Which Nintendo 64 game had the BEST graphics on the system?

The N64 might look dated now, but back then it pushed 3D visuals to the limit. Let's look at some of the most impressive games that squeezed every drop of power out of the console 👇

1️⃣ Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001)
Arguably the N64's technical peak. Massive 64MB cartridge, detailed textures, expressive faces, dynamic lighting — all running shockingly smooth for such a huge, cinematic game. Rare magic at its finest.




2️⃣ Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) / Majora's Mask (2000)
Ocarina set the 3D standard — but Majora's Mask pushed it further: denser environments, real-time lighting, and that eerie day-night cycle. Art direction and atmosphere did the heavy lifting here.




3️⃣ Star Wars: Battle for Naboo (2000)
Factor 5 went crazy with the Rogue Squadron engine — huge draw distances, impressive lighting, detailed ships. Looked almost like a PC game of the era.




4️⃣ Turok 3 (2000) / Rage Wars (1999)
Acclaim's team knew the N64 inside out. Turok 3 had dynamic lighting, complex environments, particle-heavy weapons, and smooth FPS performance. Rage Wars was a technical showcase for multiplayer shooters.




5️⃣ F1 World Grand Prix (1998)
Super clean visuals for a racing sim. Detailed cars, smooth reflections, realistic physics and TV-style replays — it looked way ahead of its time.




6️⃣ Wave Race 64 (1996)
One of the first N64 titles — and still gorgeous. The water physics were unreal back then: reflections, waves, and fluid motion that felt alive. A tech flex from Nintendo right out of the gate.




7️⃣ Banjo-Kazooie (1998) / Banjo-Tooie (2000)
Colorful, massive worlds with seamless transitions and tons of detail. Tooie especially pushed the N64 hard — bigger maps, more lighting effects, and rich textures.




8️⃣ Perfect Dark (2000)
With the Expansion Pak, it showed dynamic lighting, real-time shadows, and detailed character models. One of the most ambitious and demanding games on the system.




9️⃣ World Driver Championship (1999)
Probably the best-looking racer on N64. Massive draw distance, crisp textures, smooth performance — a technical miracle from Boss Game Studios.




🔟 Shadow Man (1999)
Dark, moody, and cinematic. Used lighting and texture work brilliantly to create an eerie, atmospheric world — proving the N64 could do "gritty," not just cartoony.




1️⃣1️⃣ 1080° Snowboarding (1998)
Realistic snow and ice effects, smooth animation, and great lighting. Clean, stylish, and one of the most polished-looking games on the console.




1️⃣2️⃣ Super Mario 64 (1996)
A launch title, yet it still holds up. Simple models, but timeless color, movement, and design. It's not raw horsepower — it's pure art direction and elegance.




🕹️ So what do you think — which N64 game had the most impressive graphics?
Did I miss any deserving a shoutout?
 
Good list! Imo it's missing Jet Force Gemini.

hq720.jpg


hq720.jpg


jfg-017.jpg


It's also a very good game.

edit: check out those reflections

 
Last edited:
Just another thread to remind us just how fucking good and creative Rare was. Any genre they wanted to take on, they could pull off.

Conkers, Jet Force or Rogue Squadron - take your pick.
 
We kinda just had this thread.

2 many emulator shots in both (well, bad emulator shots, nowadays you can have pretty accurate to the real hardware results with the right settings so emulation is not the issue), that's not how the games really looked.
 
Last edited:
Could Sin & Punishment get a spot? The game's a looker and iirc it runs quite well.

tumblr_n8wb97gnC91s3uawvo1_400.gif

(the gif is sped up)
 
Never owned a N64, but played a lot over at a friend's house. He had Goldeneye, Mario 64 and...
5️⃣ F1 World Grand Prix (1998)
Super clean visuals for a racing sim. Detailed cars, smooth reflections, realistic physics and TV-style replays — it looked way ahead of its time.
which impressed me very much at the time.
 

There is multiple threads where we dragged this out already. This particular one has over 600 replies.
 
Last edited:
Nothing impressed me more than WaveRace even if other games actually looked better.

I can never take perfect dark seriously in these conversations with how utterly abysmal the framerate was. I respect Rare swinging for the fences with that game but still.
 
Personally i can't pick games like Turok 2 or Perfect Dark because of their frame rate issues. I need the game to also run well enough otherwise the fancy graphics don't matter.

With that in mind, my pick is Banjo-Kazooie. It's the best looking game that also runs well enough.

Some NATIVE resolution images:

uLGwG8U5Oza8Wo4h.png


sY10dH7Fy8I0dmm3.png


g1BirQY60vBUrNtF.png


vo5bHuJA4QMWCxa8.png


2m7ZP8hq3C9Sincx.png


uLLL9kzPbq5yTGWk.png


V8SEomqXHGSOqiQC.png


kEY9TXrgIrrttM5W.png


Game offers a lot of small detail, high geometry, unlimited draw distance, very rich textures and a good average frame rate.
 
Last edited:
None…graphics even sucked ass when they released. I was 16 at the time of N64's release in 1996. I started gaming on arcade cabinets in 1985, then asked my Mom for an NES in 1986 with a packed in Super Mario Bros. and later bought my second game (a year later) The Legend of Zelda because of the gold cartridge and knight art. Best looking 3D game of that era was MGS imo…but the best were 16, 24, & 32bit 2D games: CSOTN for example.
 
Last edited:
Perfect Dark easily. That game was close to Dreamcast and early PS2. So many cool effects and interesting looking levels. How pathetic that we have never really gotten a game as ambitious since then.
 
Another thread full of high res emulator shots that look nothing like the actual games did.

Banjo or maybe Perfect Dark though.

Realistically the games didn't look all that great even back then.
 
Perfect Dark easily. That game was close to Dreamcast and early PS2. So many cool effects and interesting looking levels. How pathetic that we have never really gotten a game as ambitious since then.
TimeSplitters PS2 launch title makes it look like garbage by comparison. Dreamcast could run Half-Life...
 
1080 Snowboarding easily, it was so crisp and fast it was like it didn't know it was running on a N64.

Also Star Wars Rogue Squadron, but that had the expansion pak to boost the graphics.

Wave Race 64 was mighty impressive for an early game - stunning water, great lighting and skies.
 
Mario 64 and Forzaken N64 for me as they look and run great, but didn't suffer from the usual piss poor low res, blurry output of the N64

Conkers was doing amazing things on the N64, but its screen res sucked ass, it was lower than Mega Drive games.
 
They aged all not really well. The whole 64 PS1 era was kinda like RT today, just too early for actually good 3D and a SNES 2 would have been interesting, all devs working on improved 2D, which we only arrived at again in the PS360 times via all the Indies.
The rather simple Mario 64 aged okay and maybe Rogue Squadron from the more realistic ones achieved a decent look.
 
Mario 64 and Forzaken N64 for me as they look and run great, but didn't suffer from the usual piss poor low res, blurry output of the N64

Conkers was doing amazing things on the N64, but its screen res sucked ass, it was lower than Mega Drive games.
Check out Doom64, that one doesn't use N64's VI. Shadowman in highres mofe looks sharp and doesn't suffer as much from slowdown as other games in that mode.

I think the Vigilante games also don't use the filters but i have to check.
 
Pokémon Stadium 2 looks like an early GC game.

tumblr_ov7zzpQLko1r9ulu7o1_540.gif

tumblr_p7k5g7bfeP1v5gk1xo1_640.gif


tumblr_p7k3d9lb1R1v5gk1xo1_640.gif


tumblr_m5465fJ9Z61qa8kbzo1_500.gif


So much so that they reused the same models for Colosseum lol.
 
Last edited:
Donkey Kong 64 still inpresses me. It's the combination of Rare's great texturing with unusual vertex colored lighting you wouldn't see on any other game on that console along with a decent framerate most of the time.

You may want to play it with that hack allowing you to change character on the fly with L these days but I really think it's probably the best looking N64 game, Conker is up there too but the framerate is terrible.
 
Last edited:
For me it's actually Goldeneye. Specifically certain indoor levels like Facility, Bunker, Silo that just have a simple minimalist design that actually make it hold up well imo. Even more than Perfect Dark imo.
 
If we're talking about art style, Paper Mario is still legitimately lovely to look at. The simplicity of the children's book illustrative aesthetic is incredibly appealing and the character designs are charming, making it cohesive in a way no other entry in the series has been (it also remains by far the best entry in the Paper series, but that's probably an argument for a different thread).

In terms of pushing the system, others have mentioned Conker and Jet Force Gemini, but I'm surprised Perfect Dark hasn't been brought up yet. It's an incredible visual upgrade on GoldenEye, including things like animations and general interactivity. Rare really were monsters in terms of pushing the 64, though their later games IMO focused too much on that and became less well-designed in gameplay terms - PD is a more awe-inspiring game than GoldenEye, but GoldenEye is way ahead in terms of its level design and how well its mechanics work in tandem. Again, an argument for another thread, I know.
 
Last edited:
Probably Conker, with a lot of games fighting for the #2 spot, but I don't think one of them is Rogue Squadron. It was one of my favorite games and I played it to death.

The first level is impressive taking a Mario64 clean approach because it's just sand.
YGXiRCzxTNg2Ls08.png


But the ground textures in most levels like grass or rocks were unbelievably archaic, paired with jaggied enemies emerging from dense fog. Just get to the second level, and the honeymoon is over.

4YZZxuwM7RABkODA.jpg

JwgraIa57NqZCmVW.png



It doesn't take away from factor5's technical achievement looking as good as it does with those big maps full of unique enemies and structures, but many 1996/1997 games look cleaner than RS for most of the game, including Star Fox, Wave Race and Goldeneye.
 
Rarely mentioned but The World Is Not Enough. Looks imo even better than Perfect Dark and a early PS2 title.

I really enjoyed that game growing up, and the forest mission (Midnight Departure) is quietly one of the most underappreciated FPS levels of the era, but graphically I'd say it's an evolution of GoldenEye's chunky style but without the range of effects, lighting and animations which Perfect Dark employed. Its framerate is far more stable, which is certainly a plus, but in terms of what it got out of the system and its visual style, Perfect Dark has it beaten quite comfortably for me.

Complete playthrough video in case anyone wants to compare (albeit, you know, the original wasn't in 4k):

 
Top Bottom