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[ramparter]

Mario 64
OoT
Majora's Mask
MK64
StarFox 64
Diddy Kong Racing
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
Mario Party 2+3
Mario Tennis
Super Smash Bros.

I didn't need a 50+ game library... the amount of sheer fun I had playing these games (mostly with friends) is just absurd.

It was the same for me.
I'll add Banjo Kazooie, Wave Race 64, DK64 (had its problems but still kept me for like 100 hours), ISS 64 & 98, F1 WGP 1&2, Snowboard Kids and of course Mystical Ninja which I'm currently replaying on Wii U thanks to loadiine.

 

[Spinluck]

The system had games that pretty much paved the way for every game that involves moving through 3D space.

 

[KingV]

I agree with this. While it had some classic games for its time. The frame rate and raggedy controls ruins a lot of them now.

 

[Crayon]

There was some good games but Mario 64 cast a shadow over all of them. With SM64, you expected a series of mid blowing 3d games to fill in all the Nintendo franchises but it only happened with Zelda. I was disappointed with n64 back then and I rarely play it now.

 

[Jimrpg]

Pretty much like all Nintendos consoles except for the N64. Admittedly I bought it after I got a PS2 but even back then the games didn't hold up at all.

The GameCube is also a bit overated too. I loved the look of the console but it didn't really have anything I wanted to play. The only two games I got were RE4 and Animal Crossing.

 

[Herne]

How was the memory expansion awkward? It was a tiny inexpensive thing that sat underneath then trap door on the top of the console that doubled the system ram, allowing it to run games at double the resolution (the next generation's resolution, in fact) or (in the case of Majora's Mask) increased polygon throughput and detail. If you could get a similarly small, inexpensive device that sits nicely hidden away that would double the ram of the PS4 and XBox One that allowed for proper 1080P/60 games without all the shit sacrifices most of the games on both systems make - or even allow games to run in 4K, you can bet people would snap that shit up.

A tiny, cheap ram upgrade over entirely new consoles as a mid-generational upgrade - I know which I think is awkward.

 

[billy beane]

Which system can I play WCW/nWo: World Tour on though? That alone makes the N64 the best system.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Yep.

1. SNES
2. NES
3. Wii U
4. Wii
5. Gamecube
6. N64

The N64 library just felt so low-brow overall. So many trashy licensed games, Acclaim junk, and kid-focused titles. Especially after losing Square and watching them turn out some of their best output ever on the PS. Sadly, this didn't get much better with the GC, though disc-based media made things better. After growing up on the legendary NES & SNES, GC & N64 were the only Nintendo home consoles I never felt compelled to buy on my own (though my family did have a Gamecube).

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I'll take the N64 era over the Wii U generation any day.

 

[MagnesD3]

Woah woah woah, let's not say silly things now.

Super Mario 64 is the second best Mario game period, only Galaxy 2 barely edges it out and Id bet if we had a proper SM64 sequel it would become the new best mario title.


If I had to rank which generation had the best exclusive games Id rank them like so..

1. N64
2. GCN
3. SNES
4. Wii
5. Wii U

 

[Menitta]

Super Mario 64 is the second best Mario game period, only Galaxy 2 barely edges it out and Id bet if we had a proper SM64 sequel it would become the new best mario title.

Eh. 5th.

 

[Wolf Dawgz]

Well if we're discounting the WiiU, then I believe Gamecube is the worst one. I loved the GCN, but it definitely was the loser console to have back in the day. It was a purple lunchbox, had a kiddy looking controller, it had the worst sales out of any Nintendo consoles(except WiiU), and didn't have innovative games. If the N64 was Nintendo's fall to grace then GCN was the bottom of the hill and the Wii was the revolution back up. The GameCube was also massively overshadowed by both the Xbox, and PS2. The first party library was also a disappointment compared to even the N64.

Is Super Mario Sunshine really an equal to Mario 64?
Is Windwaker/Twilight Princess really an equal to Ocarina of Time/Majoras Mask?

But it did have Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Melee, and Paper Mario TTYD.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Nobody has ever said N64 was a well rounded console, but it's one of the most important consoles ever. It's one of the largest leaps ever.


I've enjoyed it more than any other console. I don't think Nintendo will ever make so great games again. Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask changed anything. Nintendo is never going to be a technological and a gameplay giant again.
Their power and expertise speaks of the fact that itself and Rare exclusively kept the console alive against all others.

I enjoyed PSX a lot. But nothing is more memorable to me than Goldeneye, Zelda, Perfect Dark, Banjos, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64, Jet Force Gemini and particularly Conker's Bad Fur Day.

 

[MagnesD3]

Nobody has ever said N64 was a well rounded console, but it's one of the most important consoles ever. It's one of the largest leaps ever.


I've enjoyed it more than any other console. I don't think Nintendo will ever make so great games again. Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask changed anything. Nintendo is never going to be a technological and a gameplay giant again.
Their power and expertise speaks of the fact that itself and Rare exclusively kept the console alive against all others.

I enjoyed PSX a lot. But nothing is more memorable to me than Goldeneye, Zelda, Perfect Dark, Banjos, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64, Jet Force Gemini and particularly Conker's Bad Fur Day.

And Nintendo wouldnt pay enough to keep rare because they didnt think they were worth it

why nintendo..

 

[Spman2099]

The release of quality games was agonizing back in the day. I would finish a game and have to wait months before the next game that caught my fancy would release. It was brutal looking at all the amazing games releasing on the Playstation. Eventually I made the switch (lol) and I never looked back.

It doesn't help that the original Playstation has one of the best game lineups ever. That comparison hurts.

 

[Oddish1]

I grew up with an N64 and I think it's Nintendo's worst console. To be fair, that generation of games aged pretty poorly in general especially compared to the generations immediately before and after.

The Wii was probably Nintendo's best console from a software perspective. A very diverse and unique lineup from both Nintendo and third parties that is criminally overlooked.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I still dont see how people find the controller uncomfortable. 2 ways to hold, and both felt fairly natural.

That being said, compared to the rest of the systems, it probably doesnt have that many great titles. There are some really good games, just not that many.

EXP pack was required for Majora's Mask.

N64 really brought in some greats regardless of its overall library though:

Mario 64
Paper Mario
Smash Bros
F-Zero X
Turok 1 and 2 (havent played 3 yet)
Star Soldier (people are sleeping on this shooter)
Goldeneye
Mario Kart 64
Wave Race 64
Sin and Punishment
Ogre Battle 64
Goemons great adventure
Mystical Ninja 64
Pokemon Stadium series (paired with the transfer pack was nice)
Perfect Dark
Starfox 64
Killer Instinct Gold
Bomberman 64
Bomberman Hero

And more im forgetting.

Shadow of the Empire
DOOM 64
Rogue Leader
Animal Crossing (JPN)
...

 

[Herne]

And Nintendo wouldnt pay enough to keep rare because they didnt think they were worth it

why nintendo..

Because by the time they dropped them, most of the talent that had created those games had left. It's not for nothing that people laughed for years at Microsoft's expensive purchase while crying over the state of the studio, reduced to making Wii Sports knockoffs. It's only recently we've seen a come-back from Rare.

 

[Spieler Eins]

The Wii U has a much better first party offering than the Wii, and its games don't look like they're smeared with 50 jars of vaseline on HDTV's. I usually don't care too much about graphics, but that was tiring to look at after a while.

Wii 1st party had great entries of Metroid Prime, Sin & Punishment, Excite, Warioware, Punch-Out, innovative Mario, Xenoblade, etc. While WiiU didn't even have simple basics like an exclusive Zelda. There's just no way to spin WiiU out of being the worst thing since the Virtual Boy, lol.

 

[Prototype]

100% agree with OP.
N64 was garbage tier and "soupy foggy mess" is exactly how I thought of it growing up. It's aged terribly. Other than Goldeneye and Mario 64 it pretty much had zero games worth playing. Never cared for Ocarina of Time as I've never been a fan of Zelda games really.

 

[MutFox]

Totally disagree.
Virtual Boy was the worst.

It existed! XD

 

[Sakujou]

no way have PS1 games aged better than N64 games in my opinion. PS1 games, looking back, for the most part look like shit.

this.
ps1 games also had some weird fog in them. silent hill being the most famous one.
its called hardware limitations and how to use them creatively.

 

[Ammogeddon]

God damn click bait thread, you got me.

The only thing I agree with is the fogging and washed out look, though some games were worse than others. It in no way detracted from the experience.

On all other things I completely disagree with you, especially the games. There were so many decent games, I'm sure I'll forget some but....

Mario 64
Zelda
Mario kart
Rogue squadron
Goldeneye
Starfox
Banjo kazooie
Turok
Diddy Kong racing
Donkey kong
Shadows of the empire
Perfect dark
Conker
1080 snowboarding
Wave race

 

[eXistor]

I agree. As a huge Nintendo fan, I have no nostalgia for it and by and large the games weren't much good. The one thing that saves it for me is a handful of games that just happen to be classics lke the Zelda's and Mario 64. There's a bunch of decent-to-good games there, but overall I'd also say it's Nintendo's worst system and library by far.

 

[dreamlongdead]

Couple things... Doom 64 is NOT a port but an original game.

Also, Wii U has more shooters than Splatoon.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2
Call of Duty Ghosts
Devils Third
Splinter Cell
Couple Hunting Games

Thanks for correcting me on Doom. It's been a long time since I've played the N64 titles that I've mentioned.

I don't care about those Pokemon spin-offs. Also WiiU has virtual console.

Why? Snap and Puzzle League are excellent games. I didn't personally care for the Stadium games, but they are something. Wii U is fortunate to have Pokken, but it certainly doesn't outright beat N64 in this department (or many others really).

I was not fortunate to really play N64's hidden gems, so it's a console that I feel has been somewhat unexplored. GAF members here mentioned games that I've never even heard of, and those titles actually seem cool!

 

[Lord of Ostia]

I actually have a ton of nostalgia for the console as it was my first home console ever, and I starting playing some of my favorite series of all time on it. Some very, very important games came out on the N64. I came into this thread expecting to argue for it...but then I realized that OP is largely right. Outside of the few classics I loved on the system, it didn't have a fantastic library. The games it did have that were great have pretty much all received remakes that improve upon them greatly, or have been made redundant by much better sequels (Smash in particular). Hell, N64 is the only console I've ever owned that I don't still own. Once OoT 3D came out, I just saw no reason to keep it anymore. I loved that little black box as a kid, but you are right; it's the worst Nintendo console.

 

[marc^o^]

1080 snowboarding
Wave race

Glorious days.

 

[Fusilli Craig]

Didn't have any friends, OP? Smash, WCW vs NWO, Rush, Goldeneye, ISS, and on and on and on...

This thing was a party machine.

 

[Kurt]

N64 is still one of my fav generations. I think the controller design is the only design with dpad correct position... but for now, most games are played with an analog stick.
I would say gamecube is the worst. Because most games on that system like mario sunshine, kart, unfinished zelda ww game, worst starfox, donkey kong ... were the worst in their form. Also i wasnt a fan of the controller layout.

 

[Karsticles]

No one ever gives love to Mischief Makers.

 

[Herne]

God damn click bait thread, you got me.

The only thing I agree with is the fogging and washed out look, though some games were worse than others. It in no way detracted from the experience.

On all other things I completely disagree with you, especially the games. There were so many decent games, I'm sure I'll forget some but....

I loved my N64, but let's be realistic about this. It had a fairly shot library outside of the efforts of Nintendo and a few others.

Mario 64 - first party
Zelda - first party
Mario kart - first party
Rogue squadron - third party, but one which enjoyed a close working relationship with Nintendo
Goldeneye - second party
Starfox - first party
Banjo kazooie - second party
Turok - third party
Diddy Kong racing - second party
Donkey kong - second party
Shadows of the empire - third party
Perfect dark - second party
Conker - second party
1080 snowboarding - first party
Wave race - first party

There were some third-party gems scattered about for sure but third parties were few and far apart on the system, and most of what they made was dreck.

 

[openrob]

Analogue stick

Pokemon stadium
Snowboard kids
Extreme G
Star wars
GoldenEye

Rumble Pak!!

Smash Bros

Come on man...

 

[Odrion]

I think some people really have thick nostalgia glasses on when it comes to the Wii. Either that or they're young and the Wii was their first or second console.

If you look at Metacritic, outside of the Wii U, objectively Wii is the worst mainline Nintendo console ever.

Subjectively, it had garbage controls, garbage eye bleeding graphics in an HD era, and, outside of the Galaxies and Mario Kart, some of the worst Nintendo output ever, including some of the worst games of Nintendo franchises. Not to mention garbage tier Nintendo games like Wii Music.

mario kart wii is also the worst version of mario kart. objectively. nasa did a report on it.

 

[Jobbs]

Nintendo has sabotaged itself with pointless gimmicks and crippling design decisions ever since N64. Switch is the first console that seems practical.

In any case, yeah, N64 fucking sucks. As a kid I was really into SNES -- And then I "upgraded" to N64 and even at the time regretted how blurry and choppy and incomprehensible the games were. They're technically and mostly artistically a hideous mess. The good looking games on SNES still look good to this day.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Come onnnnnn

Some of the ones I left unvolded are extremely generous, but the ones I bolded? No way.

Boom Blox is a legitimate great game.

 

[Odrion]

Boom Blox is a legitimate great game.

boom blocks was a good drunk game to play with friend. i have good memories with it but I will probably never play it again because in this day and age it's basically a mobile game

 

[NeoTracer]

Didn't have any friends, OP? Smash, WCW vs NWO, Rush, Goldeneye, ISS, and on and on and on...

This thing was a party machine.

To add on to that list; there was Mario Party 1-3, Pokémon Stadium 1-2, WWE No Mercy, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart 64 (mainly the battle mode), and way more that could be added onto that list. Personally, I think the Wii was the worst Nintendo machine and thought the Nintendo 64 was better for multiplayer than the Nintendo Wii.

 

[Odrion]

the wii was such a bad console it's cancer spread to the Xbox and PS3 and valuable talent had to spend time making motion control shovelware.

hell if you read between the lines microsoft decided that instead of releasing a new console, they'd release the kinect.

so the wii is the reason why we had to wait until 2013 to get new consoles.

thanks wii

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I thought the Gamecube was balls compared to my N64. Ill still play N64. Gamecube is dead to me. Had fun with it tho. Wii did nothig for me. SNES and NES were the best.

 

[TriAceJP]

Super Mario 64 is the second best Mario game period, only Galaxy 2 barely edges it out and Id bet if we had a proper SM64 sequel it would become the new best mario title.


If I had to rank which generation had the best exclusive games Id rank them like so..

1. N64
2. GCN
3. SNES
4. Wii
5. Wii U

Everything about this post is crazy.

 

[EvB]

I can't see what the Wii and WiiU have offered in output that trumps the N64

 

[IrishNinja]

5 pages, and no A Black Falcon?
is he banned/okay?

 

[Odrion]

can we all agree that the gamecube was nintendo's best machine

yes even better than the snes. snes didn't have motherfuckin' pikmin.

 

[-Stranger-]

N64 was my childhood.
Dem feels of getting one for my 7th bday was magical.

 

[mAcOdIn]

the wii was such a bad console it's cancer spread to the Xbox and PS3 and valuable talent had to spend time making motion control shovelware.

hell if you read between the lines microsoft decided that instead of releasing a new console, they'd release the kinect.

so the wii is the reason why we had to wait until 2013 to get new consoles.

thanks wii

Eh, I actually think the Wii was good. In a way. I mean the system itself sucked. The OS was terrible, the graphics were pretty shit but it did legit get a lot of good games. And honestly, I think it has the best control scheme out there for many games. If you're playing a game that legit doesn't need every button on a dual shock I much prefer the split nunchuck wiimote method. I wish everyone copied it. So much more comfortable than using a normal controller. That said, some games do need those extra buttons and I hate waggle for the sake of waggle, but for a game like Metroid Prime, oh yeah, pointer controls rock, Excite Truck was awesome.

But what it did to the market was bad as so many shit games were big sellers and everyone flocked to the casual gamer.

Now the N64, I do agree, I think it's the worst Nintendo console beside the Virtual Boy if that counts as a console.

The one thing I'd disagree with the OP on is Square and Final Fantasy. Sorry but Final Fantasy 7 never would have happened on a cartridge and never would have been the phenomenon it was on the Nintendo 64. Even if Nintendo money hatted Square and got them to stay I think they would've been nothing on the N64. The PS1 got so many great RPGs from them as well that objectively I think there's no real way for a consumer to say that company made the wrong choice as those games would have been shells of themselves on the N64, assuming they even went with those visions since they wouldn't have been feasible in the first place. Frankly, thank God Square split from Nintendo then.

 

[takriel]

I grew up with an N64 and I think it's Nintendo's worst console. To be fair, that generation of games aged pretty poorly in general especially compared to the generations immediately before and after.

The Wii was probably Nintendo's best console from a software perspective. A very diverse and unique lineup from both Nintendo and third parties that is criminally overlooked.

The Wii is such a nasty console though. Gamecube-level performance at 480p in a time where people started to adopt 720p and 1080p TVs at a pretty fast rate is really, really rough.

 

[Markitron]

I'm horribly biased, as the N64 is by far my favourite console of all time, but I can't fathom how anybody old enough could think the Wii or Wii-U are better systems.

 

[AppleSeason]

I hated everything about this machine. Still my biggest purchase regret so far. The gamepad, the blurry graphics, Ocarina of Time's framerate, the overallbadly aged games...

Not to mention that it is the worst console design Nintendo has ever made. Even the plastic felt cheaper.

 

[marc^o^]

I hated everything about this machine. Still my biggest purchase regret so far. Ocarina of Time's framerate.

What did you play that was better than OoT at the time? As in most 3D games back then, the framerate was bad at times, but the game was 3 years ahead of any other similar title.

 

[Oddish1]

The Wii is such a nasty console though. Gamecube-level performance at 480p in a time where people started to adopt 720p and 1080p TVs at a pretty fast rate is really, really rough.

"From a software perspective"