Even though the sales for the console never quite matched what Nintendo have reached with the Switch, it’s hard to argue with the claim that the N64 is Ninty’s most iconic console. It’s also responsible for your mum calling every console you own a “Nintendo”, but that’s another story. While a lot of the library of games is considerably dated by this point, there’s a select few on the N64 that have seemed to defy the ravages of time, and also early 3D game development. Here are some games that will make you do the Ratatouille critic thing. Note: please do not eat Pilotwings 64.
1. Paper Mario
As soon as they had access to 3D, a lot of game developers immediately came to the conclusion that “more polygons = more realism”; a philosophy that’s aged about as well as milk. It’s why a lot of the 3D games released for the N64 look like crap now, as they were chasing an aesthetic that only looked as good as the technology of the time would allow. Meanwhile, a lot of the 2D games, or games that went for vibrancy and imagination first over realism, have aged a lot better by comparison. Just look at Paper Mario in comparison to some trash like Superman 64 and you’ll see what we mean, as the graphics for Paper Mario look just as good now as they did at the start of the millennium.
Admittedly, the premise of Paper Mario is about as Mario as it gets, with Peach being kidnapped by Bowser and Mario having to travel to the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue her. The difference here is that instead of jumping on Bowser’s head three times and calling it a day, Bowser has become invincible by stealing the power of the seven Star Spirits, defeating Mario in the process. You’ll have to find some friends, restore the Star Spirits and give Bowser the kicking he deserves. Again, the graphics and presentation here are as timeless as it gets, but the gameplay has also aged extremely well, with the action command prompts becoming a core part of a lot of turn-based RPGs.
2. Pilotwings 64
The Nintendo 64 was the company’s first proper foray into the brave new world that is the third dimension, so naturally there have been plenty of games on the N64 that haven’t really aged well. If we’re being honest, we’d probably say that about the graphics for nearly every early 3D game ever, but we’re getting off-topic. Despite any missteps, those games that did manage to stick the landing have become timeless classics, and one game that deserves its place among them is Pilotwings 64. Now, did we make a “stick the landing” joke because this game is all about helicopters and jetpacks? You give us too much credit.
Ostensibly a tech demo for the N64 to showcase what the controller’s analog stick was capable of, along with the graphics that the N64 could produce, Pilotwings 64’s premise saw players basically having a bunch of adventure days on some tropical islands. Players could utilise three main forms of transport, those being hang-glider, “Rocket Belt” (a jet-pack) and a gyrocopter, and could either complete a series of events to earn licenses or explore the island at their own pace. There were even mini-games, which included sky-diving and the human cannonball.
It’s not an overly complex game, but titles like Riders Republic, with its multiple aerial vehicle disciplines and focus on exploration, feel like a continuation of what Pilotwings 64 was striving towards, only with 200% more cringey attempts at youth lingo. Pilotwings 64 stays ageless by virtue of not having crappy dialogue, honestly.
3. Pokemon Snap
Sometimes, you need to test the waters a little bit to see how successful your franchise truly is. After an incredibly popular anime and the iconic Pokemon Red/Blue (and also Stadium for the N64), it was time for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company to see how versatile their fledgling franchise truly was. Pokemon Snap was that first experiment in a spin-off, and it’s widely considered to be one of the best non-mainline Pokemon games ever made. Not bad for a game that’s essentially an on-rails “photo ‘em up”, but that simplicity has helped Pokemon Snap to become a truly timeless N64 classic. There’s such a thing as over-egging the pudding after all, but Pokemon Snap is just as fun and accessible now as it was back in the year 2000.
Instead of capturing Pokemon and forcing them to fight like some kind of barbarian king, Pokemon Snap follows the aptly named Todd Snap who’s summoned by Professor Oak to come visit Pokemon Island and help with his scientific research. You’ll do that by riding an amphibious buggy around various on-rail tracks, snapping pictures of Pokemon in their natural habitat. As you make the rounds, you’ll unlock new routes and new accessories that can help unlock secret areas or new Pokemon to picture, adding to the game’s replay value immensely.
While it took Nintendo 20 years to pull it out of their bag of tricks, they did make a sequel, New Pokemon Snap, which essentially has the same gameplay structure only with prettier graphics. If that doesn’t scream timeless game design, I don’t know what does.
4. Star Fox 64
From one rail shooter to another, except this one doesn’t have Muk with a glock, Star Fox 64 is one of the earlier games from the N64’s lifespan, yet boasts graphics and gameplay that have managed to stand the test of time. Despite Fox McCloud seemingly standing alongside Captain Falcon as Nintendo mascots that only make appearances when Super Smash Bros. comes around, playing Star Fox 64 in modern day is still just as enjoyable. Heck, it stands to reason that the game’s action and combat is still incredible when the remake for the Nintendo 3DS is basically just the same gameplay with the addition of gyroscopic aiming, while Star Fox Zero tried to change too much and ended up catching some flak.
Star Fox 64 sees players control Fox and the gang as they continue their long running feud with the mad scientist Andross, moving from planet to planet defeating his armies and henchmen along the way. While you moved through most levels on rails, you could move your Arwing around the screen to shoot down hostiles, though some levels gave players full 3D movement too, which helped keep the action fresh.
It’s not the most complicated game, but one interesting fact about Star Fox 64 is that it’s the first N64 game to support the Rumble Pak, which is a feature that comes as standard now on all controllers. Clearly, Star Fox 64 has aged well by showcasing how added rumble vibrations can make gaming even more immersive.
5. Ogre Battle 64: Person Of Lordly Caliber
Real-time strategy games and consoles often go as well together as a McFlurry and a large haddock, which is to say they don’t. Most RTS games run into massive difficulty trying to adapt the control scheme of a mouse and keyboard to a controller, so when a strategy game manages to nail it, people tend to notice. That’s pretty much what happened when Ogre Battle 64: Person Of Lordly Caliber launched in Japan and America, and it probably would have happened in the PAL regions too if it launched there, but clearly our caliber wasn’t lordly enough. We invented lords! Anyway, the third game in the Ogre Battle series, Ogre Battle 64 continues the RTS gameplay of the first game, albeit with better graphics and sprites along with a new world, story and characters, and it’s one of the best RPGs on the N64.
You control Magnus, a captain in Palatinus’ southern region of Alba who finds himself dragged into the country’s civil war. Joining with the revolutionary army and its leader, Frederick, you’ll travel through the kingdom of Palatinus liberating regions as you go while recruiting new troops for your army. These troops can have one of several classes, and are split into units of up to five, which can be commanded as you see fit during the game’s RTS battles.
The overall formula has been proven to be timeless based on the fact that Vanillaware’s Unicorn Overlord is essentially an unashamed love letter to Ogre Battle and the tactics RPG genre as a whole (minus OB’s alignment system), and it’s one of the best games of 2024.
If you loved Unicorn Overlord and want to experience where those ideas and mechanics began, play Ogre Battle 64.
6. WWF No Mercy
Another one for the Cultured Vultures soundboard that no one is making is us glazing the AKI engine wrestling games. We’ll keep doing tricks on it, rest assured, because AKI engine games slap. The madlads managed to release six wrestling games on the Nintendo 64 that represented nearly every major wrestling promotion around in the 90s. Poor ECW had to make do with Acclaim Entertainment, though. Still not the worst thing that happened to them, though.
Anyway, while there’s a lot of love online for Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, which focused on Japanese wrestling and even included mechanics to accommodate for the MMA shootfighting promotions that were around at the time, like Pride FC, most would tend to agree that WWF No Mercy was AKI at their absolute best on the N64.
WWF No Mercy offers anything you could want from a wrestling game, with a decent variety of match types, a large roster of wrestlers, simple controls and a create-a-wrestler mode that allows you to forge your own freaks from scratch. Or, recreate real-life wrestlers using the tools provided, which AKI practically encouraged and has since become a tradition of all wrestling games. Throw in a decent Career mode and it’s no wonder that WWF No Mercy has become the measuring stick by which all wrestling games are compared.
To be clear though, it’s mainly the gameplay that’s aged well, as now some of the graphics look as bad as Val Venis’ soul.
7. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Earlier on in this list we spoke about some games trying to do too much with 3D and flopping because of it. Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire is one of those games, trying to be a hybrid between a third person shooter and an action platformer without managing to be that great at either, though it does have its fans. However, another Star Wars game would drop a year later that’d blow Shadows of the Empire out of the water: Rogue Squadron.
While many like to say that Shadows of the Empire helped to inspire Rogue Squadron, the truth of the matter is that developers Factor 5 had been working on the idea of Rogue Squadron for about a year prior, with LucasArts project lead Mark Haigh-Hutchinson using what he learned from developing the speeder bike levels for Shadows to create something more accessible in Rogue Squadron.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is a 3D flight action game that’s still incredible to play. No messy on-foot sections or ridiculous shenanigans (because they saved those for the third Rogue Squadron game, apparently), just a great Star Wars-themed dogfighting game. Players control Luke Skywalker in the time between the first two movies, as you take the fight to the Empire across various planets.
While the core gameplay hasn’t aged a day since the game’s release in 1998, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron earns bonus “aged well” points from us considering it featured a clone of Palpatine two decades before The Rise Of Skywalker did, as the last level ties into the Dark Empire comic book run. The more you know.
8. F-Zero X
Alright this is the last time we will mention F-Zero. We promise. For three weeks.
At one time, F-Zero was Nintendo’s premier racing game franchise, but it would seem that Mario Kart has fully taken that spot now. We’d call that a shame, but one look at the track design for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, specifically its anti-gravity settings, and you’ll see that a lot of the design and influence of F-Zero is on display. There’s even a Mute City track, which in our eyes just proves how timeless the whole F-Zero series truly is, but F-Zero X in particular deserves a lot of praise for how well it’s aged. For starters, the fact that the game can handle 30 racers on the track at any one time while still being a relatively smooth experience, especially compared to other N64 games, is impressive.
Granted, sacrifices had to be made in order to make the performance as impressive as it is, with the graphics in particular being regarded as some of the worst on the console at the time. Ignore the visuals though and the core gameplay here is exceptional, even if it’ll take you a few hours to master its subtleties. Other parts of F-Zero X that have aged incredibly well are the excellent soundtrack, the ability to tune your vehicle ahead of each race depending on how complex the track is, and the whole concept of the X Cup. The X Cup doesn’t feature pre-made tracks, instead letting players loose on tracks that have been randomly generated by the game, and given how procedural generation has become a big part of game design these days, F-Zero X was ahead of its time.
9. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Look, we’d love to just write “it’s a masterpiece” and then move on, because that’s what The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is. Yes, it does include the Water Temple, and yes, water levels are bad and stinky, but The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the highest rated game of all time on Metacritic for a reason: it’s a whipper. From controls to level design, music and story, every single part of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time is firing on all cylinders, and while some might prefer the more experimental and strange follow-up Majora’s Mask, Ocarina Of Time’s sheer majesty has ensured that this game will never have to worry about the passage of time. Okay, maybe the graphics have seen better days, but Ocarina of Time’s visuals flawlessly convey the game’s atmosphere and tone. Future Hyrule is scarier than a lot of modern horror games, just saying.
Like all good Zelda games, Ocarina of Time follows Link as he travels across Hyrule with the hopes of facing off against the evil Ganondorf, so he can save Zelda and the kingdom. Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda game with 3D graphics, and somehow Nintendo managed to nail it from day one, with the developers brilliantly translating the dungeon diving and puzzle solving that forms the majority of Zelda’s gameplay into 3D. Throw in one of the world’s greatest fishing games, and you’ve got a 3D action adventure game that deserves to be referred to as the best video game of all time.
You can, of course, throw in Majora’s Mask here as well, and we wouldn’t mind at all.
10. Mario Party 1-3
The only real differences between Mario Party 1, 2 and 3 is the minigames and the boards, so we’ve lumped them all together for this entry because quite frankly, all of them have aged pretty well. You want proof? Just look at Mario Party Superstars for the Nintendo Switch, which brought back five different boards from across the N64 Mario Party trilogy (along with minigames from the first 8 games), and they’re still just as fun now as they were in the 90s. While Mario Party has dabbled with its formula and mechanics in the past, the core has always remained the same: use dice to move around a board while screwing over your mates at every possible opportunity. That mantra started with the Mario Party N64 trilogy, and it’ll be there forever.
The already mentioned boards that appeared in Mario Party Superstars, which include Peach’s Birthday Cake and Yoshi’s Tropical Island from MP1, Space Land and Horror Land from MP2 and Woody Woods from MP3, showcase Mario Party at its best/most rage-inducing, depending on which end of the luck you’re getting. If you just want the Mario Party game that’s aged the best though, stick with Mario Party 2 and 3, as MP2 introduced mechanics that have become a core part of the overall experience, including certain mini-game types and the ability to practice minigames before playing them.
Still, all three of them are terrific examples of multiplayer gaming at its best on N64, until someone gets salty that they didn’t win and calls their mum to pick them up.
Yes, Timmy, we’re talking about you. Do better.
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