out at some point??? Unfortunate any of the Rare games willl likely be missing, but there are still plenty to make up a decent compendium.

Apparently they have, but there’s been a licence war. I believe rare are either owned or part owned by Microsoft now, so I imagine it is with them that the issue it. It would be an absolute seller though, I’d buy one for every room. And I still have my N64 😂

[syston_fox]

I downloaded the remaster of star wars episode one racer on the ps4 a few weeks back after fond memories of playing on the N64. 13 year old me never managed to complete it but platinumed it in a weekend. 

 

Likewise Lylat Wars - remember it being really tricky as a kid but played it on my son's DS and beat the game in just a few hours. 

 

Controversial but Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart for me as well. Hours and hours spent trying to beat my best times on the time trials. Can always remember that there was a section in the Nintendo magazine showing the fastest lap times and I could never get close. Even with a perfect lap (or so I thought), I was still way slower than the records. Would have killed for YouTube back in the day to see how it was done!!

 

Apart from all the normal classics (mario, Zelda, banjo kazooie etc), I always look back fondly on Snowboard Kids. Got absolutely slaughtered by the reviews but I really enjoyed it. 

 

Indoor mode on FIFA road to the world cup was also a major time killer. Izzet chipping the ball over the cross bar against the invisible wall and then Heskey heading in the rebound. Beautiful. 

 

Oh and to whoever mentioned Wetrix.... What a game that was!!!! Massively under rated - better than Tetris in my opinon. 

[VinceNoir]

On 15/03/2021 at 12:30, Pliskin said:

Apparently they have, but there’s been a licence war. I believe rare are either owned or part owned by Microsoft now, so I imagine it is with them that the issue it. It would be an absolute seller though, I’d buy one for every room. And I still have my N64 😂

Sounds like you've heard something about this. Do you have a link to the article, podcast, video etc.?

 

Given the choice I'd probably buy 5 N64 minis before I'd buy a next-gen console

[Pliskin]

52 minutes ago, VinceNoir said:

Sounds like you've heard something about this. Do you have a link to the article, podcast, video etc.?

 

Given the choice I'd probably buy 5 N64 minis before I'd buy a next-gen console

I know someone who worked for Rare, they now work for Microsoft. I actually asked him about this and he said that they have plans to produce one, but at the moment there’s a licence issue, and it seems to be between rare and Nintendo. So essentially the one game everyone would want to play, goldeneye would potentially be omitted.... 

 

I think it will happen eventually, it would make way too much money to fall out over. The switch however have started to release classics, there’s talk of goldeneye being re released on that as an upscale version. 

[Blue ROI]

3 hours ago, Pliskin said:

I know someone who worked for Rare, they now work for Microsoft. I actually asked him about this and he said that they have plans to produce one, but at the moment there’s a licence issue, and it seems to be between rare and Nintendo. So essentially the one game everyone would want to play, goldeneye would potentially be omitted.... 

 

I think it will happen eventually, it would make way too much money to fall out over. The switch however have started to release classics, there’s talk of goldeneye being re released on that as an upscale version. 

Rare has the standout collection of games for the console outside of Nintendo.

 

You'd want Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conkers Bad Fur Day to be part if it as much as Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Tennis etc.

 

Another issue is how hard it is to get Rare games running on emulators now. N64 isn't perfect for it even now. It was a miracle they were able to fit the games into the cartridges some of the time.

 

Hopefully it's better than the Playstation Classic. Outside of Metal Gear Solid and I.Q the game selection was ropey. 

Edited 18 March 2021 by Blue ROI

[Pliskin]

3 minutes ago, Blue ROI said:

Rare has the standout collection of games for the console outside of Nintendo.

 

You'd want Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conkers Bad Fur Day to be part if it as much as Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Tennis etc.

 

Hopefully it's better than the Playstation Classic. Outside of Metal Gear Solid and I.Q the game selection was ropey. 

Agreed.... I’m surprised someone hasn’t created a gaming Netflix streaming service yet, with all of the classics on. They would make so much money that the licence issues wouldn’t be issues..... I’d give my left nut to play some classic games with out buzzing or flashing screens haha! 

[Greg2607]

42 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Agreed.... I’m surprised someone hasn’t created a gaming Netflix streaming service yet, with all of the classics on. They would make so much money that the licence issues wouldn’t be issues..... I’d give my left nut to play some classic games with out buzzing or flashing screens haha! 

it's sort of what Microsoft is doing with gamepass, although clearly, it's Xbox Specific. reams and reams of classic games to revisit. it's made buying the Series X a perfect solution for me, as I haven't had to buy any games!!

[Oswinner]

5 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Agreed.... I’m surprised someone hasn’t created a gaming Netflix streaming service yet, with all of the classics on. They would make so much money that the licence issues wouldn’t be issues..... I’d give my left nut to play some classic games with out buzzing or flashing screens haha! 

Isn’t that what Nintendo Switch Online is?

 

I’ve been enjoying plenty of SNES games recently. Never had a SNES back in the day as n64 was my first console. Right near the end of Donkey Kong Country - fantastic game.

[SeCrEt FoX]

1 Goldeneye 

2 Mario 64

3 Forsaken 

 

Absolutely loved the N64, Goldeneye is such an iconic game. I remember playing Mario 64 for the first time and seeing at the time how far games had come back then, I mean from a 2D Mario that I loved and still love to a open world 3D Mario. It was brilliant. Forsaken was a game I would of never got as it wasn't my thing but my best mate had it and I fell in love first time I'd played it. I would definitely buy a mini if they ever did one.