Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
This is an old post I wrote years ago but never put on this forum. Some of the games will be mainstream and you won't care about these ones but I don't feel like editing the list, so here it is in full. Please comment on what you think of the list and if any games are omitted.
Definitive list of N64 games to play if you've played none or minimal amounts. What I consider truly amazing games are bolded. The bolding is subjective.
Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Podracer, Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64 in the US), Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Wave Race 64, Operation: Winback (first shooter I ever played with a good cover system), and Super Smash Brothers
Notable worthy exclusions (these only didn't make my list because I feel they were only really fun in the system's heyday, and have not aged well) - Perfect Dark, Goldeneye
I feel like I might get lynched for this opinion, but I honestly believe PD and Goldeneye did not age well. Yeah, you might be able to load it up and have some fun with some friends but I think most of that fun would come from nostalgia and someone who had not played the games previously would not enjoy them. They don't really do anything different to present-day shooters, and really their classic status comes from them doing it first, or at least doing it better than any other game of the era, but now they just haven't stood the test of time for anyone without the benefit of nostalgic rose-coloured glasses.
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DunxcoShould get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered Userregular
This is an old post I wrote years ago but never put on this forum. Some of the games will be mainstream and you won't care about these ones but I don't feel like editing the list, so here it is in full. Please comment on what you think of the list and if any games are omitted.
Definitive list of N64 games to play if you've played none or minimal amounts. What I consider truly amazing games are bolded. The bolding is subjective.
Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Podracer, Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64 in the US), Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Wave Race 64, Operation: Winback (first shooter I ever played with a good cover system).
Notable worthy exclusions (these only didn't make my list because I feel they were only really fun in the system's heyday, and have not aged well) - Perfect Dark, Goldeneye
That list is very hard to take serious (if not to say: a total joke) without Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros and Majora's Mask.
This is an old post I wrote years ago but never put on this forum. Some of the games will be mainstream and you won't care about these ones but I don't feel like editing the list, so here it is in full. Please comment on what you think of the list and if any games are omitted.
Definitive list of N64 games to play if you've played none or minimal amounts. What I consider truly amazing games are bolded. The bolding is subjective.
Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Podracer, Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64 in the US), Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Wave Race 64, Operation: Winback (first shooter I ever played with a good cover system).
Notable worthy exclusions (these only didn't make my list because I feel they were only really fun in the system's heyday, and have not aged well) - Perfect Dark, Goldeneye
That list is very hard to take serious (if not to say: a total joke) without Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros and Majora's Mask.
I forgot Smash Brothers. Edited that in. No idea how I forgot that given how much of my childhood was devoted to it and Smash Bros Melee.
As for the other two...
I didn't play Paper Mario although I did hear good things about it, that means that I can't, however, put it on a list of my own recommendations.
And Majora's Mask paled next to Ocarina of Time. If I was going to recommend one Zelda game out of the entire series of Zelda games it would be Ocarina of Time by a longshot then maybe the GBA games. Majora's Mask would rank way down the list.
Maybe this was just me, but I thought a time limit on an epic RPG-scale game thats supposed to be about exploring huge dungeons was stupid before the game came out, I thought it was stupid while I was playing it and I still think its stupid now.
I'm constantly afraid the battery in my Harvest Moon 64 will die. (One of the few N64 games to not use EEPROM and it has to be Harvest Moon?!)
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TIFunkaliciousKicking back inNebraskaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Gauntlet legends was good fun. What a christmas morning that was
The 3 brothers of my family were never so united in a game before than (dungeons and dragons notwithstanding)
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
edited January 2011
I bought my brother's N64 back in 2001 or so, mainly because I wanted to play the Castlevanias on that system. I won't recommend those, despite enjoying them a bit.
You should definitely check out Mischief Makers, though. Goofy, bizarre sidescroller that has you.....shake things? And have a dodgeball match against a cute cat? And then you ride the same cat as you are being chased by a boss, grab his missiles, shake them to make them more powerful and throw them back.
Anyone mention Pilot Wings already? That was one of the early ones for the console. I actually liked the Castlevania games on it. Hopefully, some day, Rare will release Jet Force Gemini on the 360. Really, that should be the next one they make a sequel to.
- Body Harvest (Made by what is now Rockstar North)
- Blast Corps
- Castlevania 64
- Pilotwings
- Mischief Makers, though I wish it could have been harder :P
- Banjo Kazooie
- Conker's Bad Fur day
- Majora's Mask
- Mario Golf
- Beetle Adventure Racing
- Re-volt (Though you can get it for PC with much better graphics etc)
- Star Wars Rogue Squadron (Hated battle for Naboo)
- Waverace 64
- Excite Bike 64
- Extreme-G
There are games I feel that haven't aged too bad, or not at all.
I absolutely hated Doom 64, I'm a huge fan of the Doom games but the level design felt terrible in the game and also how everything was blurry. I downloaded the PC port and it was just as terrible.
I liked Hybrid Heaven but hated how the whole game you're in metal world the whole game, the scenery absolutely never changes, it's just instead of red metal world you're in blue metal world. Monster design is superb though, creepiest monsters I've ever seen. Oh and the robots are kick-ass.
Edit: How did I forget to put Castlevania 64 and Pilotwings!
I can't help but SMH at lists that omit Paper Mario. Automatically loses all merit. It's still as fresh, funny and delightful as the day it first came out. No N64 game has aged better.
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L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
I like Mega Man 64. 3D Metroidvania done really well, I think.
What about the Turok games? The Brain Borer (?) is such an awesome, awesome weapon. If you can, get the 4MB (lol) upgrade for the graphics, so you can see slightly farther away.
I have a whole bunch more at home that I cannot think of right now, but when I get home I'll dig out my collection and post the good ones.
Off the top of my head and mostly skipping the big ones....
Single Player: Blast Corps, Mischief Makers, Operation: Winback, (fuck those laser beams though) Hybrid Heaven, Body Harvest, Jet Force Gemini, Star Wars Episode 1: Podracer, Pilotwings 64 and Space Station Silicon Valley.
Multiplayer: Bomberman 64, Duke Nukem 64, Gauntlet Legends, WCW vs NWO: Revenge, (Still the best wrestling game ever made) F-Zero X and Forsaken 64.
There are others, but those are probably my favourites that sometimes fall through the cracks. The 64 is still probably my favourite multiplayer console that has ever been made.
Fantastic games, those.
Except it's impossible to beat Space Station on some carts. Which really pissed me off.
Oh man, Bomberman 64 was so fucking good. I loved that game, I beat the shit out of it and got every hidden thing in it. My friends refused to play with me because I was so good at it.
I loved how some of the multiplayer maps had changing conditions, and when the timer ran out crazy shit would happen like the walls close in or meteors fall from the sky.
I don't know if I still have my N64 anymore but I'm going to see if I do and if I still have Bomberman because I fucking loved it so much and now I want to play it badly.
All my recommendations have been covered already, so I'll just echo a few points.
Space Station Silicon Valley and Blast Corps are great games that you won't find much to compare with these days (Blast Corps is super hard though). Body Harvest was great, if extremely ugly, and I'd say is better than most GTAs. Vigilante 8 is like a quirkier, better Twisted Metal, while Banjo Kazooie is one of the best of its genre. You should absolutely check all of these out if you haven't.
Beetle Adventure Racing was such a fun racer that I sometimes think of it even today, so that's pretty good for a game I only rented once.
Off the top of my head and mostly skipping the big ones....
Single Player: Blast Corps, Mischief Makers, Operation: Winback, (fuck those laser beams though) Hybrid Heaven, Body Harvest, Jet Force Gemini, Star Wars Episode 1: Podracer, Pilotwings 64 and Space Station Silicon Valley.
Multiplayer: Bomberman 64, Duke Nukem 64, Gauntlet Legends, WCW vs NWO: Revenge, (Still the best wrestling game ever made) F-Zero X and Forsaken 64.
There are others, but those are probably my favourites that sometimes fall through the cracks. The 64 is still probably my favourite multiplayer console that has ever been made.
Fantastic games, those.
Except it's impossible to beat Space Station on some carts. Which really pissed me off.
Wait, you mean some versions of the carts ARE beatable? I totally thought they were all bugged.
Off the top of my head and mostly skipping the big ones....
Single Player: Blast Corps, Mischief Makers, Operation: Winback, (fuck those laser beams though) Hybrid Heaven, Body Harvest, Jet Force Gemini, Star Wars Episode 1: Podracer, Pilotwings 64 and Space Station Silicon Valley.
Multiplayer: Bomberman 64, Duke Nukem 64, Gauntlet Legends, WCW vs NWO: Revenge, (Still the best wrestling game ever made) F-Zero X and Forsaken 64.
There are others, but those are probably my favourites that sometimes fall through the cracks. The 64 is still probably my favourite multiplayer console that has ever been made.
Fantastic games, those.
Except it's impossible to beat Space Station on some carts. Which really pissed me off.
Wait, you mean some versions of the carts ARE beatable? I totally thought they were all bugged.
I thought they released a cart with the beatable version after the fact, but by then it was too late. Not sure how many though.
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eeSanGI slice like a goddamn hammer.Registered Userregular
edited January 2011
Wait, so was I the only one who liked
???
eeSanG on
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
OP says he's looking for lesser-known titles that don't make a lot of best-of lists, and Diddy Kong Racing isn't exactly an obscure title, IMO. All Rare titles were high-profile back in those days.
Off the top of my head and mostly skipping the big ones....
Single Player: Blast Corps, Mischief Makers, Operation: Winback, (fuck those laser beams though) Hybrid Heaven, Body Harvest, Jet Force Gemini, Star Wars Episode 1: Podracer, Pilotwings 64 and Space Station Silicon Valley.
Multiplayer: Bomberman 64, Duke Nukem 64, Gauntlet Legends, WCW vs NWO: Revenge, (Still the best wrestling game ever made) F-Zero X and Forsaken 64.
There are others, but those are probably my favourites that sometimes fall through the cracks. The 64 is still probably my favourite multiplayer console that has ever been made.
Fantastic games, those.
Except it's impossible to beat Space Station on some carts. Which really pissed me off.
Wait, you mean some versions of the carts ARE beatable? I totally thought they were all bugged.
I thought they released a cart with the beatable version after the fact, but by then it was too late. Not sure how many though.
I'm kinda surprised that a game that can't be finished got past Nintendo's QA department. Perhaps it was an issue that only appeared on the retail printed carts.
If you have friends who will play it with you, this is secretly the best version of Duke. Supposedly some people are working on a mod to bring some of its features over to the PC version, but who knows when or if that'll ever come out.
edit: It also has the best box art of any N64 game by virtue of not being a shitty 3D render of a guy.
Posts
Definitive list of N64 games to play if you've played none or minimal amounts. What I consider truly amazing games are bolded. The bolding is subjective.
Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Podracer, Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64 in the US), Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Wave Race 64, Operation: Winback (first shooter I ever played with a good cover system), and Super Smash Brothers
Notable worthy exclusions (these only didn't make my list because I feel they were only really fun in the system's heyday, and have not aged well) - Perfect Dark, Goldeneye
I feel like I might get lynched for this opinion, but I honestly believe PD and Goldeneye did not age well. Yeah, you might be able to load it up and have some fun with some friends but I think most of that fun would come from nostalgia and someone who had not played the games previously would not enjoy them. They don't really do anything different to present-day shooters, and really their classic status comes from them doing it first, or at least doing it better than any other game of the era, but now they just haven't stood the test of time for anyone without the benefit of nostalgic rose-coloured glasses.
As amazingly fun as that game was, a bug involving the souvenirs means you'll never get closure because you can't finish the game.
Doesn't stop it being a great game though.
I forgot Smash Brothers. Edited that in. No idea how I forgot that given how much of my childhood was devoted to it and Smash Bros Melee.
As for the other two...
I didn't play Paper Mario although I did hear good things about it, that means that I can't, however, put it on a list of my own recommendations.
And Majora's Mask paled next to Ocarina of Time. If I was going to recommend one Zelda game out of the entire series of Zelda games it would be Ocarina of Time by a longshot then maybe the GBA games. Majora's Mask would rank way down the list.
Maybe this was just me, but I thought a time limit on an epic RPG-scale game thats supposed to be about exploring huge dungeons was stupid before the game came out, I thought it was stupid while I was playing it and I still think its stupid now.
The 3 brothers of my family were never so united in a game before than (dungeons and dragons notwithstanding)
You should definitely check out Mischief Makers, though. Goofy, bizarre sidescroller that has you.....shake things? And have a dodgeball match against a cute cat? And then you ride the same cat as you are being chased by a boss, grab his missiles, shake them to make them more powerful and throw them back.
shake shake
My Backloggery
Edit: Doh. PW was limed a page back.
- Body Harvest (Made by what is now Rockstar North)
- Blast Corps
- Castlevania 64
- Pilotwings
- Mischief Makers, though I wish it could have been harder :P
- Banjo Kazooie
- Conker's Bad Fur day
- Majora's Mask
- Mario Golf
- Beetle Adventure Racing
- Re-volt (Though you can get it for PC with much better graphics etc)
- Star Wars Rogue Squadron (Hated battle for Naboo)
- Waverace 64
- Excite Bike 64
- Extreme-G
There are games I feel that haven't aged too bad, or not at all.
I absolutely hated Doom 64, I'm a huge fan of the Doom games but the level design felt terrible in the game and also how everything was blurry. I downloaded the PC port and it was just as terrible.
I liked Hybrid Heaven but hated how the whole game you're in metal world the whole game, the scenery absolutely never changes, it's just instead of red metal world you're in blue metal world. Monster design is superb though, creepiest monsters I've ever seen. Oh and the robots are kick-ass.
Edit: How did I forget to put Castlevania 64 and Pilotwings!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcAbQ0v5i8A
I love the music in this game, and the gameplay ranges from mellow, to bat shit crazy.
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What about the Turok games? The Brain Borer (?) is such an awesome, awesome weapon. If you can, get the 4MB (lol) upgrade for the graphics, so you can see slightly farther away.
I have a whole bunch more at home that I cannot think of right now, but when I get home I'll dig out my collection and post the good ones.
Totally missed that!
Oh well. It is awesome enough to get an extra call out.
Except it's impossible to beat Space Station on some carts. Which really pissed me off.
I was coming to mention this. Best racing game of all time.
a shame no modern or past-gen sequel was made
I loved how some of the multiplayer maps had changing conditions, and when the timer ran out crazy shit would happen like the walls close in or meteors fall from the sky.
I don't know if I still have my N64 anymore but I'm going to see if I do and if I still have Bomberman because I fucking loved it so much and now I want to play it badly.
looks like I'm replaying Bomberman 64 sometime soon.
So Bomberman was a terrorist?
Jet Force Gemini was great, but I didn't finish it.
You should also look at Gex and Glover.
Space Station Silicon Valley and Blast Corps are great games that you won't find much to compare with these days (Blast Corps is super hard though). Body Harvest was great, if extremely ugly, and I'd say is better than most GTAs. Vigilante 8 is like a quirkier, better Twisted Metal, while Banjo Kazooie is one of the best of its genre. You should absolutely check all of these out if you haven't.
Beetle Adventure Racing was such a fun racer that I sometimes think of it even today, so that's pretty good for a game I only rented once.
However, I'll still second/third/fourth/fifth/nth the suggestion of Blast Corps. Probably my absolute favorite N64 game.
I KISS YOU!
It wasn't awesome, but it was lots of fun. At least it was when I was young and too obsessed with pokemon.
Wait, you mean some versions of the carts ARE beatable? I totally thought they were all bugged.
I thought they released a cart with the beatable version after the fact, but by then it was too late. Not sure how many though.
???
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
I'm kinda surprised that a game that can't be finished got past Nintendo's QA department. Perhaps it was an issue that only appeared on the retail printed carts.
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
If you have friends who will play it with you, this is secretly the best version of Duke. Supposedly some people are working on a mod to bring some of its features over to the PC version, but who knows when or if that'll ever come out.
edit: It also has the best box art of any N64 game by virtue of not being a shitty 3D render of a guy.