dailynewsnblog
When it was released, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was a seminal title that was deserving of the praise that it got. And while it’s now horribly outdated as a result of the genre innovations that followed, there was very little else like it on home consoles at the time.
It isn’t the prettiest or most playable title on the N64, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t marvel at everything it managed to achieve. The game world is large and full of life, the weapons and enemies are vicious, and it offers an insanely tough challenge.
Turok really hasn’t aged well, though, meaning that unless you hold a firm appreciation for early polygonal titles or hunting dinos, there’s a good chance you’ll struggle to find much enjoyment.
29. 1080° Snowboarding (N64)
A game which teaches the rewards of dedication and perseverance. Winning the race might look like the point of the game, but the real goal is there in the title — pulling a 1080°. It took some of us years, but we kept at it and — boom! — finally, we nailed it.
The speed and precision are paired with beautiful visuals, with sunlight glistening off the piste and snow spraying up behind your board. 1080° Snowboarding’s frame rate suffered accordingly, but its subtle controls enabled you to sharpen up shallow turns and gracefully arc across the course; coupled with those visuals, it conveyed that feeling of freedom and speed you get from the real-life sport.
When you’re not falling on your arse, that is.
28. Pokémon Stadium (N64)
Pokémon Stadium was a revolutionary step up for the monster-catching franchise, and that’s not just due to the fact that we got to see all 151 critters in full-fledged 3D.
The inclusion of the GB Tower, as well as allowing players to experience Pokémon characters in fun new ways through minigames and the Pokémon Lab, felt remarkably fresh and offered a new perspective on our repository of ‘mons.
Sure, the battling can get a bit repetitive and lengthy, but the awesome visuals, animations, and commentary can help keep this from becoming mundane. If you’re playing this on NSO, you’re of course limited to rental teams, but there’s plenty to love here if you’re an OG fan. And the Lickitung sushi minigame is ace.
27. Jet Force Gemini (N64)
An underrated entry in the Rareware library, Jet Force Gemini coupled cute design with chunky, gungy third-person blasting in a world-hopping quest to defeat insectoid overlord Mizar.
Juno, Vela and trusty good boy Lupus’ adventure is not without flaws, but JFG is a surprisingly deep and satisfying one that’s worth investigating if you’re a Rare fan looking for gems that passed you by around the turn of the millennium.
26. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil was a technical showcase for the system which took the baton from the immensely popular first game and upped the ante in every possible way.
Highlights include the Expansion Pak-powered 640×480 resolution visuals and the iconic Cerebral Bore, a gun that fired a brain-drilling bullet once you locked onto an enemy’s melon.
In addition to its NSO iteration, Acclaim’s game is available on Switch in remastered form courtesy of Nightdive Studios. Neither of these versions come on a kickass black cartridge, unfortunately.
25. Pilotwings 64 (N64)
Pilotwings 64 was a brilliant launch title for the system which showcased its features and provided players with a lovely flight sim adventure — something worthy of playing alongside the mighty Super Mario 64.
It proved to be a diverting companion piece for early adopters which built on the Super NES original with gameplay equal parts tense and relaxing. Cracking game.
24. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)
In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, HAL Laboratory managed to keep the core structure many knew and loved about the Kirby series while glossing it up with a shiny coat of polygonal paint for the new console generation.
Kirby’s 64-bit foray into the third dimension (well, kinda — it’s 2.5D, or on-rails 3D, if you prefer) stands out as one of the more unique entries in the series, feeling somewhat fresh in comparison to the many, many 2D Kirby platformers and still pleasurable to play to this day.
23. Harvest Moon 64 (N64)
As with most entries in this farm sim series, let its gentle cycle of farm work and soil-based simulation seep into you and Harvest Moon 64 has the potential to suck hours and days from your life.
It’s hardly a technical tour-de-force, but tending livestock, sewing seeds, harvesting your crops and striking up a relationship doesn’t require massive hardware horsepower, and the series’ 64-bit entry is as engrossing as any.
22. Blast Corps (N64)
Blast Corps involves clearing a path for a slow-moving truck carrying a malfunctioning nuclear missile to a safe detonation zone — a zone which is blocked by buildings and other structures ripe for destruction.
As with many 64-bit titles, its early polygonal visuals are arguably looking a little dogged these days, but don’t let its looks put you off. This incredibly silly concept makes for a Rare gem and one of the most fun games on the N64.
21. Mario Party (N64)
The game that got the Party started. Mario Party kicked things off raucously and without it, we wouldn’t be able to keep holding the most almighty of Nintendo parties at NL Towers.
Feuds that have lasted a lifetime may have spawned thanks to this game back in 1998. Conspiracy theories that Nintendo created this game solely to force the purchase of additional controllers after Aunt Susan and Uncle Stan destroyed your analogue sticks are spurious.
Mario Party’s slate of minigames truly shines, with Bumper Ball, Face Lift, and Mushroom Mix-Up helping to cement a legacy that endures to this day.
20. Rayman 2: The Great Escape (N64)
A very strong 3D platformer from a time when you couldn’t move for them, Rayman 2: The Great Escape saw Ubisoft’s gangly protagonist make the jump from 2D in a colourful adventure that delivers practically everything you could want from the genre.
It’s not quite on the level of Rare or Nintendo’s efforts, perhaps, but it’s still a fine, fine game up there with the very best.
19. Pokémon Snap (N64)
Sitting in a vehicle moving along a set path as you take photographs might not seem like much fun, but Pokémon Snap quickly proves to be a highly enjoyable, if short-lived, experience.
The quest to find a few more Pokémon or score better to open up new stages or get a useful item keeps you engaged for the game’s brief duration and the variety of creatures and their actions keeps things interesting when replaying stages. There are only 63 Pokémon to find, and it can be cleared very quickly, but there’s plenty of opportunity for new and improved (or funnier) photos with each playthrough.
The Switch sequel may have far eclipsed this one, but Pokémon Snap’s inhabitants will surely bring a smile to your face.
18. Sin and Punishment (N64)
Gamers in the West wouldn’t be able to get their hands on Treasure’s hectic N64 on-rails shooter (not easily, that is — there was always the option to import) until it came to the Wii Virtual Console.
On original release it quickly became a cult classic thanks to its developer’s heritage and its Japan-only status, and while it’s probably not worth importing a Japanese console to enjoy this game alone (we did, but we’re a bit obsessive) — and its sequel Sin and Punishment: Star Successor for Wii arguably improves on this foundation in every way — this is still a very fine shooter from a very fine developer.
Cracking box art, too.
17. Mario Golf (N64)
Camelot brought Mario and his golfing pals onto the 3D fairways in this excellent entry in his catalogue of sports games. This game also linked up with the superlative Mario Golf for Game Boy Color. They’re very different games, and the handheld version is probably even better thanks to its brilliant RPG elements, but together they make an unbeatable pair.
When we’re disappointed that later games like Mario Golf: Super Rush don’t match the quality of older entries, it’s Mario Golf that we’re remembering with a faraway wistful look in our eyes.
16. Pokémon Stadium 2 (N64)
The original Pokémon Stadium was fine, but Pokémon Stadium 2 expanded the concept of a 3D companion cartridge to play alongside the mainline Game Boy games.
It included Pokémon from both the Johto and Kanto regions and offered some juicy extras if you owned the Game Boy entries (we pity whoever had a Pokémon Stadium game without owning Blue, Red, Yellow, Gold, or Silver!).
Only in the soundtrack department did it arguably not live up to its predecessor, but otherwise this felt like the ‘proper’ execution of the concept.
15. Mario Tennis (N64)
The first in the Mario Tennis series (second, if you count Mario’s Tennis for the Virtual Boy) was one half of a winning doubles team in the Mushroom Kingdom sports department from Camelot — the studio also released the brilliant Mario Golf for N64, as well as Game Boy Color versions of each game that linked up with their home console cousins via the Transfer Pak.
Mario’s played a lot of tennis over the years, but this remains one of his finest on-court displays.
14. Wave Race 64 (N64)
Whatever you do, don’t go back and play Wave Race 64.
Its incredible water physics, tight controls, chunky visuals, and titanic brilliance will immediately have you degenerate into a forum-lingering whinger and you won’t be able to stop yourself complaining about the absence of this series (and F-Zero, and 1080° Snowboarding) from Nintendo consoles since the GameCube, and how Nintendo hates its fans and doesn’t want their money, and how the success of the Switch means there’s space for these ‘lesser-known’ franchises to make a return, and how we can’t have nice things, and…
13. Mario Party 3 (N64)
The third and final fiesta thrown by Mario on the Nintendo 64, the Mario Party formula was well-established by this point.
Hudson Soft saw no reason to change it in any way or kick it up a gear beyond a new influx of minigames, but that doesn’t stop Mario Party 3 from being a quintessential entry in the series: a riot with multiple friends, and a soul-crushing grind for a lonely single player… but why would anyone play Mario Party on their own? Well, for the brand-new story mode of course!
We all know the real reason this places as high as it does. No, it’s not the fact you can hold three items, but rather that Daisy and Waluigi make their polished party debut. As the final Mario game to be released on the N64 (except in Australia), it was a darn good send-off.
12. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
While the racers themselves might not have been truly 3D (rather they were detailed Donkey Kong Country-style sprites created from 3D character renders), Mario Kart 64’s huge, undulating circuits still showed off the benefits of 64-bit hardware. It added inclines, items, obstacles, and a four-player multiplayer mode to the winning formula Nintendo cooked up on Super NES. This is also the game which gave us Toad’s Turnpike.
Each iteration of the Mario Kart series adds a little something new, but following on from the flat circuits of Super Mario Kart, there’s arguably been nothing quite like this first jump to 3D-except-for-the-racers. Like any Mario Kart game, add three friends and you’ll have an epic time in no time.
11. Banjo-Tooie (N64)
Following the James Cameron school of thought for sequels, Banjo-Tooie takes a ‘more is more’ approach, with larger worlds, a host of minigames, an expanded moveset (including new first-person sections), Mumbo Jumbo as a playable character, bosses, and a multiplayer mode, plus the ability to separate the dynamic duo at certain times.
Although it arguably flirts with the sort of excesses that made Donkey Kong 64 feel grindy at times, it’s a big, chewy sequel, and one that holds up very well all these years later — perhaps thanks to a couple of decades’ worth of training in the huge and interconnected open worlds of other games.
Banjo-Tooie is filled to the brim with the series’ trademark brand of cheeky fairytale wonder and fans will find a whole lot to love.
