The greatest console ever made and you sir have great taste (i'll just pretend that you didn't say the rush series was better than beetle adventure racing

).
But the Rush games are better, though.

BAR is certainly a very good game however.
I adored Mischief Makers. I still think the game deserves a sequel. I'm surprised you didn't get Quest 64, but maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. Star Fox 64 is probably one of the best games ever made, that game is perfection.
I wouldn't be surprised if the first menu-based JRPG I ever actually owned was Paper Mario... I was not an old JRPG fan, so why would I have gotten Quest 64?
But yeah, Star Fox 64 is just about as close to perfect as rail shooters get. Sin & Punishment is a very good game, but I'd rank it second for N64 rail shooters, it's not quite Star Fox's equal.
The only game I have a strong opinion about. Super Mario Kart (SNES) is WAY better than Mario Kart 64. The handling went totally to shit, and while there is a lot more variety and production quality, the raw simplicity of the SNES version shines through, particularly in battle mode. Mario Kart Wii was even worse than MK64.
When I got a SNES in '05, SMK was one of my first games, and I was hoping it'd be good in part because of all the praise like this it receives... but I was disappointed, I don't think it's anywhere near as good as MK64, not even close. MK64 has better handling, more fun, four player, fullscreen in single player, great course designs... as for SMK though, I found it more frustrating and less fun. The n64 game has far better handling.
Oh, and my favorite SNES racing game is, without question, F-Zero. That game's near perfect.
So many games. I have 20 games and I thought that I have all necessary games, but looking through your list made me realize that I don't have the following games that I should buy:
GoldenEye
Perfect Dark
Blast Corps
Space Station Silicon Valley
Rocket Robot On Wheels
Bomberman 64 (Only rented)
Waverace
Sin and Punishment (Because never released for the N64 in Europe, but it is on VC now)
Ogre Battle 64 (Same as above)
Paper Mario (Rented it once, Too expensive for orginal, guess I take it for the VC)
And that's quite a lot.
In 2002 I had 26 N64 games, and I thought I had all of the ones worth having...
But then a few years later I realized that I was quite thoroughly wrong.
Outstanding thread A Black Falcon.
It was time to pay some respect to the console that basically invetnted modern gaming: The Nintendo 64.
Thanks, it deserves it.
Surprised by your take on this game. As far as i remember it had the best graphics of any base game at the time. I might be mistaken but i thing it supported 640*480 visuals without expansion pack or at least the "mid resolution" mode at 512*240. The engine had a nice texture warping trick that made the characters look more curved, instead of the blocky visuals most sport games featured in the generation.
The analog cursor batting felt great. The big shortcoming with the game was that it wasn't as feature rich as some of the other baseball games you had in PSX or Saturn.
I don't actually own any other console baseball games for any 5th gen consoles, which is probably part of why I don't praise the visuals as much as you'd like here... don't have much to compare it to. It does look nice though, sure, and the gameplay's good.
ABF is a Ken Griffey Jr. Slugfest fanboy.
I played one of those N64 Ken Griffey games once, but I have no memory what I thought of it. My main memory of the Ken Griffey games is that I got the first GB Ken Griffey game in the mid '90s, but hated it so much I actually sold the game, something I only ever did for a very small number of my worst games... I was used to Hardball III (PC then, but the Genesis version's great too), and just couldn't adjust well to the Ken Griffey games' more common style of only being able to see a small patch of the field at a time, and having to catch balls based on the radar pretty much. Hardball III uses a behind-the-plate camera all the time, so you can always see the ball in the air and where it's headed...
Also, baseball games take a while, and I found it annoying that Griffey didn't have a "save game in progress" feature like Hardball did. That's something which you still rarely see, for some weird reason, but even the Genesis version of Hardball III has it! (Not the SNES game though, that's actually a version of Hardball '94 from the Genesis, not Hardball III, and has no saving -- it's passwords only. HB'94 on Genesis does have battery save, though. The only Genesis Hardball game with password save is the first Hardball for the system.)
The graphics of 007: The World Is Not Enough are amazing for the N64, never seen that game before, I'm always up for more GoldenEye, even if it's a clone done by another studio.
Yeah, TWINE looks fantastic, and it plays well too. Anyone who liked GE or PD in their single player modes should certainly play TWINE.
I'll never stop saying this, Blast Corps needs a sequel, one of the most original and fun game I've ever played, I love to drift at maximun speed while combo destroying buildings with a bulldozer, such great mindless fun. No clones of this game either, you would imagine someone would have copy it by now. I would buy a 3DS for a VC entry in 3D.
I agree, Rare really should get on it sometime. It's such a unique, brilliant game, it's really unfortunate that nothing else is quite like it!
I forgot about a few of those that I've owned. One that really sticks out is Top Gear Rally. I think I got that solely off of my addiction to Top Gears 1 & 2 on the SNES. I spent a lot of damn time painting my cars in that game. Great feature. I also remember being quite impressed with the replays and the effect of driving through water/mud. I'm sure it would look ugly to me today, but a neat rooster tail would shoot up from the wheels that hit slop. Pretty cool game.
Top Gear Rally certainly is a great game, but as I say in my reviews, I do think it's unfortunate that it gets all the attention, while the three other N64 Top Gear games, all of which are also pretty good, are somewhat ignored...
PD > GE. I used to waste hours setting up challenge maps with my sister and her boyfriend. We'd get those zippy sims and give them good aim and see how long we'd last.
I also loved the Rush games. Something about being able to put a good crunch on your car and still limp across the finish line. This was my Burnout of that generation. I think I had California Speed too, don't remember owning it for long though. It had pickup trucks in it I think.
Great post.
I like the first Rush and California Speed a whole lot, but yeah, 2049's the one I think is the most special... all of them are so outstanding though, one of the worst things about the last two gens is that racing games like Rush died off. Not one new game (ie, not counting ports) like them on any newer system, I think. Really tragic.
Loved Fighters Destiny. Not only the scoring system was great, but all the characters felt different. From the amouint of health to the weight to the different attribute and to the ease of doing specials.
Yeah, it's a unique game for sure. They did a good job coming up with a new concept for a 3d fighting game, and pulling it off fairly well.
That game was the one me and my brothers have been playing for ages. It was really fun.
Also, no Goldeneye or ISS64?
I gave my mixed-feelings review of Goldeneye earlier in the thread, on pg. 2 I think. I agree it's a good game, but don't love it anywhere near as much as some people, basically. As for ISS64, soccer games? Eh...
Awesome thread, ABF! I own about 80 NTSC N64 titles and genuinely love the platform. I should also mention that I've been using the same main controller for close to a decade now. The bad reputation these things have has surely more to do with people not taking care of their possessions as opposed to cheap parts.
On a side note, are the NTSC N64 owners in this thread connecting to their televisions through S-video? The cables are quite cheap and the third-party ones work well in my opinion. The S-video support is also the main reason I moved from the PAL version to the NTSC version.
I got several of my controllers' analog sticks replaced back in the mid '00s, because they were fading badly. Several are in bad shape again, if I can find any like the ones that were put in that last time I've thought of maybe getting a new one or two... that is, replacements exactly like the original N64 analog sticks. I don't want something else, the N64's analog sticks are amazing in every way other than their durability. Oh, and yeah, I absolutely love the N64 controller, it's one of my favorites for sure.
Hey, I liked MRC and Nightmare Creatures.
I think I said that some people do, in my reviews of those games, but yeah, I don't much at all...
I really suggest adding Duke Nukem 64 to your collection. The whole campaign can be played in splitscreen co-op with 2 players, and there's 4 player deathmatch with bots.
I have the PC version of Duke Nukem 3D, though, is there really a good reason to get the N64 port? I'd ask the same question about Quake 1 for N64. (As for Hexen, that one was a favorite of mine on the PC back in the '90s, as far as FPSes go, so I couldn't resist when I saw a cheap copy of that one.)
So very true. Best FPS controls ever devised.
Yeah, for a console gamepad, absolutely. I know that being a skeptic of dual-analog FPS controls is a quite niche position, but it is my opinion on console FPS controls.... the N64's layout works perfectly.
Loved the N64.
Blast Corps, Pilot Wings, Mario Kart 64, and Mario 64 were all I needed. I love to replay those games.
Only comment about your reviews, I tried to read a couple of them, but you didn't mention anything about the actual game until half way through sometimes. You gave too much background information for example on Cruis n USA. I had this game, but never got around to playing it, so I was curious about your thoughts. I had to force myself through that small wall of text and you didn't say anything about the game until about half way through.
Otherwise, awesome post!
What, so you think I should reorganize some of the reviews? I might look at that, sure.
Interesting stuff. I remember it coming out to bad reviews and I think I was gearing up for a Dreamcast at the time. I'll see if I can track down a copy
Like your thoughts on Starshit. Played it on an emulator and found it rather unique.
I have found that just because a game got bad reviews, it doesn't mean that it's actually a bad game... it can, but not always. The reverse goes for games with good scores, too, of course.
Amazing thread OP. But I'm reminded of the fact that outwith Nintendo's games and a select handful of top-tier third party games (a recurring theme, yes) the N64 library consisted of masses of complete shit that for some reason was popular in North America. I don't know if I was older than most of you during the N64 years or something but the N64 library isn't really any different to me than the GC or Wii if you're putting titles that are actually worth playing up next to each other.
About two thirds of the 32 million N64s sold worldwide sold in North America, so I would expect the system's library to be dominated by North American-market-focused titles, you know. And yeah, it is.
Basically, the N64 had both the Nintendo fan market, and a good part of the console FPS fan market too. However, Microsoft took away that older part of Nintendo's audience for good with the Xbox, so the Gamecube was left with just kids and Nintendo fans, which is why it crashed so hard in the US... (remember, 24 something million SNESes in the US, 21 million N64s, 12.4 million GCs...)
In Japan of course it was the N64 where they saw the severe collapse, which is why the Japanese third party N64 library is mostly really low-budget or low-profile stuff.
Well a line up filled with more shit than chocolate, yes.
But the top N64 games smocked everything else in the other consoles at the time. Most of those games are the blue print for modern gaming today. Stuff on the PSX edged the N64 in stuff related so sound quality and space to dump pre rendered cinematics. A game like FF7 was the rage but something like Ocarina of Time stands the test of time better in terms of gameplay.
One of my reasons for doing these reviews is to show that the N64's second-tier games are actually better than many people give them credit for, in my opinion.
No World Driver Championship?!
Given my general antipathy for sim-style racers, I've always doubted that i'd like WDC very much, which is why I haven't bought it yet.
I love your praise for Rush 2049. Loved that game too. Played days with my brother in Stuntmode. So awesome to pull off more than 1 Mio Points.
The DC port from the Arcade greatest Hits was totally shit
For the latter part, I assume you mean the GC/PS2/XBox versions, in Midway Arcade Treasures 3? Because Rush 2049 for the DC's a fine version, as I explain in my review (I go through all the version differences).
But yeah, Rush 2049 really is my favorite racing game ever, and my most played N64 game too.
Good write up, Falcon.
This had me think of a couple of things.
First: I've only sold 2 N64 games out of my collection. Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and StarCraft. This kid actually offered me $100 each for them.
Second: Its a crime that you don't have Rayman 2 for the N64. It's different from the Dreamcast version, which is different from the PS1 version.
I do have Rayman 2 for the PC, that's the version I bought back in '99 or so. It's basically exactly the same thing as the N64 version, just with better visuals, I'm pretty sure... and yeah, it's my second favorite 3d platformer of the generation, between Mario 64 and DK64.
I'm actually surprised by some of the games you don't have given you have 145 of them.
goldeneye, perfect dark and wwf no mercy are those games that you know, everyone with a 64 has.
I have around 30 games, but I consider them to be the must haves. Basically all the major 1st and 2nd party games plus a few third party classics thrown in.
But as I said before, great effort on the op.
I have Perfect Dark... as for more wrestling games, as I say in the review of the one I have, I never had any interest in wrestling, either games or on TV, and I don't usually buy things I have no intention of playing.