N64 Discussion Thread

Hey folks!

I noticed a bit of a discussion about this system elsewhere on the forum so I thought I'd make a thread, so what's your favourite games/memories about this console?

Discuss away.  

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I will always remember this console best for the great multiplayer games it delivered, for the longest time I only owned Goldeneye but had 3 controllers (two official & a horrid 3rd party pad) which lead to some brilliant multiplayer matches with my brothers, it was the go to game at Christmas for a really long time too.


It was also home to the best WWF wrestling game of all time.

Quite simply, the greatest console of all time. So many absolute classics.

I'll take some photos of my collection and stick them up here tomorrow. It's been a while since I've counted the games I have.

Simply the worst console of all time with 1 classic. (Okay, maybe 2 or 3 if Mario 64 and Goldeneye are as good as everyone says)

I do rather love Paper Mario though.

I did not handle the change into 3D well. I still have issues with Super Mario 64 and Ocarina Of Time (coming as they did after Super Mario World and A Link To The Past, games I reckon are stone-cold classics), which was just due to the change in gameplay. They are, obviously, pretty swell games themselves! For me the N64 was pretty much about Rare: GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 (I know), Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark were all brilliant experiences. My brother sold DK64 whilst I was at uni (it was his, to be fair) and I was most upset that I didn't get to finish it.

Here's a few photos of my collection. I could have taken one more, but to be honest I couldn't be bothered. I just grabbed these and photographed them.

I can't quite agree with Phillps as like i said some where else there's a few other consoles i could argue are just as good or better depends on what sought of games you like etc.  I bet andy is someone who things the PS2 is great. My 64 collection isn't as big as phillps but it's pretty much quality title after quality title, i can still play any of them now and still enjoy like if it was day one. To me that shows how good the game-play is on these games.  I have been tempted to sell it all though recently but soon as i get near sorting it out to eBay I'm just drawn right back in.

My Collection:
Banjo-Kazooie
Body Harvest
Dark Rift
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
F-Zero X
GoldenEye 007 Quality FPS, Showed the genre can be done on a console
JetForce Gemini, this is a under-rated game
Killer Instinct Gold
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Some would say greatest game of all time, personally i prefer waker
Lylat Wars
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64, Best Mario Kart, 4 people around a TV good times
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Tennis
Perfect Dark, Not as good as goldeneye but still good
Pilotwings 64
Pokémon Puzzle League
Pokémon Snap
Pokémon Stadium
Spacestation Silicon Valley
Star Wars: Episode I: Racer
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, My 1st ever N64 Game
Super Mario 64, Showed the jump from 2D to 3D, why you need a analog stick it's just such a great game
Super Smash Bros.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Turok: Rage Wars
Wave Race 64
WWF No Mercy
WWF War Zone
WWF WrestleMania 2000
Yoshi's Story

As you see I'm missing a few titles that I should really own like paper mario, conker etc but otherwise pretty decent. Ohh and the console is the same color as my hair.

That's a great collection there Phillips, I do wish my n64 collection was bigger as there is a fair few big titles I never got to play properly or at all (stuff like Banjo - Kazooie, jet force Gemini & DK64) maybe I'll go on a wee hunt soon.

& angryman strikes again 1 classic? When I think about N64 about 5 or so instantly spring to mind (Mario 64, no mercy, goldeneye, OoT & MK64) but I'm thinking this might be an age thing or maybe having not played them at or around their release?

Also worst console has to go to the Saturn, surely?

Saturn was good,

CDi, 3DO, Virtual Boy, CD32, have to be some of worst.

Never owned a PS2 but all the HD collection games I've played (excluding Jak 2) have been great. Dreamcast was where it was at.

1st time andy has talked sense, the dreamcast is where it is. I only own 178 games on my dreamcast.

(doesn't care about the Dreamcast)

N64 games age badly.  It's not surprising: it was the first real foray into polygons, trying to do something approaching proper graphics rather than Star Fox's charmingly minimalist "style", and polygons age worse than sprites.  The likes of Yoshi's Story and Paper Mario avoid this trap, but has anyone tried playing the original OoT recently?  Cripes, that's ugly now.  And the original SSB's characters look like they're hewn from multicoloured rock.

Although I will say that, either because of nostalgia or its bright colours and simple textures, SM64's look is somehow closer to Star Fox's, and it hasn't done as badly in the interrim.  Still the best game ever in my eyes.  The speedrun thread has somebody 100%-ing it in 1:44: only a classic game (and a glitchy one!) could inspire such devotion.

B-K was all right; DK64 could go die in a fire.  Gloomier, with less interesting levels, a proliferation of minigames, and guns in a platformer.  Blech.  

And as Masofdas said somewhere, the controller was and still is great.  Very comfortable to hold.  Shame about the white gunk that collected in the analogue stick "pit".

Balladeer wrote:

N64 games age badly.  It's not surprising: it was the first real foray into polygons, trying to do something approaching proper graphics rather than Star Fox's charmingly minimalist "style", and polygons age worse than sprites. [...] but has anyone tried playing the original OoT recently?  Cripes, that's ugly now.

Now this is where we have to disagree- OoT still looks alright as it was built with the N64's limitations in mind and every shortcut looks stylistic- compare it to Body Harvest and you can see what a game that hasn't aged well looks like.

N64-grade polys, done right, to me fit into polygons where the half-eight-half-sixteen-bit aesthetic so beloved of indie devs fits in with sprites- better than the overly crude PSOne graphics (which more closely reflects the likes of pre-eight-bit consoles and home computers) but not as good as the post-Dreamcast level where we're getting more comparable in detail to physical models.

This thought of the N64's agedness is a conflicting one for me. In terms of the games themselves, they were, ideas-wise, a huge jump from the SNES' possibilities. Nintendo of course is the prime example of this with Mario 64, OoT etc. - in that sense the N64 stands up very well. However, the 3D technology does date itself; I will admit in 1996 that I wasn't sure I wanted this instead of an HD SNES.

A question for you: In this last generation there has been an inkling to deliberately design games to look like 8-bit titles, as it could be said they have a "stylised" look/sound, and where modern technology can fill in the cracks. More recently, it looks like the retro games are more like 16-bit games. Does this mean that, halfway through the WiiU/XBonbePS4 era, we'll start to see games with angular polygons, matching the N64 era?

I really, really hope not.

Jimbob wrote:

This thought of the N64's agedness is a conflicting one for me. In terms of the games themselves, they were, ideas-wise, a huge jump from the SNES' possibilities. Nintendo of course is the prime example of this with Mario 64, OoT etc. - in that sense the N64 stands up very well. However, the 3D technology does date itself; I will admit in 1996 that I wasn't sure I wanted this instead of an HD SNES.

A question for you: In this last generation there has been an inkling to deliberately design games to look like 8-bit titles, as it could be said they have a "stylised" look/sound, and where modern technology can fill in the cracks. More recently, it looks like the retro games are more like 16-bit games. Does this mean that, halfway through the WiiU/XBonbePS4 era, we'll start to see games with angular polygons, matching the N64 era?

That'd be actually interesting to see, especially if a game incorporated it into the gameplay somehow.

Never owned one - but from what I've played, it seems like a very solid console. I disagree that it hasn't aged well, I think they have their own unique style and charm and it still holds up pretty well (not Wind Waker well) and looks decent, more so than say, Tomb Raider on PS1.

The_Jaster wrote:

I'm thinking this might be an age thing or maybe having not played them at or around their release?

Also worst console has to go to the Saturn, surely?

I agree with it being an age thing. The N64 is my favourite console (and it was also my first so I'm biased here). Everything about it just feels so perfect though, from the satisfying click you get from the power switch to how revolutionary the analogue stick was at the time. Mind you, I would put money on it that a lot of people have worn out those sticks now, although there's an easy fix for this for a modest price that works surprisingly well.

One thing that still makes me laugh is the label that was put on the Jumper Pak that said "Do not remove this label". Of course, when DK64, MM and PD came along, you'd need to remove it to fire in the Expansion Pak. I always wished that the manual for the EP had said "Remove the 'do not remove this label' label".

The Saturn was alright. A sort of family friend asked if I wanted to trade my N64 for a month for his Saturn so his wee boy could play it at the weekends. Like I said, it was alright the Saturn, but I wasn't parting with the N64 for that!

If anything though the consoles that succeeded the N64 have a lot to thank it for. The analogue stick on it's on is proof enough of how much it's forwarded game development. However, games likes Goldeneye and PD pushed this further with actual objectives rather than just wasting every prick on the screen to finish the level. Oh, and No Mercy was (and still is for that matter) a gem to play. Shame about that little glitch that came in the first run of carts, mind.

andyman949 wrote:

Simply the worst console of all time...

The f**k you say?!

We have all decided that andy is crazy, so don't worry dusty.

masofdas wrote:

We have all decided that andy is crazy, so don't worry dusty.

Not crazy just really really angry.

I loved my N64, and was a little upset when it died on me last year or earlier this year.. Around New years time..

Yes I forgot hes now angryman.

Why is he Angryman, by the way?  Is it MHTri that's made him like this?  Or Twitter? I haven't seen anger, just... interesting gaming opinions.

Ask Jas why he's angry, I just thought he was Crazy as how you put it Balla his interesting gaming opinions.

Balladeer wrote:

Why is he Angryman, by the way?  Is it MHTri that's made him like this?  Or Twitter?  I haven't seen anger, just... interesting gaming opinions.

None of those really but it was the artist formally known as sporkhead that coined it...just a bit fun really.