N64 “Must Have” Games?

obsidianspider

With October’s Game of the Month being Mario 64 it got me thinking about Nintendo 64, the system that I skipped and went right from SNES to the Game Cube. As I look into buying a N64 I am wondering what games are considered must haves. I look at the library, and example game play footage, and I’m really not drawn to the system in any way. As someone who really enjoys shmups, 2d platforming, puzzles, and JRPGs I’m not seeing much of any of that on the N64.

lilbud

@obsidianspider Here are some of the best:

Chameleon Twist 1&2

Ocarina of Time

Mischief Makers

ruckage

@obsidianspider
I personally don't think the majority of N64 games have aged particularly well. These are the ones that I could still enjoy playing:

Star Fox 64 - classic game, great replayability and the best game in the series.
Diddy kong racing - Mario kart clone but great fun and even throws in some light adventure elements.
Pilot wings 64 - fun arcadey flight sim. Had hours of fun on this and there are loads of hidden secrets.

svmariscal

As someone with no personal experience with any classic consoles (I just had a c64 when I was a kid), I found the Racketboy site very useful:

http://www.racketboy.com/

he has those articles named "The games that defined the <insert your console here>" where he lists all the essential titles for each console. Of course it's all his personal opinion but it's a good start.

ruckage

@svmariscal
Totally agree, that's a great site. I particularly like the 'Hidden Gems' articles as you can discover some really good but fairly obscure games.

RCP90totheface

Goldeneye obviously wrote the book on console multiplayer FPS, but I guess it doesnt stand up so well these days. The N64 only really had a handful of exclusive must-haves compared to say PS1 which had dozens...Blast Corps is a must though, a unique game and often overlooked.

space cadet

Cheesy but Quest 64

Jste84

Goldeneye
Perfect dark
Mario 64
Mario kart
Mario party
Zelda (both)
Blast corps
Banjo
Fzerox

There are more for sure. Always wanted to play donkey Kong 64, paper Mario and Yoshi's story.

Jste84

@rcp90totheface said in N64 “Must Have” Games?:

Goldeneye obviously wrote the book on console multiplayer FPS, but I guess it doesnt stand up so well these days. The N64 only really had a handful of exclusive must-haves compared to say PS1 which had dozens...Blast Corps is a must though, a unique game and often overlooked.

Blast corps is one of the most fun, easy to play games... The concept is simple yet genius.

Omnija

Kirby was actually really fun, you can combine powers.

Muntic0re

Mario kart
i can't wait for Middle-earth: Shadow of War

MRKane

I'm still waiting for the day when we can get Gauntlet Legends running on the Retropie, but incase you missed them I'd add:
-Micro Machines 64
-Chefs Love Shack
-Super Smash Bros
-Space Station Silicon Valley
-All the mods out there for the games already mentioned!

PatrickS333

mario kart,
mario 64,
star fox 64
banjo,
the two zeldas
wwe no mercy
mk4

cyberBoy90

I think for your preferred genres there are actually not that many
games for the n64... especially concerning 2d platforming and rpgs.
Maybe try Quest64/Holy Magic Century for rpgs, Yoshi's Story for platforming,
that Starfox game for shmups and Pokemon Puzzle League for, you know, puzzles.

Here are some games that I enjoy on the n64:

Jet Force Gemini - Great graphics and atmosphere (3rd person shooter)
Glover - Interesting control scheme (3d puzzzle platformer)
Hexen - Actually a good port and fun in splitscreen- coop (fps/hack&slash)
Doom64 - Completely new game, by some considered as the "real" Doom 3 (fps)

Capeman

I only have one N64 cartridge, and i highly recommend it!

diogosperb78

Mortal Kombat Trilogy. It's the only iteration that provides classic Sub-Zero in its complete form.

tyreal90

Mario Kart 64
Mario Party - if you hate your controllers
Perfect Dark - it's Golden Eye on steroids

I also really liked gauntlet but that could be a personal choice.

Echo Patrick on WWE no mercy. The wrestling games on N64 are actually really fun and I strongly dislike that stuff in real life.

hooperre

@tyreal90 said in N64 “Must Have” Games?:

Perfect Dark - it's Golden Eye on steroids

I've found Perfect Dark doesn't load with GLideN64 plugin on my Pi. Anyone else get it to run?

lilbud

@capeman I'm more envious of that jungle green N64