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[Alex_Mexico]

Inspired by that "how stronger was the N64 vs the PS1" thread I come here to settle this once and for all: which game on the N64 best showcases the graphical prowess of that console?

My pick is Jet Force Gemini. That game looked gorgeous back then and amazingly still holds up to this day.

And to think this game doesn't use the expansion pack! Because outside of blurry textures due to limited cartridge space I don't think any PS1 game looked as good as the best looking N64 games ever did.Still that didnt matter in the end, of course. CDs had too many other advantages anyway.

What does GAF think?

 

[Semajer]

It's Conker. It's on another level to the entire library.

 

[PSqueak]

I was gonna say Banjo-tooie, but yeah, it's probably Conker. And the remake also blasted everything on the Xbox away too.

Fuck, Rare used to be so good.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

It's Conker. It's on another level to the entire library.

That game did look gorgeous too but I dont remember looking better than JFG.

Did Conker's BFD used the expansion pack?

 

[Persona7]

Conker or Perfect Dark.

 

[Azalean]

Kirby 64. I think it aged the best of any 3D game of that generation.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Turok 3 cutscenes stand out. The game it self wasn't that surprising (not on Perfect Dark level for sure), but the cutscenes were really far ahead, almost dreamcast level.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Conker's Bad Fur Day, no question. The animation on the characters was years ahead of anything else that gen.

 

[Trace]

My pick is Jet Force Gemini. That game looked gorgeous back then and amazingly still holds up to this day.

I have some different definitions of still holds up I guess.

 

[Semajer]

That game did look gorgeous too but I dont remember looking better than JFG.

Did Conker's BFD used the expansion pack?

It didn't use the expansion pack.

 

[ss_lemonade]

How was Rayman 2 on the 64? That game looked phenomenal on the Dreamcast but I never got to try other versions.

 

[KAP151]

Definitely Conker for me.

After watching the developer play through on Youtube (will it ever get finished?) they talk about how much they actually to work with in comparison to what they actually delivered.

Pretty amazing stuff.

 

[Salsa]

its Conker

DK64 is close tbh

 

[Rodin]

Conker was dark magic.

 

[Beyonce Beytwice]

Majora's Mask

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Conker's Bad Fur Day, no question. The animation on the characters was years ahead of anything else that gen.

Its crazy how late we got that game. Smack dab in the middle of 2001 some six months into the PS2's lifespan (and 1.5 years after the Dreamcast) its crazy when I think how Nintendo hoped to compete with the N64 and its 32MB cartridges for a whole year versus the PS2 and its 8GB DVDs. Back then the differences between both consoles were night and day.

 

[Veal]

Turok 3 cutscenes stand out. The game it self wasn't that surprising (not on Perfect Dark level for sure), but the cutscenes were really far ahead, almost dreamcast level.

Real truth. Playing it at release was pretty insane for the N64.

 

[Berserking Guts]

Rogue Squadron looked pretty sharp too.

 

[Timu]

World Driver Championship

Gifs from misericordia.

 

[eshock]

How was Rayman 2 on the 64? That game looked phenomenal on the Dreamcast but I never got to try other versions.

It optionally used the expansion pack, and looked great in high res.

 

[MarioHead3]

Paper Mario and Conker's Bad Fur Day, both of which came out right at the end of the N64's life cycle.

 

[Peru]

Perfect Dark was just on a different level in terms of resolution, sharpness, detail, lighting. Game still looks pretty to me. Of course at times it suffered in terms of frame rate, but purely based on the visuals it's PD:

 

[Piichan]

How was Rayman 2 on the 64? That game looked phenomenal on the Dreamcast but I never got to try other versions.

Rayman 2 did look amazing on N64. On mobile so I can't post pics, but really beautiful and colorful game. Rayman had great animations too (easier to animate without limbs? lol).

 

[red720]

I'd stopped buying N64 by the end of its life (Perfect Dark was $180 in New Zealand) but I did play that game and the frame rate was terrible I think that disqualifies it. The same goes for Turok with the high resolution mode with ram expansion pack.

I remember some Rare games looking pretty good, I suspect Diddy Kong Racing still looks ok, largely due to it's simple art style that doesn't rely on detailed textures.

 

[Green Yoshi]

Shadow Man
Perfect Dark
Stunt Racer 3000
Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo
Forsaken

 

[dark10x]

Jet Force Gemini is an odd selection. It looks pretty decent in still shots but, as I discovered last year after buying a cart, it animates terribly. The game looks so incredibly jerky and unappealing in motion that it pretty much ruins the presentation.

My pick?

Super Mario 64

It seems silly to select a launch title by my reason is simple - it's a remarkably balanced game which makes excellent use of the hardware without trying to exceed its capabilities.

Many of other games listed in here, especially from Rare, suffer from very serious performance problems, among other things.

Mario 64 offers a mostly stable 30fps experience, smooth animation, and well considered assets and effects. While some games attempted to show more details such as complex stone patterns and the like, Mario 64 embraced the system's texture filtering with assets that are DESIGNED to be blurred. Most of the textures give the impression of smooth shaded colors rather than fine details. The select few textures that DO attempt to show detail actually manage to look rather clean as well.

It's not the most technically advanced game on the system, but it uses its resources so well.

I also think that Turok 1 holds up pretty nicely as well due to its high quality animation, similar approach to textures, beautiful water and great effects work.

Once you start trying to display more detail than the system is capable of while running at wildly inconsistent frame-rates well under 30fps things start to fall apart.

 

[jimboton]

Gonna say Shadow Man, which managed to leverage hi res from the expansion pack without totally screwing the gameplay with low framerates (hello Turok 2).

 

[NEO0MJ]

I have some different definitions of still holds up I guess.

Well, compared to some other 3D games from that gen like MGS this fits the definition well enough.

 

[milkybar1983]

Nice emulator screenshots. Come on man

 

[joolz]

Diddy Kong Racing.

 

[Spman2099]

The only games that legitimately hold up are the sprite based games, many of which still look crazy beautiful.

The only games that are polygonal and still look great from this era are the Mega Man Legends games. They worked within their limitations and as a result have a clean look. The problem with Jet Force Gemini, and games like it, is that it is too ambitious; it was impressive during its time, but it never actually looked good. It was always a visual mess.

 

[finngamer]

Came to post Jet Force Gemini, but OP has it covered.

It looks amazing, great colored lighting, fantastic draw distance.

 

[daTRUballin]

Conker's Bad Fur Day was probably the most advanced game for the N64. Pretty much any game made by Rare could qualify. The fact that more than half of this thread has been listing Rare games definitely says something.

Its crazy how late we got that game. Smack dab in the middle of 2001 some six months into the PS2's lifespan (and 1.5 years after the Dreamcast) its crazy when I think how Nintendo hoped to compete with the N64 and its 32MB cartridges for a whole year versus the PS2 and its 8GB DVDs. Back then the differences between both consoles were night and day.

Ehh. Not exactly in the middle. Conker came out in March 2001. Not that it makes a big difference or anything. Just wanted to correct you.

 

[Phediuk]

Conker takes this one hands down imo.

 

[Fumpster]

To me the answer is absolutely Paper Mario. It's the game on the N64 that has aged the most gracefully visually, at least.

Spoiler

It's also the best game on the system, and that includes any Zelda, Rare, or Mario game

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Perfect Dark, had a lot of polish ("shiny" glass, floor reflections, X-Ray effects/filters) and impressive lighting for the time (you could shoot out lights and it'd impact the environment), and a lot of other cool effects like the combat boost.

It looked "rich" in a way other titles on the system didn't. Though I guess it came at an expense to framerate

Technical ability aside, Animal Crossing is one of the best looking games on the system due to excellent texture design. Even today the textures are pleasing to look at and well, almost iconic to the series' identity. Yes, that even extends to the look of the grass.

There should be some better screenshots out there!

 

[professor denim]

Super Mario 64 for me.

 

[Zolbrod]

I'd say Conker as well.

But Jet Force Gemini definitely had the best soundtrack though.
It's amazing what Rare could do with that machine.

 

[basic_text]

To me the answer is absolutely Paper Mario. It's the game on the N64 that has aged the most gracefully visually, at least.

Spoiler

It's also the best game on the system, and that includes any Zelda, Rare, or Mario game

Yep! I replayed it on the Virtual Console a couple of weeks ago and the visuals and design hold up very well.

 

[ramparter]

Probably one of the Rare games mentioned already. What about Majoras Mask though? It was a nice upgrade over OoT, wasnt it?

 

[Retromelon]

Conker is like the closest n64 gets technically to early gamecube games. It might not look like much now, but for its system and time it was really special.

 

[J2 Cool]

I'm going to enjoy this thread immensely. Post screens.

WM2000. No Mercy had too many slowdown issues. Also it just got the animations right, and the characters weren't too thin. You could hang all their distinctive features on them and really sell it. Hasn't been a wrestling game as good as it since, presentation being just right went a long way in that regard.

Also:

It's animation is impossible to disregard. Plays beautifully, moves beautifully. Feels alive and full of character in all of its movement and animations. His resting animation, little details in the environment. Butterflies, bubbles. Still feels alive today, and was as big as selling what separated the N64 visually as anything. Brought 3D home for people, can't see what had that complete package. Conker's impressive but isn't responsive enough. Was ambitiously overreaching its grasp.

 

[xandaca]

Perfect Dark. Everything about that game, from the lighting to the contextual animation, was a technical masterpiece, albeit at the cost of an often diced framerate.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

To all of you saying Super Mario 64 is the best looking N64 game of all time I say: bullshit!

Are you telling me a launch game from 1996 was where the whole console peaked? Im sorry but that's objectively incorrect.

Yes SM64 looks great but its not the one with the best graphics all around.

 

[Jackano]

Perfect Dark. Everything about that game, from the lighting to the contextual animation, was a technical masterpiece, albeit at the cost of an often diced framerate.

Yeah my vote goes to Perfect Dark but I havn't got as much memories from Banjo-Tooie and Conker.

In any case... RARE!

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

It's Conker. It's on another level to the entire library.

First Post nails it. Conker looked like a average Dreamcast game. It was very very impressive.

 

[RSP]

Animal Crossing and Paper Mario are great suggestions.

I would like to add Banjo Kazooie to the list. It is a great combination of textures and clever 3D models that make the game work so well on the N64.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

Rare games would be slaughtered today for frame rate.

But it's probably still perfect dark. Wave race is also a great overall looker to me.

 

[Lothar]

Conker's the only time I went back to a N64 game years later and was impressed with how it looked.

 

[J2 Cool]

Perfect Dark. Everything about that game, from the lighting to the contextual animation, was a technical masterpiece, albeit at the cost of an often diced framerate.

I bought the expansion pack for this game, and I found it unplayable. I got deep into it before putting it down, and just thought it was a stupid sacrifice.