Get N or Get Out: Nintendo 64 (1996) Review and Retrospective

To be honest, after reviewing the SNES and Nintendo Switch last year I really wanted to do a review of all of Nintendo’s consoles. Aside for the aforementioned consoles I had also reviewed the Wii and Wii U, and had wanted to review the Nintendo 64 and GameCube as well but just never got around to it. I did review the NES Classic earlier this year, but I think it’s time I finally got around to reviewing Nintendo’s 64-bit fifth gen console, the Nintendo 64.

In the mid 90s, it’s safe to say video games were evolving. Going from the fourth gen to the fifth was quite a leap for gaming, with games jumping to the third dimension for the first time. In 1994, the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn were released in Japan and worldwide a year later.

This left Nintendo to make the jump, and in 1996 after several delays they released the Nintendo 64. This being a 64-bit system with contribution from Silicon Graphics, Inc., a hardware and software company that built computers used by movie studios for CGI animation. 

The Nintendo 64 was a powerful console for it’s time, having double the bits of the PS1 and Saturn with a 64-bit CPU from NEC and an SGI Reality Coprocessor. However, the system would be held back by the use of cartridges. The fifth generation was also the time when discs became mainstream for gaming allowing for games to become more complex and bigger on top of allowing for full motion video, so with the system’s use of cartridges I feel it had a hard time taking advantage of its hardware and would cause the system to lose third party support. Probably the biggest blow was Square, jumping over to the PlayStation for development of Final Fantasy VII.

The Nintendo 64 did see some success, however it would end up with sales less than half of that of the original PlayStation, ultimately being the first generation since entering the console industry where Nintendo would lose the console war to someone else.

In my personal experiences with the system, it was one that I was personally interested in since early on in my hobby of collecting retro systems. My grandmother had one that I played at her house, and it was a console that I had really thought about buying for myself. For a while, I considered it my second favorite console of all time, mostly due to growing up loving Super Mario 64. And it was one of the first retro systems I had ever gotten. Oddly enough, I specifically remember getting it only a day before the Wii U released. My brother had gone to his (now ex-)girlfriend’s house and came back to surprise me with the system. It turned out that my mom had actually talked to her mom about buying the system and all of their games and controllers for $100 total, and it essentially turned out to be an early Christmas gift for me that year. 

But while that was a good memory and all, I kind of feel like my love for the system has kind of… declined since first getting into it. A month after getting the N64 I ended up buying a used PSOne with Christmas money from my family, and while I don’t want to get into console wars or anything, I actually felt like I was having more fun with that than I was with the Nintendo 64. Something about the N64 just wasn’t really clicking with me as much as I expected it to and for a while it ended up being the system I really didn’t care much about collecting for. I actually ended up selling some of the games I got with the system, which… to be honest I really regret nowadays (especially because one of them was Majora’s Mask) but in a way it kind of shows that I was really having trouble getting into the system in general.

Course, I have collected more for the system after becoming an adult, but the question stands - do I feel the same way I did as a teenager or have I picked up more love for the system as time has gone on?

Since I already went over the system’s hardware and use of cartridges, I guess the best thing now would be to talk about the system’s controller. And as much as I hate to keep up on a somewhat negative trend… I’m just going to be perfectly honest, I have never liked the Nintendo 64 controller. I’m usually pretty easy going when it comes to controllers, but this has to be one exception. This is a part of the system that I see a lot of criticism towards albeit it’s usually the odd design, which… I mean yeah is weird on it’s own but that’s not really my main issue with it.

What I don’t like about it is the controller’s analog stick. To be fair it was the first analog thumb stick in existence so I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on it, but I feel like it’s one thing that really keeps me from wanting to go back to the system. The analog thumb stick is made out of a hard plastic that makes using it uncomfortable for me and I can never really get a grip on it with my thumb. And on top of that, a lot of the N64 analog sticks have the tendency to wear down and become loose over time. This was the case with both of my original N64 controllers and boy it makes for worse sensitivity and makes the issue with getting a grip on the controller somehow even worse. I eventually did get a new controller without this issue, so it’s slightly better but I still find myself having the issue with the stick’s hard plastic. There are newer third party controllers with a more standard design and an actually good analog stick so in retrospect I probably should’ve just gotten one of those, but… whatever.

There also isn’t any other models of the system to really talk about, but the Nintendo 64 was available in a bunch of different colors - being probably the first home console from Nintendo to have a bunch of different themes. You’ll mostly run into the standard black theme, but you do occasionally run into a different color - whether that be purple, orange, green, blue, and I do really like the variety that Nintendo had going on. My favorite though has to be the Pikachu themed system which actually has its own mold to include a plastic Pikachu on the front with his foot being the reset button and the power button being a Pokeball. It’s definitely a unique theme for a console and one I really like.

And then onto the games. The Nintendo 64 launched with two games - Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. I haven’t played the latter, and while this is kind of a dry spell as far as console launches go, Super Mario 64 was a revolutionary title and I really feel like it alone really helped the system. And it’s definitely one of if not the best game on the console, pretty much inventing 360 degree analog movement and setting a gold standard for not just 3D platformers but 3D games in general. I really liked the game as a kid albeit my first real experience with it was the DS remake. I will say that I do find myself preferring many of the later 3D titles - mostly the Galaxy games and Odyssey - as well as a few other 3D platformers from this era, but I still do like going back to Super Mario 64 from time to time and really respect its influence on the industry.

But of course, there were other 3D platformers on the system. I mean, you really can’t talk about the Nintendo 64 and not bring up Rare since they also had a lot of influence on the system. They did make more than platformers, but going off from Super Mario 64 that’s what I’m going to focus on for the time being.

Banjo-Kazooie was another one of the system’s best titles - creating its own spin on the Super Mario 64 formula, improving upon it in some areas and being one of the founders of the collectathon subgenre that a lot of platformers from this era were a part of. From what I’ve played this game I definitely think it’s a great one, although despite constantly intending to play through it. Maybe some day.

There’s also the game’s sequel, Banjo Tooie, and Rare’s other, more raunchy 3D platformer, Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  I haven’t played either of them, but as a fan of platformers they are a couple games I have wanted to get around to playing. I’ll probably end up playing them on Rare Replay for the Xbox One since copies of both games especially the latter tend to be on the expensive side ~~and also because I don’t like the N64’s controller~~, but still.

There’s also Donkey Kong 64, also developed by Rare like the Donkey Kong Country games, but I find this one to be one of their weaker titles. I don’t think it’s a bad game by any means, but it doesn’t quite feel as structurally solid as Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie and has the issue of requiring a lot of backtracking for certain collectibles due to the game’s implementation of different characters. Again… not a bad game, but probably Rare’s weakest major 3D platformer from this era.

But moving on from the realm platformers, the Nintendo 64 was also home to a game that has for as long as I can remember has been commonly considered the best game of all time. That game being of course…

Superman 64.

Okay jokes aside I’m actually talking about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This was of course the LoZ series’ transition to 3D and with all the acclaim and praise it got it would be an understatement to say that Nintendo knocked it out of the park with the game.

….but unfortunately this is where I have to say that this game has never really been one of my favorites.

To be fair I have never really been that into the Zelda series, kind of just failed to get into it no matter how many times I’ve tried, but I do enjoy a Zelda game from time to time, and this one I actually did play a lot of through its 3DS port. And… it’s a good game, I don’t dislike it or anything, but it’s not just one that I ever really “loved” to the extent that a lot of critics and fans have. I did enjoy my time with it, don’t get me wrong there, but it’s not really a game I would personally consider to be among the best of all time or at least one of my personal favorites.

But that wasn’t the only Zelda game on the console. There was also Majora’s Mask, another one of the fan favorites in the series… and is again a game I don’t really love. Again, I don’t really consider myself a Zelda fan and could never get into the series, but it feels like this game combines my issues that prevent me from getting into the series in general with a time limit and a clunky save system. There are fans of this game and I definitely respect that, but like Ocarina of Time it was never really one of my favorites.

The Star Fox series would also make it onto the Nintendo 64 with… well, Star Fox 64. This is a game that I would consider to be among the best on the console and probably the best game in the series. I will say that I do have a slight preference towards it’s SNES counterpart, mostly just because of the charm of its polygon graphics and utilization of the Super FX chip, yet I still believe 64 is the better game. The game itself is a reimagining of the first game with new features and just feels more refined overall. It also helped lead to the creation of the “rumble” feature due to coming bundled in with the N64’s Rumble Pak so there’s that too.

Kirby also exists on the system in the form of Kirby 64. Haven’t played it personally, Kirby’s always been a series I’ve wanted to get into but never really got around to doing so, but it does seem like a solid game in the series.

But let’s go back to Mario for a second. The Nintendo 64 had a lot of spinoff games for the series, some even being introduced, so going through some of those…

Mario Kart 64, the sequel to Super Mario Kart. I feel that Mario Kart 64 is probably one of the more iconic games in the series for a lot of people and was what helped make the Mario Kart miniseries popular. To this day, I still occasionally see this considered to be the best Mario Kart game in the series… and honestly I don’t really get it. Okay yeah, it did revolutionize multiplayer in the Mario Kart series and from what I can tell brought the series more into the mainstream… but it’s just not a game that I feel has held up that well. The game has a pretty bad issue with rubber banding that makes the AI feel cheap and unbalanced especially when playing above 50cc and the controls also have always felt too slippery for my liking, with the drift feeling especially loose and wonky to me. It does have some great track but I honestly just find them more fun to play in other games where the tracks are remixed. I’ve also heard this game is better enjoyed through multiplayer but after playing multiplayer a couple times I honestly don’t really see much of a reason to go back to this game when it’s sequels give pretty much the same experience. Of course, if others like this game that’s perfectly fine but I’ve always looked at it as one of the weaker Mario Kart games.

But as far as Mario spinoffs on the system go, a few of them got their start on the system. One of which is Mario Party, which since this game has become one series that is commonplace on Nintendo systems and the N64 and GameCube games are generally considered to be the best ones. Personally I’ve never really been into the Mario Party games, only one I really played growing up was the DS game, but it got it’s start on the Nintendo 64 and the first three entries are available for the system so it’s worth mentioning. I have heard that the original Mario Party game caused people to get people get blisters due to mini games requiring rapid movement of the analog stick (and honestly I don’t doubt it considering how the N64’s analog stick is) and Nintendo had to send out gloves to compensate so I would probably just recommend the second and third games out of the N64 titles.

Mario Golf also started on the system, don’t really care about that game that much, but there was also Mario Tennis, which I guess technically got started on the Virtual Boy but of course the N64 game is probably the more iconic title because no one wanted to get migraines from playing Virtual Boy. I don’t really have much to say about these games, but they did start on the system and pretty much started the trend of Mario sports games.

But out of all the Mario spin offs on the system, the most well loved probably has to be Paper Mario, one of the most loved Mario RPGs along with its sequel for the GameCube. I haven’t played much of it, but considering it’s cult following I’m sure it’s a great title. Just wish Sticker Star and Color Splash weren’t underwhelming but hopefully the Origami King will be an improvement.

Diddy Kong Racing is another great game for the system and definitely a really good kart racer, arguably the best on the system. I mean, the game had an entire story mode and features such as different vehicles and whatnot. I’m not sure how it compares to Mario Kart 64 multiplayer wise but in terms of being a great single player experience I definitely feel like it’s a much better game in comparison. Still not as good as Crash Team Racing, but still pretty damn good.

Super Smash Bros also got its start on the Nintendo 64, although after playing its sequels I find it kind of weak. There’s nothing bad about it on it’s own but it generally just feels slower and clunkier than the newer games to me.

Some other games worth mentioning for the console include of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark, created by Rare and often credited for really revolutionizing console FPS games, as well as Glover (which is also on the PS1 but is better on the 64), BattleTanx (which I haven’t played but know has one of the best gaming commercials of all time), the Pokemon Stadium games, Doom 64, Ogre Battle, F-Zero X and the Turok games. All games I haven’t really played much of, but heard good things about. Also Mundial Ronaldinho Soccer 64.

So the Nintendo 64’s library, for what games were there, were generally pretty good, I won’t deny that. It does have it’s own share of great titles, some being revolutionary and still well loved today. 

That said, however… I’ve always found the N64’s library kind of weak when compared to other Nintendo consoles and its main competition at the time PlayStation 1. And while I recognize some of the Nintendo 64’s best games I really can’t say I’ve changed much in that regard. One thing I’ve noticed since the start is that a lot of the Nintendo 64’s best titles were either made by Nintendo themselves, Rare or any of Nintendo’s first or second party companies. I guess you could say that about the Wii U, which to be fair I considered my second favorite console of all time, but I feel like with that the games that were on the Wii U just tended to appeal to be more and even then I also feel like I had the Virtual Console, Wii backwards compatibility and ports of indie games to fall back on.

I feel like third party support is oddly enough really dry on the system and even most of the third party games that do exist play better on the original PlayStation, which is odd considering that it’s technically a weaker system. Only third party multiplatform games I really feel is better on the N64 is Glover and Rayman 2 (the latter being better on the Dreamcast and PC regardless) but outside of that I often just get the feeling that while the N64 did have technically better graphics it lacked the full motion video and had worse sound quality that PS1 equivalents had. And I often find myself debating the factor of graphics since a lot of N64 games have issues with low frame rates and blurry textures. I’ve always just gotten the impression that games on the N64 did look better when developers actually took advantage of the hardware, but when they didn’t, games just ended up turning out worse on the system. Many people will point to Resident Evil 2 as an impressive port, but I feel that was the exception, not the rule.

And I think because of the PlayStation’s better third party support it just had more variety. I feel like it had a lot more for everyone. As a fan of platformers, Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie are good games no doubt, but the PlayStation had three Crash Bandicoot games, three Spyro the Dragon games, Croc, Klonoa, Symphony of the Night, Oddworld, Tomba and the list just goes on. Hell, outside of Paper Mario and Ogre Battle 64, RPGs are almost entirely non-exist at on the system, a genre that practically thrived on the original PlayStation as well as the Nintendo 64’s predecessor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, for that matter.

Honestly, the more I look back on the system, I feel like the system’s use of cartridges was a real bottleneck to the console. I mean, obviously third party support wasn’t exactly great as I mentioned, and with games becoming more complex around this time it is safe to say that the limited amount of space on the system’s cartridges pushed people away and didn’t give developers the ability to really do a lot with their games. But even with that aside, I kind of get the impression that even the games on the system really suffered from the use of cartridges. Even a lot of the exclusives that were there kind of felt like they didn’t truly take advantage of the console’s hardware and in some ways felt like they could have been more if they weren’t limited by the use of cartridges. Definitely feels like it was a bigger issue than some people even realize. Of course, Nintendo did try to compensate for this with the N64 DD, but that was delayed, only released in Japan and ultimately flopped after a little over a year of being on the market. 

Now, from everything I’ve said, it may seem that I dislike the Nintendo 64. But, well… I don’t. Despite all my issues with it, I still can’t deny that I’ve had a lot of fun with the system, and there’s definitely games on it that I do really enjoy - namely Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Diddy Kong Racing and Star Fox 64. Overall, I still feel like I’ve had good times with the console, just like I’ve had good times with other consoles I own.

That said, I also have to say that the Nintendo 64 isn’t exactly one of my favorite consoles. I’ve always felt it had its share of issues that really keep me from calling it one of the greatest systems of all time and I feel like there were better consoles on all sides of the system. Both the system’s predecessor, the SNES, and its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, just felt like they had more overall variety and in my experiences were just more fun to play. The system’s successor, the GameCube wasn’t exactly perfect either but I can still say that it’s best games just stood out to me more than my favorite games on the 64, and also had more variety due to slightly better third party support and Nintendo pretty much covering all of their major franchises during that era. Hell, while I can’t definitively say the Saturn was better since I never owned one, I can at least say I found that system more interesting as far as it’s game library goes when looking at it from afar. I feel like the system in general was where a lot of Nintendo’s biggest issues started that would last through the Wii U era.

But, again, I do want to make it clear that I don’t dislike the Nintendo 64. Again, I still do really like some of its games and I respect that, for the time, it was definitely an innovative and revolutionary console that really helped to define the standard for 3D games. And this is especially the case with Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, two games that helped define 3D game mechanics. And considering all that, and the fun I’ve had with the console, I really can’t say that I don’t like the Nintendo 64 or anything. The system today has its fans, and while it may not be my personal favorite, I can definitely respect those fans and understand their love for the system - while it doesn’t have the biggest game library, it still had some pretty damn great and classic games. So, hey, it may be a system I have issues with, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from enjoying the system and it’s games.

But do I recommend the system for newcomers? Well, that’s a maybe. Even putting my criticisms of the system aside, the Nintendo 64 is a pretty expensive system to collect for nowadays. There are some games you can still find for pretty cheap, but once you get into any of the commonly cited greats for the console… you can expect to pay a somewhat hefty price for those. Even Super Mario 64, the best selling and most recognizable game on the console, goes for around $30-$40. If you have enough money and want to start collecting, go right ahead, but if you don’t have that kind of money… well, you can play a selection of Nintendo 64 games on the Wii U virtual console if you own one, and there are ports of N64 games that exist on the DS and 3DS. One problem is that in the early 2000’s Microsoft bought Rare so even if you have a DS, 3DS and/or Wii U you still can’t play games like Banjo or Conker. But Conker’s Bad Fur Day was remade for the original Xbox as Live and Reloaded, and both Banjo games have been remastered for the Xbox 360 and on top of that you can play all of those on the Xbox One with Rare Replay. If you don’t have any of those consoles though… I wouldn’t really blame you for sticking to emulation.