n64 - 20 years on

this is for safekeeping. let’s discuss wonderful n64 games!

games i dig on the n sixty-four:

  • 1080° snowboarding
  • banjo-tooie
  • battletanx: global assault
  • beetle adventure racing!
  • blast corps
  • body harvest
  • buck bumble
  • diddy kong racing
  • doom 64
  • excitebike 64
  • f-zero x
  • goldeneye 007
  • harvest moon 64
  • hexen
  • hybrid heaven
  • jet force gemini
  • killer instinct gold
  • kirby 64: the crystal shards
  • legend of zelda: majora’s mask, the
  • mario golf
  • mario tennis
  • mario party
  • mario party 2
  • mario party 3
  • mega man 64
  • mickey’s speedway usa
  • mischief makers
  • nba courtside 2: featuring kobe bryant
  • new tetris, the
  • orge battle 64: person of lordly caliber
  • paper mario
  • perfect dark
  • pilotwings 64
  • pokémon puzzle league
  • pokémon snap
  • pokémon stadium 2
  • road rash 64
  • rocket: robot on wheels
  • rush 2: extreme racing usa
  • san francisco rush 2049
  • snowboard kids
  • snowboard kids 2
  • space station silicon valley
  • super mario 64
  • super smash bros.
  • star wars: rogue squadron
  • star wars: shadows of the empire
  • star wars episode i: battle for naboo
  • star wars episode i: racer
  • tetrisphere
  • turok: dinosaur hunter
  • turok 2: seeds of evil
  • wave race 64
  • wayne gretzky’s 3d hockey '98
  • wetrix
  • winback
  • wipeout 64
  • world driver championship
  • wwf: no mercy

honorable mentions / of note:

  • banjo-kazooie
  • bomberman 64
  • bomberman 64: the second attack
  • bomberman hero
  • bust-a-move '99
  • castlevania
  • castlevania: legacy of darkness
  • chameleon twist 2
  • conker’s bad fur day
  • cruis’n exotica
  • donkey kong 64
  • extreme-g
  • extreme-g 2
  • forsaken 64
  • gex 64: enter the gecko
  • glover
  • hydro thunder
  • legend of zelda: ocarina of time, the
  • mario kart 64
  • micro machines 64
  • mission: impossible
  • nfl blitz 2001
  • nuclear strike 64
  • penny racers
  • rayman 2: the great escape
  • resident evil 2
  • robotron 64
  • rr64: ridge racer 64
  • san francisco rush: extreme racing
  • shadow man
  • shadowgate 64: trials of the four towers
  • south park
  • star fox 64
  • tonic trouble
  • tony hawk’s pro skater
  • tony hawk’s pro skater 2
  • tony hawk’s pro skater 3
  • top gear rally
  • turok: rage wars
  • turok 3: shadow of oblivion
  • yoshi’s story

jp-only:

  • bakuretsu muteki bangai-o (bangai-o)
  • choro q 64 2: hachamecha grand prix race
  • custom robo v2
  • dezaemon 3d
  • dobutsu no mori (animal forest / animal crossing)
  • f-zero expansion kit
  • fushigi no dungeon: fūrai no shiren 2: oni shūrai! shiren-jō! (shiren 2)
  • neon genesis evangelion
  • mario no photopi (mario artist)
  • rakugakids
  • simcity 64
  • sin and punishment
  • virtual pro wrestling 2: ōdō keishō
  • wonder project j2: corlo no mori no josette

mischief makers

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i kind of wanted to be on the proposed SB podcast about this but i realized that i don’t have time and mostly just wanted to tell this story:

when the n64 came out i begged my parents to rent the system from blockbuster and i spent a weekend (and maybe some late night school nights) getting all 120 stars on Mario 64 within the rental period. i wanted this system so bad.

the night before my birthday, i had snuck outside into the garage, assuming that’s where my presents were hiding (shitty kid detective) and low and behold, i found a 64 system and a copy of Goldeneye.
i was thrilled, but incredibly impatient, so i -ever-so-delicately snuck back into the house, opened the box, hooked up the system and played goldeneye with low volume on the TV, telling myself i just wanted to play 10 minutes or so of it, before putting the whole thing back into the garage, no one being the wiser.

suddenly before i knew it, it was dawn and my mom found me still at the tv playing and i got in trouble but hey, i really got the jump on talking about the game at school later that day.

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This is the only N64 game I thought really fit what the platform could do

Swarm of little gemlike objects firing along corkscrews and pink

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It sounds snarky but I’m being honest: does literally anything on the N64 age well

Bomberman
Mischief Makers
Star Fox
honestly unpopular opinion: Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
a bunch of the racing games

I still play Pokemon Puzzle League. I have never tried another video game involving the Pokemon license, but that one is excellent. I’m glad it’s one of the titles you can get for the Wii (especially now, since I recently lost my N64 console).

Mario64 is still the best

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rakugakids, virtual pro wrestling 2: oudou keishou, and wwf: no mercy

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Paper Mario has aged really well imo. It’s delightful graphically and rally mechanically tight. The werthers originals of game; the kind of game a kindly grandfather would give you if you were sick.

Kirby crystal shards had such a nice aesthetic that I think it aged beautifully. The controls are pretty floaty even for a Kirby game but the ability combining thing is still unique and surprising.

Fzero X looks great even today because it didn’t try to be anything except Very Impractical Space Racing. Plays like a dream. Pure video game

As a true N64 cultist I can honestly say that most everything else looks like garbage now

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time for me to review EVERY GAME ON THIS LIST

1080° snowboarding: still the best snowboarding game ssx is whatever ok fuck off

battletanx: global assault: the fuck is this

beetle adventure racing: basically a better version of Cruisin’ Whatever with cuteness instead of a failed outrun vibe

blast corps: dump truck hell yeah. if you called this the best n64 game I’d be ok with that

body harvest: played for 30 minutes. so wierd that I will never forget those 30 minutes. I feel like kenji eno secretly worked on this game

buck bumble: the fuck is this

doom 64: doom with fancy particle effects I think

excitebike 64: I don’t think I ever knew this existed

f-zero x: obviously awesome

goldeneye 007: 1v1 me scrub

harvest moon 64: seems like the right system for harvest moon?

hexen: no

hybrid heaven: I think this was a 3rd person shooter I don’t remember

jet force gemini: never played it, sadly

killer instinct gold: c-c-c-c-c ok KI sucks sorry

kirby 64: the crystal shards: quintessential kirby: fun ideas, so easy and loose that I lost interest quickly

legend of zelda: majora’s mask, the: the one zelda game I regret not spending more time with

mario golf: almost as good as hot shot golf

mario tennis: the best mario sports game

mario party 2: They Took Out The Games Where You Grind The Stick On Your Palm

mario party 3: don’t remember anything about this one

mega man 64: buy a PS1

mickey’s speedway usa: what is this

mischief makers: the most underrated treasure game except maybe dynamite heady whatever I love both of those games

new tetris, the: didn’t this one take place on a sphere or something

orge battle 64: person of lordly caliber: fuck yeah. like every ogre battle game I never beat it, but whatever

paper mario: never played it

perfect dark: sure wish the frame rate ever went above 10 fps

pilotwings 64: I feel happy when I remember this game

pokémon puzzle league: idk

pokémon snap: why isn’t there a sequel to this game

pokémon stadium 2: I remember being confused about what this game actually was. the years have not alleviated this problem

rocket: robot on wheels: what is this

rush 2: extreme racing usa: probably a cruisin’ rip off

san francisco rush 2049: still cruisin’

snowboard kids: after 1080 and COOLBOARDERS snowboard games became A Thing for a while and this one was so much better than it had any right to be

snowboard kids 2: did not play

space station silicon valley: this game looked cool

super mario 64: it’s, you know, mario 64

super smash bros.: I mean, I basically played this game every day for three years

star wars: episode i: battle for naboo: isn’t this the rogue squardron reskin

star wars episode i: racer: yeah it was a pretty decent f-zero rip off

star wars: rogue squadron: everyone loved this game lets be real

star wars: shadows of the empire: ok this game was actually just bad. had some entertaining bugs though

turok: dinosaur hunter: NUKE THE DINOS

turok 2: seeds of evil: CEREBRAL BORE

wave race 64: still the most fun and fluid water physics in a video game

wayne gretzky’s 3d hockey '98: ehhh I really didn’t like this game

wwf: no mercy: everyone at one point in their life has been told “no really no mercy is an excellent video game” and they kind of filed it away as ok, sure, why not but seriously guys this game is so good I could play it all day every day. the create a wrestler mode alone is better than anything in the world

honorable mentions / of note:

banjo-kazooie: fuck

banjo-tooie: off

bomberman 64: no it’s not saturn bomberman but this game rules

bomberman 64: the second attack: did not play but cmon it’s the same shit just pick one and play it

bomberman hero: was this the RPG one

bust-a-move '99: I played a lot of puzzle bobble, shit is just solid fun

castlevania: I mean it’s not too bad

castlevania: legacy of darkness: never played it

chameleon twist 2: what is this

conker’s bad fur day: the multiplayer is pretty fun, almost halo-y somehow

cruis’n exotica: I guess it’s a cruisin game

diddy kong racing: mario kart only with characters you don’t care about + gliding

donkey kong 64: no

extreme-g: crappy wipeout

extreme-g 2: probably more crappy wipeout

forsaken 64: what is this

gex 64: enter the gecko: lol

glover: I think I remember an ad for this game

legend of zelda: ocarina of time, the: thought it was kinda boring, but hyrule field is still cool

mario kart 64: I still think it’s the second best mario kart game

nfl blitz 2001: pretty snappy

nuclear strike 64: never played it. sure did like the genesis strike games though

mission: impossible: it had that one level where you were a waiter at a cocktail party

rayman 2: the great escape: never played it

resident evil 2: buy a PS1

san francisco rush: more cruisin rip off

shadow man: what is this

shadowgate 64: trials of the four towers: a fish out of water

south park: south park is dumb

star fox 64: star fox is only ok, but somehow I played the multiplayer a lot

tonic trouble: what is this

tony hawk’s pro skater 2: buy a PS1

turok: rage wars: what is this

turok 3: shadow of oblivion: never played it

yoshi’s story: I once wrote a review of this game for a class in high school. I gave it a 1/10

jp-only:

bakuretsu muteki bangai-o (bangai-o)
choro q 64 2: hachamecha grand prix race
custom robo v2
dezaemon 3d
dobutsu no mori (animal forest / animal crossing)
f-zero expansion kit
fushigi no dungeon: fūrai no shiren 2: oni shūrai! shiren-jō! (shiren 2)
neon genesis evangelion
mario no photopi (mario artist)
rakugakids
simcity 64
sin and punishment: this is the only one of your nihongo games I played because of course I played it and of course it is awesome
virtual pro wrestling 2: ōdō keishō
wonder project j2: corlo no mori no josette

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Nominating this for Biggest Twist in SB Opinion 2016

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Fond memories of flying around in a '66 Buick in Rogue Squadron.

And as a Naboo Starfighter before episode 1 was released. At the time that seemed like some kind of witchcraft.

Battle for Naboo kinda dropped the ball, but I still played it through about 20 times

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I cant believe bk is in your honorable mentions :frowning:

Speaking of podcast, when is it happening and how can one participate?

Poor man’s Descent

Poor man’s Descent: 4 Kidz Version

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buck bumble was kind of a different thing, but more importantly

forsaken 64 had four-player multiplayer without needing to lug your pc to your friend’s house

buck bumble had bee soccer, clearly presaging rocket league

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buck bumble is BUMP TO THE BOOM TO THE BUMP TO THE BASS

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CORRECT

also:

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(Buck Bumble’s earlier than those though. Of course Street Racer, Moto Roader, and Car Polo are all even earlier! )

I never noticed that Buck Bumble mode, but I only ever borrowed the game.

I love that most N64 seemed to have 4 player modes jammed in, even if they were often not so great.

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