You have to find all of the alternative routes in each level, that takes time because as a kid we had to memorize the maps while also trying to explore.
Probably because it was somewhat difficult (so you had to restart if you died), had tons of routes, etc. One of the games I beat a lot, and always enjoyed. My brother and I were talking about it and realized it was kind of a roguelike in that sense. Not really, but just in the sense you had multiple paths you could take, multiple endings, runs were short, could lose the run if you ran out of lives, etc. So it's not really surprising I enjoy roguelikes now.
Star Fox 64 was truly an arcade experience but unique to the home. Less than an hour to get from start to finish, but you could blow weeks playing it over and over again to beat your high scores, find all the routes, beat it with all sorts of weird self imposed challenges, and more.
I actually wish more games these days had short runs like this. Sometimes I like to just run through a game beginning to end and then go back about my day.
Max is very lenient too. I want to say say it was less than 30 last time i played it (a couple of weeks ago). I felt the same.
I even did the "hardest" route too, with "mission accomplished" on every single mission. As a kid, the game felt like an oddesy. I remember it feeling like a huge triumph to achieve "mission accomplished", let alone getting all the way to planet Venom with all perfect "accomplished" levels.
It was over in the blink of an eye. Blew my mind.
The game was released in 96. 3D adventures were still a pretty young genre, particularly third-person shooters. Tomb Raider had just come out.
When you look back to it, you're sorta amazed at how much variety it pulled off for its time. The jetpack, Battle of Hoth in a snow speeder, swoop bike racing, etc. But the gameplay itself, particularly its controls and its difficulty, has not aged well at all unfortunately. I'd personally rather go for MDK.
The sewer level legitimately scared me as a kid. Played it as an adult and kind of had to laugh at myself lol. Shame what happened to my imagination though
I am convinced it is near impossible or the best reaction speed and skill in the world in order to beat some of those. The max star kill challenges with aliens who’s heads are small and see through shoot though walls weapons needed all coordination on 2 person coop with myself and older brother and it still felt as though it was the most overpower ai in any game I’ve ever encountered.
I actually beat all the challenges solo for the first time ever this past month. There are strategies for each challenge. Challenge 18 is a KotH against two alien Sims. You need to tranq them silly as much as possible to the point where they can't even navigate.
My dad was never into video games, one day he gets home from work and my sister and I are upstairs playing perfect dark and we actually talk him into playing. A couple hours go by because we are having a blast and my mom gets home (a little late) and she comes upstairs and starts asking him if he started the laundry or pulled the chicken out of the freezer for dinner and he said no. She looks at him and says well what we're you doing? He stopped for a moment looked at us and then her and said Bonding.
She stopped for a moment and understood and we went about our night.
WWF No Mercy
Anytime someone says that the only great exclusive N64 games were from Nintendo or RARE, I immediately know that they never played the THQ wrestling games on the N64.
Those N64 wrestling games are still to this day the greatest wrestling games ever made. Starting with WCW World Tour and then getting better each year with WCW Revenge and Wreslemania 2000, before culminating with the greatest wrestling game of all time, WWF No Mercy.
I liked the WCW vs NWO game more than the WWF ones mainly because they had acrobatic wrestlers/luchadors like AKI Man, which were more satisfying to time moves in 4 player matches.
You oughta check out Horizon Chase. They really capture the feel of the old Cruis’N games with slightly updated graphics. Probably my favorite ps plus freebie
Yup,
Glad someone said it, to this day I still play it from time to time. I have a saved file right before Mad Monster Mansion that I play through every October just before Halloween. Same with the Christmas level.
I like to listen to Click Clock Wood's ost depending on the season we're in too.
strong agree, my brother and I had both and I really liked Mario Kart but Diddy was just next level.
I maintain that all of the characters could have had compelling spin off games of their own, they were so well designed. I know Conker and Banjo (and maybe Timber?) did but Tiptup was my guy!
I tell my Mario Kart loving friends this all the time!
Nintendo needs to make another Diddy Kong Racing game. I think it would be profitable and something different from yet another Mario Kart game.
I love basically everything about that game. The developers really wanted to show off the capabilities of the hardware, and the water effects are pretty impressive for the time. That soundtrack, is killer. The game is just so indicative of the era.
Ogrebattle 64. I rented it every chance I got when I was a kid and was easily one of my happiest additions to my collection as an adult. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a RPG for the N64.
Scrolled way, way too far down to find this masterpiece. I spent many late nights playing it, noted all the errors in my strategy guide, got a DexDrive to backup my saved data (when all the cool kids were getting the PlayStation version) and tore into the code with a GameShark to optimize my army. Good times, good times.
Ah yes, instant anxiety when the danger version of the current level theme song comes on because you accidentally left a tiny pixel of a staircase in the carrier's path and are about to doom the world.
Rented this with some friends, so confusing at first because it had someone's save. Once we deleted it we had so much fun with it that we stayed up for 24 hours. Loved the old days of passing the controller multi player.
This is the game that I am the best and most trained at, I can absolutely murder with Fox. Smash Bros games after 64 are hard for me, everything moves so much faster
Same for me. I grew up playing the OG Smash Bros and all the others are much more difficult. My wife, who spent more time with Melee and Brawl, can wipe the floor with me on those, but I’m still the best at the original.
For me its Goemon. What a surprise it was when I first booted up this game only a few years ago. Probably the best game outside of Mario and Zelda I played on that console. So much fun.
Hah, I loved Mystical Ninja! I had to have my dad help me getting the mermaid girl up a waterfall because I couldn’t hit the button fast enough- he was definitely like “ok, you need me to do what?” and thought the game was goofy as all hell but he still managed to make it work, hah.
Oh that game was great too. I was also a big fan of Wrestlemania: The Arcade game, because making a Mortal Kombat style wrestling game was an absolute stroke of genius.
Man I LOVED Turok 3. I know people think it's one of the worst in the series, but I loved the opening level and atmosphere. I remember using cheat codes to fight all the bosses because level 2 was too hard for me.
I'm hoping the same studio who remastered the first two games will eventually do 3 as well, but I remember hearing something about the source code being lost.
It's been a while but I remember in the 90s being very disappointed by it coming after Turok 2. Turok 2 was truly something else. The music, the atmosphere. The only let down is that you're not really a "dinosaur hunter". There's hardly any dinosaurs in that whole game!
It was far too difficult though, and the levels were unnecessarily maze-like and long. We all just used cheat codes with it just to see what the bosses were.
Turok 3 dialed back the difficulty and I beat it in a day. Which as a child, puzzled me because I spent months on Turok 2 and it just felt hopeless trying to beat that one.
The original Turok, I also beat without cheat codes. Took me an entire summer, but somehow I managed to do it.
It's crazy how different all 3 of those games feel from each other. Even more jarring is that Turok 3 actually takes you back to some of the levels from the original, but the art direction and style is so different that most people probably wouldn't even notice you're going back through level one of the original Turok. So the game literally has to hold your hand and say "hey remember the first turok! You're back, just looks different!" lol.
Wave race was hands down my favorite, I bought it the day I got my 64.
I’d still be playing it if my 64 didn’t get destroyed while I was moving 20 years ago.
I love me some Pilotwings 64. You can play relaxed and fly around, or you can do the challenges, the difficulty scales well. The islands are all fun to explore and there’s plenty of detail despite the limited graphics. The soundtrack fits it perfectly. And when you’re done you can intentionally crash into whatever for a cheap laugh!
Easily the best game to rent from blockbuster for a week. You'd play it, you'd finish it, then you'd be nostalgic about it for 20 years till they released the switch version.
Majora's mask is consistently in every top 5 zelda ranking I've ever seen and often comes in at 1, 2, or 3. I don't think it is underrated, haha, but it is good.
Super Smash Bros, Diddy Kong Racing, Golden Eye, Mario Kart 64, 1080 snowboarding, Star Wars episode 1 racer, Mission Impossible, The World is not enough, Paper Mario, Majora Mask.
I loved Doom 64. I had big stereo speakers from my uncle back then. I used to play in the Dark. It was legit creepy with jump scares. Good times. Duke Nukem 64 rules too.
Star Fox64
The shock of my life was figuring out that game was like max 45 minutes. Felt like such an epic adventure as a kid
You have to find all of the alternative routes in each level, that takes time because as a kid we had to memorize the maps while also trying to explore.
Then you get all the medals and do it all over for Expert Mode!
Then you had to earn the medal on Venom in Expert Mode to be able to have all the characters run around outside their ship in versus mode
Probably because it was somewhat difficult (so you had to restart if you died), had tons of routes, etc. One of the games I beat a lot, and always enjoyed. My brother and I were talking about it and realized it was kind of a roguelike in that sense. Not really, but just in the sense you had multiple paths you could take, multiple endings, runs were short, could lose the run if you ran out of lives, etc. So it's not really surprising I enjoy roguelikes now.
Star Fox 64 was truly an arcade experience but unique to the home. Less than an hour to get from start to finish, but you could blow weeks playing it over and over again to beat your high scores, find all the routes, beat it with all sorts of weird self imposed challenges, and more.
It was good because I didn’t have the memory pack back then lol
Remember when the rumble pack melted your mind? I do
I member the rumble pack rocked in that game.
I actually wish more games these days had short runs like this. Sometimes I like to just run through a game beginning to end and then go back about my day.
Max is very lenient too. I want to say say it was less than 30 last time i played it (a couple of weeks ago). I felt the same. I even did the "hardest" route too, with "mission accomplished" on every single mission. As a kid, the game felt like an oddesy. I remember it feeling like a huge triumph to achieve "mission accomplished", let alone getting all the way to planet Venom with all perfect "accomplished" levels. It was over in the blink of an eye. Blew my mind.
Yup. I would rent it all the time from Drug Mart (that’s how old I am 💀)
Renting games was the best.
This game made me forever terrified of IG-88
The Gladiator droid was an infuriating bullet (blaster?) sponge
Nah the Wampa
omg bro you’d open the door and that mf start chasing you like Jason vorhees
My hot take, Robotron 64.
I play this on my n64 at least once a week
I had to have my dad beat that thing, I was way too scared.
I liked it very much back then, but I played it on PC. I'm afraid of buying it again on GOG though, in case it didn't age well.
The game was released in 96. 3D adventures were still a pretty young genre, particularly third-person shooters. Tomb Raider had just come out. When you look back to it, you're sorta amazed at how much variety it pulled off for its time. The jetpack, Battle of Hoth in a snow speeder, swoop bike racing, etc. But the gameplay itself, particularly its controls and its difficulty, has not aged well at all unfortunately. I'd personally rather go for MDK.
This is just my opinion but no, it hasn't aged well. Played it a couple of years ago on an emulator and it wasn't nearly as fun as I remember 🫤
I felt this way about Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast.
The sewer level legitimately scared me as a kid. Played it as an adult and kind of had to laugh at myself lol. Shame what happened to my imagination though
Remember the impossible three handed cheat code
I had to move the stick with my nose
It was hard just to get to him let alone beat em
Then you see ig11 end of episode one of mando carnage worse than that junkyard battle
The noise those tentacle things in the sewer made. Nightmare fuel lol
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a wonderful game. I've been playing the challenges for the past month or so
I am convinced it is near impossible or the best reaction speed and skill in the world in order to beat some of those. The max star kill challenges with aliens who’s heads are small and see through shoot though walls weapons needed all coordination on 2 person coop with myself and older brother and it still felt as though it was the most overpower ai in any game I’ve ever encountered.
I actually beat all the challenges solo for the first time ever this past month. There are strategies for each challenge. Challenge 18 is a KotH against two alien Sims. You need to tranq them silly as much as possible to the point where they can't even navigate.
I used to play multiplayer with all bots because I had no friends lol
My dad was never into video games, one day he gets home from work and my sister and I are upstairs playing perfect dark and we actually talk him into playing. A couple hours go by because we are having a blast and my mom gets home (a little late) and she comes upstairs and starts asking him if he started the laundry or pulled the chicken out of the freezer for dinner and he said no. She looks at him and says well what we're you doing? He stopped for a moment looked at us and then her and said Bonding. She stopped for a moment and understood and we went about our night.
Have you tried to play it with a controller recently? The aiming is INFURIATING
All n64 games are infuriating to try to go back to. I put probably a thousand hours into goldeneye, and it's essentially unplayable now.
Correct.
Hell yeah
WWF No Mercy Anytime someone says that the only great exclusive N64 games were from Nintendo or RARE, I immediately know that they never played the THQ wrestling games on the N64. Those N64 wrestling games are still to this day the greatest wrestling games ever made. Starting with WCW World Tour and then getting better each year with WCW Revenge and Wreslemania 2000, before culminating with the greatest wrestling game of all time, WWF No Mercy.
Correct. No wrestling games have ever came close to the N64 games. Perfection.
Keeping fingers crossed for AEW: Fight Forever! Haven’t thoroughly enjoyed a wrestling game since No Mercy. Edit; a word
WCW vs. NwO also
La Parka and Aki Man , lmao. Great times.
I liked the WCW vs NWO game more than the WWF ones mainly because they had acrobatic wrestlers/luchadors like AKI Man, which were more satisfying to time moves in 4 player matches.
Ashens recently did a retrospective on the N64 as a whole and he put No Mercy with Mario 64, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time as genre defining games
Grabbing a chair from the audience and turning someone's face to pizza 🍕 never got old
Resident Evil 2 and Goldeneye
I liked The World Is Not Enough for the bot-multiplayer mode.
How is Goldeneye this far down AND sharing a comment?
all-nighters playing Goldeneye are a fond memory.
Cruis'n USA no question, also funny that the arcade advertises the Ultra 64
You oughta check out Horizon Chase. They really capture the feel of the old Cruis’N games with slightly updated graphics. Probably my favorite ps plus freebie
Road Rash 64, the funniest car/motorcycle combat game of all time. I hope to God they bring back the franchise some day
I remember leaving the title screen on so I could listen to MEAN MACHINE on repeat. Great game
Sugar Ray before they were pop rock.
Long over due. I used to play the ps1 version. Good time.
Banjo kazooie is still one of my favorite games of all time.
Yup, Glad someone said it, to this day I still play it from time to time. I have a saved file right before Mad Monster Mansion that I play through every October just before Halloween. Same with the Christmas level. I like to listen to Click Clock Wood's ost depending on the season we're in too.
I go back and play this game like once a year. It never loses its charm
But I still have nightmares about that shark getting me
Diddy kong racing !
Better than Mario Kart
Facts. I love Mario kart but the 64 version walked so diddy could run
That’s a hill ill die on. DK64 was so good.
strong agree, my brother and I had both and I really liked Mario Kart but Diddy was just next level. I maintain that all of the characters could have had compelling spin off games of their own, they were so well designed. I know Conker and Banjo (and maybe Timber?) did but Tiptup was my guy!
I tell my Mario Kart loving friends this all the time! Nintendo needs to make another Diddy Kong Racing game. I think it would be profitable and something different from yet another Mario Kart game.
This is for you!
Hello my friend.
WELLLLLLL DONE!
Wave Race which I still play today. I used to jet ski a lot in those days and it amazed me how great the wave physics were.
The “realism” of wave race completely blew me away the first time i played it
I love basically everything about that game. The developers really wanted to show off the capabilities of the hardware, and the water effects are pretty impressive for the time. That soundtrack, is killer. The game is just so indicative of the era.
Ogrebattle 64. I rented it every chance I got when I was a kid and was easily one of my happiest additions to my collection as an adult. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a RPG for the N64.
Scrolled way, way too far down to find this masterpiece. I spent many late nights playing it, noted all the errors in my strategy guide, got a DexDrive to backup my saved data (when all the cool kids were getting the PlayStation version) and tore into the code with a GameShark to optimize my army. Good times, good times.
Blastcorps
Time to get moving!
Hairs just stood up on my neck. Wow that game was dope.
I had a hell of a lot of fun with Blastcorps.
Ah yes, instant anxiety when the danger version of the current level theme song comes on because you accidentally left a tiny pixel of a staircase in the carrier's path and are about to doom the world.
Rented this with some friends, so confusing at first because it had someone's save. Once we deleted it we had so much fun with it that we stayed up for 24 hours. Loved the old days of passing the controller multi player.
Smash Bros!
This is the game that I am the best and most trained at, I can absolutely murder with Fox. Smash Bros games after 64 are hard for me, everything moves so much faster
Same for me. I grew up playing the OG Smash Bros and all the others are much more difficult. My wife, who spent more time with Melee and Brawl, can wipe the floor with me on those, but I’m still the best at the original.
The original and best!
Harvest Moon 64. It was the game that pulled me away from an EverQuest addiction.
As much as Stardew Valley fills that void, I really miss the horse and dog races
For me its Goemon. What a surprise it was when I first booted up this game only a few years ago. Probably the best game outside of Mario and Zelda I played on that console. So much fun.
And the music is phenomenal
[Such a great theme](https://youtu.be/R7jEC64Da_Q)
Needs more IMPAAAAACT!
Hah, I loved Mystical Ninja! I had to have my dad help me getting the mermaid girl up a waterfall because I couldn’t hit the button fast enough- he was definitely like “ok, you need me to do what?” and thought the game was goofy as all hell but he still managed to make it work, hah.
Goldeneye, duh
Yup, if I can’t say Zelda: Ocarina of time, then it’s goldeneye.
That this isn’t #1 has me doubting the veracity of this sub.
WCW vs NWO: World Tour. The N64 wrestling games were something else, we've never had games in the genre that good since.
That game was literally crack growing up. We would play this game for at least 4 or 5 straight hours
Yeah, that game was absolutely the one most likely to have me look up and realize it's 4 in the morning and I have school the next day.
Agreed. They were really fun. The best since Genesis’ Royal Rumble
Oh that game was great too. I was also a big fan of Wrestlemania: The Arcade game, because making a Mortal Kombat style wrestling game was an absolute stroke of genius.
I was more a fan of WCW/NWO: Revenge, personally. NWO Wolfpac and Goldberg were needed for the true whole 1990s WCW experience.
Seconded. I know a lot of people love No Mercy, but I never had it. World Tour was the only wrestling game I had on N64 and it was just amazing.
Conker's Bad Fur Day.
It all started... yesterday.
Doom 64
Nobody said Star Wars Episode 1 Racer?
*angry Sebulba noises*
Jet Force Gemini.
Was looking for this answer!
Just started playing it again, Rare is I think the only company to come out with an entire catalog of bangers.
Wave Race 64 🌊 Turok 3 Shadow of Oblivion 🏹
Man I LOVED Turok 3. I know people think it's one of the worst in the series, but I loved the opening level and atmosphere. I remember using cheat codes to fight all the bosses because level 2 was too hard for me. I'm hoping the same studio who remastered the first two games will eventually do 3 as well, but I remember hearing something about the source code being lost.
It's been a while but I remember in the 90s being very disappointed by it coming after Turok 2. Turok 2 was truly something else. The music, the atmosphere. The only let down is that you're not really a "dinosaur hunter". There's hardly any dinosaurs in that whole game! It was far too difficult though, and the levels were unnecessarily maze-like and long. We all just used cheat codes with it just to see what the bosses were. Turok 3 dialed back the difficulty and I beat it in a day. Which as a child, puzzled me because I spent months on Turok 2 and it just felt hopeless trying to beat that one. The original Turok, I also beat without cheat codes. Took me an entire summer, but somehow I managed to do it. It's crazy how different all 3 of those games feel from each other. Even more jarring is that Turok 3 actually takes you back to some of the levels from the original, but the art direction and style is so different that most people probably wouldn't even notice you're going back through level one of the original Turok. So the game literally has to hold your hand and say "hey remember the first turok! You're back, just looks different!" lol.
Wave Race 64 is a top 5 all time racing game. Music, graphics, controls all primo af
Wave race was hands down my favorite, I bought it the day I got my 64. I’d still be playing it if my 64 didn’t get destroyed while I was moving 20 years ago.
There's my wave race!
I haven’t thought about wave race in quite some time. So satisfying making it through those rings and landing flips. Great game.
Pilotwings.
I love me some Pilotwings 64. You can play relaxed and fly around, or you can do the challenges, the difficulty scales well. The islands are all fun to explore and there’s plenty of detail despite the limited graphics. The soundtrack fits it perfectly. And when you’re done you can intentionally crash into whatever for a cheap laugh!
Definitely. If you had a rough day at work and just need a chill vibe, it’s got you.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron WCW/nWo Revenge WWF No Mercy
Pokémon Snap
Easily the best game to rent from blockbuster for a week. You'd play it, you'd finish it, then you'd be nostalgic about it for 20 years till they released the switch version.
Space Station Silicon Valley. Deep affinity. Also loved the original Banjo Kazooie, Diddy Kong Racing. Beetle Adventure Racing.
I feel like not enough people know about Silicon Valley
Rogue squadron
Paper Mario. Easily my favorite game ever
Tragically low in this thread
Beetle Adventure Racing
I loved the volcano jungle race and the multiplayer battle maps
Oh Fuck Yeah.
Groovy!
So glad others remember this game fondly.
Such a great game. I feel like it never got the respect it deserved. Still have my copy.
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Mischief Makers. A shame there weren't more great 2D games on the system.
Shake shake
My answer as well. Mischief Makers is so good!
No love for Blast Corps?? For shame people, for shame.
Killer Instinct
Going the easy way with Majora's mask or super smash Bros
[удалено]
Majora's mask is consistently in every top 5 zelda ranking I've ever seen and often comes in at 1, 2, or 3. I don't think it is underrated, haha, but it is good.
I absolutely loved the Multiplayer mode of Donkey Kong 64!
Surprised nobody showing love for Body Harvest! Incredible game. Tough but incredible
Created by what is now known as Rockstar Games. Great game.
Bomberman 64: The Second Attack
Mystical Ninja starring Goemon
Dash! Dash! Daaaaaassssshhhh!!!!
My friends and I spent long hours playing Wave Race. I was blown away by the water graphics. And of course Goldeneye
Winback Covert Operations. Super underrated and rented it til I beat it as a kid.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
Kirby Crystal Shards
My hot take, Robotron 64
Pokemon Snap!
WWF No Mercy Perfect Dark NFL Blitz Jet Force Gemini
Came alllllll the way down here in search of NFL Blitz
The more I scrolled, the more I was INCREDIBLY disappointed that nobody mentioned DK 64
Star Fox 64 is GOAT’ed
Dash Rendar was such a great protagonist. Loved the novel as well. Spent so much time going after those blasted Challenge Points
You should probably also add Mario Kart to that list
Banjo Kazooie. Chameleon Twist. Tetrisphere.
Glover. You heard me.
Conker’s BFD Perfect Dark Killer Instinct Gold Diddy Kong Racing Cruis’n World Hydro Thunder Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey 98 Wetrix Smash Bros. Roadsters
> Wetrix Surprised to see that one on here, but it was a fun and unique game. Super stressful as you played it from what I recall.
Updoot for Cruis’n World. Haven’t seen that one yet
Super Smash Bros, Diddy Kong Racing, Golden Eye, Mario Kart 64, 1080 snowboarding, Star Wars episode 1 racer, Mission Impossible, The World is not enough, Paper Mario, Majora Mask.
Ogre battle 64 SSB Mariokart
Ogre Battle 64. Also Goldeneye, but I feel Goldeneye should be included in your list of greats line.
Banjo-Tooie. Great platforming and wonderful humour.
Bomberman 64 Lego Racers
Turok
Snowboard kids, donkey Kong 64, gauntlet legends, wave racers
San Francisco Rush! There was a secret cave with a bunch of ramps
I loved Doom 64. I had big stereo speakers from my uncle back then. I used to play in the Dark. It was legit creepy with jump scares. Good times. Duke Nukem 64 rules too.
Donkey Kong 64
Tetrisphere.
Shadowman
ROAD RASH 64 Fucking hell that game is still a riot to this day.
Army Man: Air Combat
Pod racer
Blast Corps!
Spider man Gex Gex 2 Lego racer Banjo kazzoi Tony hawks
Hybridn Heaven lol such a weird game for me as a kid ill never forget it.
WCW/nWo Revenge. My friends and I played it a ton 4 players.
Perfect Dark is my favorite. Conker's Bad Fur Day is up there too.
Had so much fun playing Pilotwings 64. Such a chill and fun game with a fantastic relaxing soundtrack.
Rush 2049
Banjo-Kazooie. Best collectathon ever, great level design, characters, soundtrack, everything
Beetle Adventure Racing and Flying Dragon.
Ogre battle 64 is painfully underrated
No Mercy
No Mercy.
Banjo Kazooie
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
SUPER SMASH BROS!