What's the best Nintendo 64 games you've ever played?

[ReeseJamPiece]

(This is a follow up to Megadrive, SNES and PS1 threads)

I was more of a PS1 guy back then, but I still had a few games.

Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Super Smash Bros, Doom 64, Banjo and Kazooie, Perfect Dark. (I was a big FPS fan back then, still am)

Let's start from the top: Super Mario Bros 64...this game is perfection in every way possible and I can't get enough of this game. The controls are magnificently crafted by Shigero Miyamoto himself to the point in which it still feels great to this day, the levels are magnificent and are just waiting to be explored and the music...aaaaaa.

Goldeneye 007 is a game I love yet also hate, it was designed to be made on a mouse and it honestly just feels better on a modern day PC emulator.

Super Smash Bros was the stuff way back when, most of my classmates played gritty realistic shooters and sports stuff while I was off playing this magnificent game. Praise be with Masahiro Sakurai. 

Doom 64 was like that one oddball in the group that looks similar to another guy but is completely different, it has that strange charm to it that I admire and I keep coming back to it.

Banjo and Kazooie...yes

And last but not least...Perfect Dark, I still personally believe this game is better than Goldeneye 007...yeah I said watcha gonna do fight me?

Anyhow let me know of your favourites.

[Dark Pulse]

Super Smash Bros. is the only time in my life that I rented a game for a console I did not own, just so that I could go over to a friend's house and play it.

[Nevander]

Doom 64 and Goldeneye 007.

[RichardDS90]

Doom 64. One of the few N64 games I played. I loved Cruis'n Exotica as well.

[Coopersville]

Hybrid Heaven

[Chopkinsca]

Lots of good games already mentioned. The N64 was my last console.

 

Space Station Silicon Valley was a very interesting game. I wish I could replay it but I won't lose any sleep over that.

 

Me and my friend played the hell out of Rush 2. So many good memories with that one.

 

World Driver Championship. Fell in love with this one. Didn't know at the time that it was basically a poor man's Gran Turismo 2.

 

The Mario Party games were great with friends, especially while drunk.

 

There are probably more, but that is all that comes to mind.

[hybridial]

The N64 is a console I'll always have fond memories of.

 

Super Mario 64 - Really the only Mario game I ever liked much but I think its sublime perfection thats never been bettered in its sphere. 

Starfox 64 - or as I knew is, Lylat Wars. Also pretty much the best arcade space fighter sim ever. 

F-Zero X - The best racing game ever

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - A revelation for gaming when it debuted

Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Turok 2 - I played Quake and Duke also but spent more time with these, best FPS experiences on the consoles back then.

1080 - best snowboarding game ever

Rogue Squadron - Starfox's only worthy competition

Mario Tennis - I absolutely loved the hell out of this.

Blast Corps - to this day a very unique experience

 

[Gokuma]

Hexen, Doom 64, Duke Nukem 64, F-Zero X, Mortal Kombat Trilogy.   I played a bunch of Killer Instinct on SNES back in the day so Killer Instinct Gold should be good.  Castlevania 64 is awful garbage (though people claim it at least has the better map design than the other 3D ones), however, CV Legacy of Darkness is supposed to be decent where they fixed practically everything wrong with it, except people dislike a few map changes.

 

Not being able to reassign the controls more specifically in shooters is annoying, aside from not having mouse+keyboard.  You just have two to several control schemes to choose from depending on the game.

 

According to reviews, Quake 1 is a botched port, only two player and does not run very smoothly.   But apparently Quake 2 is four player, a far better port, and is even better if you have the N64 expansion pak.

 

Rampage World Tour and Rampage 2 Universal Tour should be good for shits and giggles.    I only played Saturn and maybe PC versions of WT and briefly tried R2:UT for N64.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Gokuma

[HavoX]

That would happen to be Banjo-Kazooie. Oh, I mustn't forget Ocarina of Time.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Okay, now you're trying to make me choose between:

- Ocarina of Time
- Majora's Mask

- F-Zero X
- Super Mario 64

- Mario Kart 64

- and probably something else I simply forgot about...

 

... Sorry, I can't. Too many awesome games... :P

[[McD] James]

Part of me wants to say that my favorite N64 game is Doom 64, even though my only experience with playing it is through Doom64 EX, so I'm not sure if that counts. The only games I ever owned for the console were Goldeneye, Rogue Squadron and Ocarina of Time. I was more of a Playstation guy. Goldeneye at one point was one of my favorite games, and I played it endlessly, but I really don't think it holds up very well. 

[Mr. Freeze]

Perfect Dark. Absolutely the best FPS experience on the N64. 

[Immorpher]

People already have mentioned the great FPS games on the console. But there is one style of game which apexed on the N64 and has not reached the same height since then, and that's wrestling games! The AKI development team started with WCW vs. nWo: World Tour and then ended with WWF No Mercy on the N64. But there's a total of 6 AKI wrestling games on the console; all of them superb. The worst AKI N64 wrestling game, is still better than any wrestling game that has been released since (to me at least haha).

The debate these days is whether Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 (again AKI on N64) or WWF No Mercy is the best wrestling game of all time. Both of these games are being modded and hacked, just like doom, to this day. Some of these mods I play on my console with an Everdrive such as VPW2: Freem Edition.

Speaking of Doom 64 earlier, rumor has it (could be wrong), @Erick194 was able to edit some of the Doom 64 WAD and put it back into a ROM and get it running on emulator. I pray (to the mother demon) one day to try a modded Doom 64 rom with my everdrive on real hardware. :D

[vinnie245]

Doom 64

Goldeneye

Turok

Perfect Dark

Super Mario 64

Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time

Killer Instinct Gold

Duke Nukem:Zero Hour

Mission Impossible

WWF No Mercy

Diddy Kong Racing

[[Vitz!]]

Conker's Bad Fur Day and the original Smash Bros are the ones that I consider my favorites.

[Aurelius]

Veeery difficulty to choose, so many good ones have been mentioned. If I had to boil it down, this is as far as I can go:

Majora's Mask

Perfect Dark

Shadow Man

Banjo Kazooie

Diddy Kong Racing

[DuckReconMajor]

Star Fox 64 is one of my favorite games.

Of course the classics everyone mentioned.

 

Two that weren't exactly critical darlings, which I enjoyed (even if they were too difficult for me at that age):

Quest 64

Aero Fighters Assault

 

I didn't play Doom 64 but my dad and I played the Hexen port almost as much as the PC version.

 

Also Majora's Mask I never played on the 64 but I've played it on GameCube and 3DS and of course it's fantastic.

 

Probably more I will remember later.

[Dubbag]

Doom 64

Battletanx

Duke Nukem 64

Super mario 64

Gex Enter the Gecko

Rampage World Tour

[Pierrot]

Daffy Duck starring as Duck Dodgers is one of the funniest games I've ever played

[Avoozl]

Perfect Dark

Goldeneye 007

Doom 64

Duke Nukem 64

Shadows of the Empire

Zelda Ocarina of Time

Super Mario 64

Diddy Kong Racing

Banjo Kazooie

Mission Impossible

[P41R47]

Pokemon Snap was something new in that time.
Even now there are few games about photography. Ok, certainly, Pokemon Snap plays like a rail-shooter, but taking photographs of the different pokemons, and adquiring upgrades was incredible. Only drawback is that the games was extremely short. It was one of the games that i first saw that uses the replay as a way to concker.
Conker's Bad Fur Day. There is no other game like it in no other console (well, Conker Live & Reloaded, but the beeps are not funny). I fell inlove (as a classical singer myself) with Sloprano! Mi-mi-mi-mi-miiii!

 

[DuckReconMajor]

1 hour ago, P41R47 said:

Pokemon Snap was something new in that time.

 

I heard about Pokemon Stadium but didn't know the name. I thought Pokemon Snap was that game and pre-ordered it, but soon found out that it was something else entirely. It was still fun though. I never did get Pokemon Stadium.

[P41R47]

4 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

 

I heard about Pokemon Stadium but didn't know the name. I thought Pokemon Snap was that game and pre-ordered it, but soon found out that it was something else entirely. It was still fun though. I never did get Pokemon Stadium.

The heavy drawback of Pokemon Stadium is that you really needs a tranfer pack and a pokemon red, blue, or yellow to play it to its fullet potential. Without it you can only play with the rrented pokemons and its pretty difficult because they had a predetermined set of moves that you can't change at all... and requiere a heavy use of non-attack heavy strategies to win.
Pokemon Snap was marvelous for me, nothing i played after stand near to it.

[qdash]

F-Zero X

Super Mario 64

Mario Kart 64

Perfect Dark

WWF No Mercy

1080 Degrees

[amackert]

F-Zero X is my top pick by far.

 

 

Wipeout 64, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Sin & Punishment, The New Tetris, Gauntlet Legends and Goldeneye are some of the others I played (and enjoyed) the most of.

 

[Phobus]

I didn't do much on the N64 TBH, although my brother and I did have one. Favourite was probably Mario Kart 64, although Super Mario 64 would be a close second. Forsaken and Turok: Rage Wars were enjoyable enough to remember years later, and, although I've repeatedly read how terrible it was, Carmageddon 64 was hours and hours of fun for me and my youngest brother.

 

@P41R47 Pokemon Snap was a masterclass in impressive level design, considering how "on rails" it was. Stuff like the Kingler being projected as a shadow in the cave wall from a load of miscellaneous scree were mind-blowing at the time (and inspired me to put my own name in my CC3 map with a perspective trick).

 

 

Since parting company with the console, I've got Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on my XBox 360. The former is quite difficult to get into, so I'm guessing it's fondly remembered for how it was at the time, rather than how it holds up today, whilst the two Banjo-Kazooie games are actually still good. Tooie is a bit long, and they both needed a bit of walkthrough consultation to collect the trickier items on, but I enjoyed them both. I've played Doom64EX only, so won't comment on that.

[Immorpher]

@Phobus Perfect Dark could be one of those games you had to grow up with. On the N64 the frame rate did struggle as it pushed the console to its limits. But with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, the idea of spy missions in non-linear levels was kinda novel for a FPS. Other games would attempt to copy it during that era with less effectiveness. I know when I go back to play Perfect Dark on Rare Replay on modern controls, I still really enjoy it and miss games like it. But perhaps its only because I grew up in that particular N64 gaming culture niche.

Since Doom 64 will come as a pre-order bonus with Doom Eternal, I kinda wonder how the modern audience will handle it. I don't believe Doom 64 was meant to be friendly to its players. With the music, darkness, mind games with the keys, it was meant to keep the player at unease. In a way it was aimed at rebellious teens, who would think "F you Doom 64 demons! You aint gonna stop me!" But there's no driving beat to make people feel good, they just gonna have the angst to push through and grab sweet victory from the Mother Demon.

I still believe Doom 64 has the best controls for a N64 FPS game. It had analog stick smoothing (unlike Quake 2 N64) so it helps with aiming. And there is no need to mess with vertical aiming either, which is why it didn't need extreme auto aiming like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. So I think it has the best balance of letting the player be in control of movement but not being overly complicated. With that said, modern controls are even better, which might help with modern players. As now the enemy encounters wont be as difficult (which is why Doom 64 Retribution added the harder doomslayer mode I think). So the two aspects may balance themselves out for new players?

[Jello]

Actually had quite a few games I enjoyed on the N64. GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Doom 64 of course. Also really liked Turok... Turok 2 not so much. The framerate made it virtually unplayable, I'm still amazed I made it as far as I did. And I absolutely loved Body Harvest, despite it's faults. 1080 Snowboarding and F-Zero X. Starfox 64.

 

And I'm sure it's blasphemy, but I never really cared for Ocarina of Time. It just felt way too clunky and drawn out. I finished it, because I was a kid, but every time I went back to replay it I just end up getting bored.

[Shadow Hog]

I'm weirdly fond of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It's like if the N64 had a Tomb Raider game, except with analog controls and Z-target lock-on, and with Indiana Jones mixed in because yes. (The PC version is comparatively much more straight Tomb Raider - tank controls, autoaim combat, the works.)

 

Obviously if you don't care for the original Tomb Raider games then that's not gonna interest you a whole lot, but I rather dig it, even with the tank controls and all, so I'm into it. Of course, I've only played a few stages, so there's still plenty of time for it to shit the bed...

 

Also Shadows of the Empire holds up way better than it has any right to, weirdly. Like, beyond the opening AT-AT level everyone loves, it's still a pretty solid third-person shooter (with light platforming elements).

[Brian Reilly jr.]

My hands-down favorites are:
Super Mario 64
Star Fox 64
Doom 64 (Thank God I figured out how to set up EX too)

Super Smash Bros.

TLoZ: Majora's Mask

Mario Party 2