Note from racketboy: A special thanks goes out to Ack from this roundup of the N64 fighting library.  You may remember his journey through the SNES fighting collection (both the good and the ugly) in addition to a number of other wonderful contributions.  I hope you enjoy this guide!

When people think of the Nintendo 64, fighting games are never the first thing to come to mind.  In fact, they never really come up at all.  After all, the two big publishers of fighters, Capcom and SNK don’t lend any of the their fighting properties to the N64.  In the entire N64 library, fewer than 25 titles are really fighters, and the quality of many of them is generally poor.  Still, there are a handful worth playing (and maybe a few more if you just love exploring the genre).  Here’s a look at the various fighting games on the Nintendo 64, with my personal thoughts.  Nothing fancy, just a quick rundown.

Super Smash Bros.

No conversation about fighters on the Nintendo 64 could come without this gem, easily one of the defining games of the console.   In typical Nintendo fashion, Super Smash Bros. takes a genre that typically scared off more casual gamers and turned it into something that because a favorite in dorm rooms and parties for gamers of all experience levels.

Players select leading characters from Nintendo’s biggest properties, characters like Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, and Pikachu, and then have them duke it out for dominance over the various themed stages.  Instead of health bars, damage adds to a percentage at the bottom, with the higher the number the farther a character will fly when hit.

Ultimately the goal is to knock all other characters off the stage, though this formula can be modified via multiple modes and gameplay options.  In fact, if you’ve never partaken of the four-player mayhem in this classic title, go buy it.  Go buy it now.
Find Super Smash Bros. on eBay
Find Super Smash Bros. on Amazon.com

Killer Instinct Gold

Ok, so this title isn’t perfect, and purists of the KI fighting property will argue for hours about how this does not replace KI2 in the arcades since FMV sequences and some frames of animation were removed due to hardware limitations.  Still, it is the only way to play Killer Instinct 2 on a home console without emulation, and it did see some improvements over the arcade.

Stages are fully 3D rendered, with zooming camera, and with much more in the way of options, including Team Battle.  Multiple training modes were also put in to help teach the KI system.  While it’s not my favorite Killer Instinct due to the removal of a certain glowing inmate by a boxer who shall remain nameless, it’s worth a look if you can find it.  Oh, and on a side note, raise the game speed to the highest setting, and KI Gold becomes even more intense.
Find Killer Instinct Gold on eBay
Find Killer Instinct Gold on Amazon.com

Flying Dragon

It’s unfortunate that this title is often overlooked as it’s actually two fighting games packed onto one cartridge with more options than you can shake a stick at.  The first is a normal 3D fighter, reminiscent of Virtua Fighter, though for kicks you can turn on a 2D mode which does effect dodging and various moves.  The other, and arguably better, mode is a super deformed version with RPG elements, including acquiring items to make the character more powerful in combat.  Characters appear in both modes.

The title is generally considered one of the best N64 fighters to make the American market.  The Japan-only sequel, S.D. Hiryu no Ken Densetsu, apparently featured a refined version of the SD segment with more characters, items, and game modes, though good luck finding it for sale.  I’d say this is definitely worth owning by any fighter fans who want something for their 64.
Find Flying Dragon on eBay
Find Flying Dragon on Amazon.com

Custom Robo

This is more a mecha RPG with a combat system that reminds me of a colorful Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.  than a fighting game, but fans of the genre might be interested.  Fights are composed in arenas with pre-constructed characters, though storyline is handled in more the standard RPG fare.  Players acquire new equipment to load out their fighters, enabling varying attack means and styles.

A particular favorite of mine is to use rapid fire machine guns since enemies can be knocked into combos fairly easily, though all manner of mayhem from big bombs to lighting fast bum rushes are accessible.  Unfortunately both it and it’s sequel, Custom Robo v2, were Japan only.  I really liked them, I just wish I spoke Japanese.
Find Custom Robo on eBay

Rakuga Kids

The plot of this game basically boils down to a bunch of kids drawing doodles that battle it out with each other in a six-button layout.  It’s colorful, kiddie, and unfortunately never saw release in America, though Europe was lucky enough to get this game.  The cast list is small at seven(nine counting the two bosses), though incredibly diverse: everything from a super hero to an astronaut with a ray gun to a robot to a bear tank.  Yes, you read that right, a bear tank.

The game’s not the deepest, and it’s charming demeanor might not endear it to the crowd of gamers that play only M-rated games, but it’s hard not to enjoy it.  It does seem a bit choppy visually and it really hasn’t aged well, but give it a chance and you might find yourself liking it.
Find Rakuga Kids on eBay

Mortal Kombat 4

Before we begin, I suppose I should note that this is personally my least favorite of all the Mortal Kombat games, 2D or 3D.  That said, there are a lot of things that Mortal Kombat 4 did right.  First, it included Goro, as did all the ports of the game.  Second, it brought us a new stage and extra costumes.  And third, since it could use FMV for the intro, bios, and endings, it used the in-game engine to do it.

The audio is great, using a lot of bass, and al speech is digitized, though it is unfortunately only in mono.  The lighting is excellent, the graphics are well designed, and the game keeps up a consistently high framerate.  Control is well implemented, definitely a step up from the test case War Gods, though it still feels like a 2D Mortal Kombat in 3D.  Still, a valid title, worth owning by any MK fans who have a Nintendo 64.
Find Mortal Kombat 4 on eBay
Find Mortal Kombat 4 on Amazon.com

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Often overshadowed by its superior PlayStation, Saturn, and PC ports, Mortal Kombat Trilogy still offers some interesting surprises on its Nintendo 64 version.  Motaro and Shao Kahn were given fatalities.  Chameleon was replaced by a female counterpart, Khameleon, who gets a full storyline.  The “Ultimate Kombat Kode” was included.  A new stage was added, as well as tweaks to older stages.  And most importantly, three on three battles were included, allowing players to use three characters each, one after the other, to beat the snot out of each other.

Still, cartridge size did require that the classic versions of many characters had to be left out.  Frames of animation were cut so character movement isn’t fluid, and boss characters are only available through cheat codes.  Also, the two Sub Zeros are combined and Goro and Kintaro were cut.  And audio was only used from Mortal Kombat 3 and is in horrendous quality in comparison to other ports, though all the ending themes are intact.  Ultimately, I’d say it’s best to pass this version up for the CD-based ports.
Find Mortal Kombat Trilogy on eBay
Find Mortal Kombat Trilogy on Amazon.com

Fighter’s Destiny

In what I consider one of the more interesting takes on the genre, Fighter’s Destiny and its sequel, Fighter’s Destiny 2, are point-fighting games.  Ultimately the point is to win battles by earning the required amount of points to move on, by doing such things as pummeling your opponent, knocking them to the ground, ringing them out, or various other techniques.  In this sense it is more like the sport-martial arts systems that have had heavy influence in the genre over the years.

Unfortunately it’s not the most entertaining, as combat is a bit stop-and-go, generally in very short bursts with a short break as points are totaled after a specific move is executed, again just like point-based martial arts tournaments.  The game’s also visually bland, with the actual arena never changing.
Find Fighters Destiny on eBay
Find Fighters Destiny on Amazon.com

Clayfighter 63 1/3

The continuation of the ClayFighter series brings many new characters, 3D environments, another dose of bizarre and irreverent humor, and a strange mix of styles, including a Killer Instinct Gold-esque combo system and Street Fighter style special moves, parries, and super move bars.  Arenas are big, multi-room affairs, giving plenty of space for the twelve fighters to duke it out.

All the character moves are done with claymation, which is unique but leaves characters seeming stiff.  Perhaps one of the biggest pluses to the game is that both Earthworm Jim and Boogerman are playable characters.  The rarer and more expensive Blockbuster exclusive, ClayFighter 63 1/3: Sculptor’s Cut, adds new fighters but removes the combo system and some super and special moves.  It would be the last release in the ClayFighter series.  If you’re a CF fan, they’re worth looking into.
Find Clayfighter 63 1/3 on eBay
Find Clayfighter 63 1/3 on Amazon.com

Super Robot Spirits

This title’s not without its problems, but still a very cool idea.  Super Robot Spirits is a Japanese-only 3D fighting game offshoot of the Super Robot Wars series, which incorporates many of the more popular mecha anime series in its universe.  Series with characters in SRS include Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Aura Battler Dunbine, Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God, and more.  It features combat both on ground and in the air, unblockable super moves, and some great audio and sound work, though graphically it’s somewhat dull and combat is a bit slow.

Super Robot Spirits also holds the distinction of being one of the worst selling N64 games in Japan, with fewer than 10,000 units sold.  While it’s a bit on the mediocre side, N64 fans don’t have a lot to choose from, and fans of the various series that are represented will probably get a kick out of it.
Find Super Robot Spirits on eBay

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.

Some consider the Nintendo 64 version superior to the PlayStation in this fully 3D futuristic game of cyborg mayhem.  Above all else, it does earn its Mature rating.  Combat takes place not just on the ground in a circular arena, but also in the air, from up close to long range.  Any of the eight main characters and the two boss characters(one of which is playable) can be dismembered or outright killed.

Dismemberment plays heavily into the control system, as buttons correspond to maneuvers with various limbs.  Unfortunately, it is this control scheme that makes or breaks the game, and opinions on it are a very mixed bag.  I found it enjoyable, but not so much that I keep returning to it.
Find Bio FREAKS on eBay
Find Bio FREAKS on Amazon.com

Xena: Warrior Princess – Talisman Of Fate

Published by Titus, the same company that brought us Superman 64, this Xena title isn’t great but surprisingly gets enough things right that it’s worth noticing.  First, it allows the player to chose from a decent handful of characters from the show, including Joxer(Ted Raimi) and Autolycus(Bruce Campbell).  Each character features unique attacks and special moves, and the game allows four player combat.

Unfortunately it doesn’t have much depth to the combat, and I did have some problems with targeting different opponents.  Graphically it’s mediocre, though sound clips are included from the show and alternate costumes are available.  It does experience some balance issues as well.  Still, I enjoyed it.  It’s the kind of thing I’d play for laughs with a few friends.
Find Xena: Warrior Princess on eBay
Find Xena: Warrior Princess on Amazon

Tom And Jerry: Fists Of Furry

This is a Power Stone clone, through and through, though it does its absolute best to stick to the sense of humor of its namesake.  Arenas are settings from the animated series, with even the load screens looking like the cartoon title screen.  Players must grab various spawning objects such as recliners or cookie jars and hurl them, go man to man with fisticuffs, or use various stage traps to deal damage to their opponents before the timer runs out.  Players only start with Tom and Jerry selectable, though by playing through the game, more cartoon characters are unlocked.

Unfortunately, the amount of health players possess often makes that the only way to win a match.  There really isn’t much to the game, and it is seriously hindered by only allowing two player support, though it is entertaining for a short while.  This is perhaps the greatest problem with the title, as four player battles would have been epic.
Find Tom and Jerry: Fists of Furry on eBay
Find Tom and Jerry: Fists of Furry on Amazon

Mace: The Dark Age

At the time of its release, it was incredible looking, featuring interesting character designs, nice stage detail, and water effects that were realistic for the time.  The music fits the theme, and Midway was even good enough to include options to let us listen to it;  I wish we could still get that in games.  A nice practice mode was included, and the game keeps a large cast.

The secret characters also prove the creators had a sense of humor.  Unfortunately there are some issues with framerates and poor animations, and the controls don’t feel so great.  Also, the game suffers slowdown problems.  I really want to like Mace, but with all its problems I just can’t bring myself to do it.  Still, it does allow me to play as a chicken.
Find Mace: The Dark Age on eBay
Find Mace: The Dark Age on Amazon

Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals

This was the second Blockbuster exclusive fighting game for the Nintendo 64.  It featured a slightly different cast of characters than the mass market PlayStation release of the same game, as well as a sizable selection of mini games and individual endings for each character.  The game also features voice work from the Beast Wars television show, though it isn’t in the best quality and the music is pretty awful.  Graphically, it’s got a few little touches, but it’s nothing much to look at.  If nothing else, they could have gotten size correct.  Now everybody’s the same height.  Waspinator is the same size as Rattrap, who is the same size as Tarantulas.  But at least they’re all shiny.

The game also suffers from shoddy hit detection, tracking shots that don’t always connect, and the dreaded unblockable attack.  But you can transform between Beast Mode, Robot Mode, and Vehicle Mode.  There are better games out there, though fans of the series may enjoy it.  Unfortunately it’s somewhat rare due to its exclusivity and one of the most expensive fighters on the console.  Also, if you manage to pick up a Japanese version of the game, you can use the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak to unlock information in the Japan-only GameBoy Color game, Ketō Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Senshi Saikyō Ketteisen.
Find Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals on eBay
Find Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals on Amazon

Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction

This title was one of the last to ever be officially released on the Nintendo 64.  It wasn’t worth the wait.  It does include the flagship characters of the series as well as a horde of enemies, though much of the exuberance is gone.  First off, the game operates like a bad version of Power Stone.  While it’s not the only clone of that game, it does feature shoddy collision detection, poor controls, and a camera that doesn’t understand how to properly zoom.  This is especially hazardous when considering the levels are irregularly designed, leading players to become trapped or even not shown.  But even when the camera does catch the action, poor particle effects can obscure the play field.

The voice acting is limited to pained outbursts, and not by the actual voice actors, and the one song is the Powerpuff Girls theme.  It’s not so bad at first, but after ten minutes, your ears will be bleeding.  Still, the 3D intro is pretty cool.  I’d avoid this game and watch the intro on YouTube.
Find Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction on eBay
Find Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction on Amazon

Dark Rift

This is the sequel to Criticom, and one of the first fighting games on the Nintendo 64.  It’s also notable as the first game on the Nintendo 64 to hit 60 frames per second.  Unfortunately that’s where the good parts end.  On its release, Dark Rift was generally slammed for poor gameplay, with its graphics being the high point.  And those graphics really haven’t aged well.

Factor in that some model televisions are incapable of rendering the game in color(I wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t happened on one of mine), and this game doesn’t seem worth it.  Still, it’s ok for a short amount of time, and if nothing else the character design is on the inventive side.  The PlayStation-only Cardinal Syn is the conclusion to the trilogy.
Find Dark Rift on eBay
Find Dark Rift on Amazon

G.A.S.P.!! Fighters’ Nextream (Gasp)(Deadly Arts)

G.A.S.P.!!  Fighters’ NEXTream, sometimes known as GASP in Europe and Deadly Arts in the United States, has some nice stuff going for it.  There are multiple unlockable characters, the game featured a character creation system that could be saved over to the Nintendo 64’s Memory Pak, and the music is passable.  It’s too bad the system was terrible and the controls were garbage.  Plus, the game just isn’t that difficult and just doesn’t entertain.

To add to the problems, character design and stage design lack anything to set the game above the pack.  This is a case of a good company, Konami, just making a bad game.  This is one to generally avoid.
Find GASP Fighters Nextream on eBay

War Gods

Basically, if you took a 2D Mortal Kombat, put it directly into 3D, removed all of the characters and plot and threw in a bizarre story about ten people finding magic stones.  And while some of the characters are reasonably based on mythic immortals, such as Anubis or a Valkyrie and gladiator, or an Aztec priest or a Pagan witch, there are a few that will raise an eyebrow, such as the cyborg.

And then there’s my favorite description ever, from Wikipedia: “Warhead (Radioactive American soldier with missiles).”  I have no words for that. This game was literally Midway testing a 3D gameplay engine for Mortal Kombat 4, and attempting to make some money in the meantime.  Seriously, don’t bother.
Find War Gods on eBay
Find War Gods on Amazon

Dual Heroes

Duel Heroes has the express honor of having once been voted the worst video game in the world by the readers of Nintendo Gamer magazine in Australia.  It’s not exactly highly considered in any other country, either.  Fights generally end with you mashing only one button, either punch or kick over and over again as the shoddy AI stands there and takes it.  Still, there are some interesting ideas, such as the “gamer” selection.  The player must choose an opponent “gamer” who then picks one of the eight playable characters to use against you.

All of the “gamers” have different speeds and preferred tactics, which could have seriously helped the game if the system weren’t garbage already.  There’s also Robot Mode, which enables you to train the AI by showing it various techniques and combinations, so it will use them against other opponents.  Oh, and it doesn’t help that the graphics make me want to stab out my eyes with a fork.
Find Dual Heroes on eBay
Find Dual Heroes on Amazon

Summary

So there you have it folks.  All of the fighters on the console, not including sports titles like wrestling or boxing titles.  As you can see, the console does feature the genre, though quality isn’t always their strongest suit.  But if you’re sitting there on a rainy day, hankering for both a fighter and a 64 game, you do have a few options.  And yes, I do own most of these, though not all…yet.

Nintendo took their sweet time in bringing a console to match the Saturn, Playstation and the other 3D “powerhouses” that were popping up in the console market.    And of course, back in the later half of the 1990’s many of us made fun of Nintendo as they stuck with the cartridge format instead of joining in on the CD-ROM bandwagon and the multimedia revolution that came with it.  However, for all it’s limitations, it is interesting to see some of the things that were capable on the N64 and its aging format.   There are also a number of great games that only Nintendo and Rareware could provide that you just won’t find anywhere else.

Historical Impact

• The N64 was Nintendo’s third home console. It was sold between 1996 and 2001, when the GameCube was released in Japan.
• Codenamed “Project Reality, and originally titled the Nintendo Ultra Famicom, it changed its name twice before release. First to the Ultra 64, then, late in development, to simply the Nintendo 64. (The Ultra 64 logo can still be seen in the start up screen of Crusin’ USA)  You can also see some prototype images of the Ultra 64 console and controllers.
• It was Nintendo’s last home console to feature cartridges as its main method of storage, before switching to Mini DVDs for the GC.
• The console was significant in being the first true 64-bit home console to be released. (The Atari Jaguar claimed to be 64-bit, though the legitimacy of this claim is still being debated today)
• The N64 was one of the first consoles to be specifically made to render 3D polygons, the launch title Super Mario 64 was one of the first 3D platformers, and is still one of the most successful to date.
• The three pronged controller design was revolutionary in that it featured a fully analogue control stick. This was deemed necessary by Shigeru Miyamoto to give precise control over the movement of characters in a 3D world. Again, debate continues on which came 1st, the Saturn 3D controller or the N64 controller, although it is known that both the Atari 5200 and Vectrex both had full analogue controllers well before either the Saturn or N64.
• The N64 also incorporated 4 controller ports on the front of the console, allowing 4 players to take part in multiplayer games.
• The console was updated with Apple iMac inspired see through colored plastic named the “Funtastic Series” in 2000.
• Nintendo came in second place in the “console race” of the 5th generation, being beaten by Sony’s massively popular Playstation, but outselling the Sega Saturn by a considerable margin.
• The N64’s controller also featured a slot on the back where a memory card, or, for the first time, a rumble pack could be placed.
• The N64 has the honor of being one of the only consoles to host one of the greatest games of all-time (Legend of Zelda: OoT), as well as one of the worst of all-time (Superman 64)

Strengths

• The N64 was the power house of the 5th generation. With its 64-bit processor and fast loading cartridge system, it was able to display smooth textures very quickly.
• The quality of in-house and 2nd party games was top notch. Many of the internet’s “Best Games Ever” lists are populated by classics from the system. Zelda OOT, Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye to name a few. For more see The Best N64 Games The Still Matter Today
• The controller of the N64 was well suited to the 3D games that dominated the late 90s. Whereas both the Saturn and Playstation had to improve on their initial designs, the N64’s controller was designed with that type of gaming in mind.
• The cartridge design meant that Nintendo had very little issues with piracy, compared to its CD based competitors. It also made for very durable games, which last much longer than CD counterparts.
• In the later years of the consoles life span, a ram upgrade was developed to increase the capabilities of the console, though it only worked in some games. The games that supported it were noticeably improved, and this helped to keep the console fresh as it started to age.

Weaknesses

• The main weakness of the N64 was its cartridge based games. The maximum amount of data that could be stored was 64MB, compared to the 700MB of CD based systems.
• Being limited to cartridges meant that the long CGI movies, high quality sound and even high resolution textures were not possible on the N64. This problem was helped by better compression techniques later in the consoles life, but compared to the Playstation, it was very underwhelming.
• The overall game library was relatively small at about 300 in North America and 400 in Japan.
• The N64’s selection of quality 2D games is extremely limited
• Very few JRPGs and traditional fighters were released for the console. Square Enix had been on board to continue their Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy VII on the N64, but left for Sony mainly due to their higher capacity CD based system (and also probably because of a large sum of money). If FF VII had been released on the N64, the story of would be very different.
• The three pronged controller was confusing for new users to understand. It was designed like that in case Nintendo’s bet on 3D gaming failed, and they needed a way to resort to a more traditional form of 2D control. Unfortunately, this meant that new users often didn’t know how to hold the controller, putting them off before they had even started.
• Because of the high cost of cartridge development, several companies were unwilling to release their games on the N64. This meant that Nintendo relied more on the 1st and 2nd party titles, rather than the 3rd party titles that populated the Playstation.
• The N64 had the weakest GPU of the generation, but had an edge in graphics thanks to its high CPU speed.
• It also has one of the worst shaped cartridge designs for organization.  The carts feature a curved top with no end label.  This leads to a lot of digging around to find the game you are looking for unless you store them all in the fragile cardboard boxes.

Game Library

• The Best N64 Games The Still Matter Today – Since the N64 had such a focus on 3D gaming when the technology was still in its infancy, the games that still hold up especially well today are not necessarily the same ones that garnered all the initial attention for the N64.
• The Cheapest N64 Games Worth Your Time – If you want to build up a quality N64 library with the least amount of cash, check out this guide.
• The Best Undiscovered N64 Games – There are plenty of good N64 games that most people haven’t tried yet.  Check these games out to broaden your horizons.
• The Rarest & Most Valuable N64 Games – To make your N64 collection the most respected in the world, you need to survey the possibilities here.
• Goldeneye 007: 10 Years Later – Goldeneye is still one of the most treasured N64 game.  Fastbilly1 takes a fresh look at the classic console FPS and sees how it holds up a decade after its release

Importing

• Because of the cartridge design, importing N64 games requires removing the dust cover mechanism from your machine.  You’ll just have to keep a cartridge in there a lot of the time to keep dust out of the cart slot.
• There are adapters that allow most games to be played on NTSC and PAL systems, but there are several games that do not work with these adapters, and often these are the most desirable games.

System Add-Ons

64DD A little known disk drive system that was released in very small numbers in Japan in 1999. The unit plugs into the bottom of the N64 console and allows large magnetic disks, similar to Zip Drives, to be used. The 64DD also allowed users to access the internet, through Nintendo’s RANDnet system, and had a fully functioning keyboard and mouse designed for it. It was a commercial failure, mainly due to Nintendo’s reluctance to release it after such long delays (it was announced in 1995), and therefore it’s lack of support. Only 9 games were made for the system, with many of the planned titles being released as standard N64 cartridges.

Accessories

• Controllers – This may be an obvious accessory, but considering how many games take advantage of four players, you should seriously consider stocking up on them.
• The Controller Pak: Nintendo’s version of the memory card, it plugged straight into the controller in a port on the back. The official Nintendo card is 256KB, split up into 123 “pages”. Although most games featured in cart saves, some games or game features (such as the ghosts in Mario Kart 64) required more data to be saved than the cart could hold. 3rd party cards could be hold much more data, and often came with a rumble motor as well. However, their quality and reliability vary greatly.
• The Rumble Pak: Released in April 1997 with Star Fox 64, the Rumble Pak used a small motor to give vibrating feedback of what was happening within the game. It used 2 AAA batteries to power the motor and clipped into the same slot used by the memory card in the back of the controller, meaning that both could not be used at the same time.
• Transfer Pak: Another device that plugged into the back of the N64 controller, the Transfer Pak allowed Gameboy games to be plugged into the N64. This was mainly used in the Pokémon Stadium games, where the players Pokémon from his Gameboy game could be transferred over to battle within the game. The device could not be used to play all Gameboy games on the television, only the Pokémon games worked when used in conjunction with Pokémon Stadium. Another use of the transfer pack that was removed before its release was the ability to take pictures of you face with the Gameboy Camera and superimpose them onto characters in Perfect Dark. However, this was canned as it was thought too violent to kill digital representations of real people.
• The Expansion Pak: Originally developed to allow the 64DD to work with the N64, the Expansion Pak plugged into the expansion port on the front of the console, replacing the Jumper Pak that was in there. It expanded the internal RAM of the N64 from 4MB to 8MB, allowing more graphically complex games to be developed for the system. A lot of games support the Expansion Pak and have “Hi-Res” modes when it is inserted. However, there are a few games, such as Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Perfect Dark, that require the Expansion Pak to be fully playable (Perfect Dark only allows a stripped down multiplayer game to be played without the Pak, whereas Majora’s Mask shows an error on booting).
• VRU (Voice Recognition Unit): Used in only two games, Hey You Pikachu! and Densha De Go 64 (a Japanese train simulator), this giant yellow microphone plugs into the back of the controller, with a wire attaching it to the 4th player controller port, and allows you to communicate with the action onscreen via verbal commands. In Hey You Pikachu! it is a vital part of the game and is used to converse with Pikachu, giving him commands and answering simple questions. In Densha De Go 64, you use it to announce the station names to your passengers, although this is an optional part of the game.
• Video Cables – The N64 supports RF cable, Composite/RCA, and S-Video

Emulation

• Emulation of the N64 is very advanced on PCs. There are really two options that both work 100% for most games: Project 64 and 1964. It is mostly down to personal preference which one you choose, although some games work better on one than the other.
• On the PC, you can also use texture packs with the emulator to make the games look even better than the real thing.
• For Mac OSX, racketboy forum member, Niode said he tried sixty force around v0.5 and it wasn’t brilliant. It was fast on his Macbook Pro with a Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz. Shadows and skyboxes were glitchy. Quite a few games I tried had lots of graphical glitches. Since we are still only on 0.8, he doesn’t expect it to be much better.
• One of the trickiest aspects of N64 emulation is the controller.  Since most USB controllers are nothing like an N64 controller, you’ll probably want to find a USB adapter for the real thing.
• Nintendo’s Virtual Console also has many of the classic N64 games available for legal download. However, due to licensing issues, many of the most popular N64 games developed by Rare are not available on the service.

Affordability

• The N64 is not very expensive to buy, with consoles typically going for $30-$50 on eBay, depending on accessories.
• Unboxed, popular games can easily be found for $2 or $3, but because of the fragility of the cardboard boxes Nintendo used to package the game, boxed games tend to command much higher prices.  (See the Cheapest Games Worth Your Time)
• Rare accessories, such as the Japan only 64DD, are extremely expensive and are only for deep pocketed collectors.

It’s pretty easy to find a list of “The Top Nintendo 64 Games” or some similar ranking, but most of them were written back when the system was cutting edge and almost all of them only compare the games against other N64 games. This is all fine if the N64 is the only console you own and ever plan to own.  Because of this, I thought it would be a good idea to develop a list of games that are still relevant in today’s market because of their unique gameplay that has not been improved upon on other systems.

Our basic rule of thumb for this list is to determine which games are still worth playing today, even if you have a Gamecube and/or a Wii with its more modern game library at your fingertips. (But other consoles are considered as well)  I thought this was an especially good metric to use as Nintendo has a habit of upgrading their biggest games each generation.  Even if you don’t plan on getting an actual N64, this could also serve as a list of ones to look out for on the Virtual Console (although not all of them are available for the service)

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

It should come as no surprise that the highest-ranked games of all time is the number one reason that the N64 is still relevant. The Ocarina of Time tells the story of a young boy, Link, whose destiny leads him on an adventure that crosses two time periods and the entire land of Hyrule, in order to become the Hero of Time. The defining game of the N64, OOT was Shigeru Miyamoto’s masterpiece, and is praised by many as being the best game ever made.

Whether you enjoy western RPGs, action packed combat, fiendish puzzle solving, or just a damn good story, this game has it all, and would still be regarded as one of greatest games of all time even if it was released tomorrow for the PS3.  As the story develops, and the game progresses, you are drawn into the world of Hyrule and care about its inhabitants and future, you form a strong sentimental attachments to you horse Epona, and you dive deep into a world full of secrets and treasures to be discovered.

Never is the games direction linear; If you ever feel like you’ve had enough dungeon crawling then you can come out and search for Gold Skultula’s, or play some of the games in Hyrule Town Market, or just watch the sun set across Hyrule Lake as you ride Epona to the fishing gallery for a go at catching the Hylian Loach.   On the other hand you always know what is expected of you, and what needs to be done next. Never in my life have I played a game that is so utterly engrossing, that offers so many diversions and distractions to the main quest, and that tells a story so brilliant, that I would happily pay money to go and see it at the cinema. If there is just one N64 game that you must own today, it is The Ocarina of Time.
Full Review of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
Find Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: (eBay / Amazon)

Super Mario 64

Even after 12 years (yes, it’s been that long!) Shigeru Miyamoto’s portly plumber is still used as the yardstick by which all 3D platformers are measured against.  The reason for that is simple; it is still one of the best, if not the best, examples of its genre in gaming.

On Nintendo’s first strike, they hit the ball out of the park! Every level in the game is a masterpiece, from the simple  opening stage of Bob-omb Battlefield, to the magical cloud journey of Rainbow Ride, all 15 levels are distinct, challenging and interesting, and are a joy to play on.   The simple graphical style means that the graphics have not aged much over the years, the music and sound effects are spot on for the actions on screen, and the mechanics are nigh on perfect.

Every jump of Mario can be judged to pinpoint precision, every shot from the cannon angled perfectly to get you to the place you want to be. This, I feel, is the main reason it is still relevant. The physics engine used in Mario 64 is so predictable that you never feel out of control, and that is something that a lot of platformers, even to this day, lack.
Full Review of Super Mario 64
Find Legend of Super Mario 64: (eBay / Amazon)

Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Ah Rare…. I remember when I was a lad, reading N64 Magazine, being so excited about the new Conker game that was to come out. With gameplay that would rival their own great Banjo Kazooie, it was going to be the pinnacle of N64 platformers. How things changed!

Conker’s Bad Fur Day is an adult oriented game involving a hung-over squirrel, a good looking bunny, and a giant poo. The brilliance of Conker comes from its writing and voice acting. The wit and charm that can be put into such despicable creatures is amazing, and a testament to Rare during their glory years.

You have to sympathize with Conker, who, after a heavy night of drinking, wakes up the next morning in a field, just wanting to go home.  The game is hilarious the whole way through, though it does sink quite low with its toilet humor (see giant poo). The reason that it is worth playing today is the same reason that it was a good buy when it was new, it’s a one of a kind game, and the humor, unlike the graphics (which are still some of the best on the N64), have not succumbed to age.

On a side note, in 2005, after Rare was acquired by Microsoft, an XBox remake was made of this game featuring update graphics and sound, and an improved multiplayer. In my opinion, do not bother with this remake. Microsoft brutally censored the game, removing many of the jokes (The Great Mighty Poo Song being a notable absence) and leaving just the core Conker platforming mechanics. The N64 version is getting harder to find, and sells for high prices on eBay, but don’t go for the semi-skimmed version.
Full Review of Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Find Conker’s Bad Fur Day: (eBay / Amazon)

Sin & Punishment

This gem from Treasure may be one of the best N64 games of all time, but most gamers outside of Japan never got a change to play it. Until now Sin and Punishment was a rare import that was only known to the hardcore gamers that either imported the expensive cartridge or emulated the game.  Now its significantly easier to obtain now that its on the Virtual Console.

Much like the rest of Treasure’s well-known shooters (such as Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier) Sin and Punishment is filled frenetic, high-energy action that keeps pulling you further into the game. Armed with a gun and a sword, you character continues along a path while you jump, double jump and roll to avoid obstacles and enemy attacks. Much like other on-rails shooters like Rez or Panzer Dragoon, you can manually shoot your weapon in different places or set it to lock on to enemies. The sword is primarily to be used for defense and deflection for those pesky missiles that can be bounced back with a well-timed melee strike.

Sin and Punishment is one of Treasure’s few 3D games, but as usual, the skilled development house pushed the N64 hardware to the max with some impressive visuals, massively detailed levels, intricate character and enemy models and, of course, action that will make you dizzy with excitement.
Full Review of Sin and Punishment
Find Sin & Punishment on eBay

StarFox 64

I have not been the biggest StarFox fan in the past. I admit it wholeheartedly, but I recently took it upon myself to have a go and see what StarFox 64 was like. I can now admit that I have been wrong about this series for many years. Starfox sees you, Fox McCloud, fight off the evil Andross in your trusty Arwing, and is an on-rails shooter at its core.  In fact, it is the last StarFox game so far that is a pure air-based combat besides StarFox Command for the DS, which has ackward stylus-based controls.

The game does not follow a linear path, meaning that any mistakes or achievements you make through a level, such as letting one of your wingmen be hit too much, directly affect the order you go through the levels. This means that you have to play through the game multiple times in order to even see all the levels the designers included.

What surprised me most about the game, is how similar the mechanics and gameplay are to some of the best vertical shooters that I have played. You find yourself using the same techniques that you use in games such as Radient Silvergun and 1942. The N64 never had a proper shump released in the west, so for anyone who wants their fix of methodical bullet dodging and mindless shooting, Starfox is a great new twist on a simple genre.    The graphics actually aren’t too bad for the N64 and complement the game quite nicely.  Of course it doesn’t have quite the polish that the Gamecube installments have, but it is a definate step up from the original StarFox on the SNES.  So when it comes down to it, if you want the best pure-on rails shooting in the StarFox universe, StarFox 64 is still your best bet.
Full Review of Star Fox 64
Find Star Fox 64: (eBay / Amazon)

Blast Corps

Who doesn’t love blowing stuff up and causing massive damage to the world around them? While open-ended destructive abilities may show up in a number of more modern games, very few, if any have destruction as such a large percentage of their focus as Blast Corps.

In Blast Corps you control around ten different vehicles and machines in order to clear out buildings and landscapes to make way for an out-of-control truck carrying nuclear missiles.  The equipment you use to take care of business range from a speedy bulldozer to a robot with a jet-pack and “ground-pound” capabilities to take out large buildings.

Since you don’t always know exactly what you need to do at the beginning of each level, there is a bit of puzzle solving and experimentation involved.  Even for experienced players, it will test your efficiency in accomplishing your goals.  Even if you take care of the required damage, you can always cause extra destruction to rack up extra points.

You might think that a game like this would get boring after a while, but Rareware did an excellent job of increasing the difficulty as you go along and the diversity of the equipment you use (each of which takes some learning) keep things interesting.  If you want a fast and furious game that is unique enough to keep your attention, Blast Corps should definitely be in your library.
Full Review of Blast Corps
Find Legend of Blast Corps: (eBay / Amazon)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Initially, I had Majora’s Mask on the Honorable Mentions list, but after reconsidering, I’ve added it to the main list.  While it isn’t on my list of favorites in the series, there are quite a few Zelda fans that adore it due to its originality and involving storyline.

The main turn-off with Majora’s Mask with most gamers is the three-day cycle that the game revolves around. Many people found it annoying and hard to get used to.  However, as reddit commenter, satertek mentioned “I guess it comes down to whether or not you liked the 3-day aspect. That was the game. Having all these people that would go about their schedules whether you were there or not made the game feel alive, and then getting to relive those 3 days over and over so that you get to meet and help every one of them.”

In the end, there are many other Zelda games I enjoy playing more than Majora’s Mask, but considering you can find it affordably, there isn’t a a good reason you should skip it if you are a Zelda fan.
Full Review of Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask
Find Legend of Zelda: Majora’ Mask: (eBay / Amazon)

Mario Kart 64

Due to popular demand, I’ve also included Mario Kart 64 on the main list.  Personally, I have more fun with Mario Kart DS, but there are many die-hard Mario Kart fans that swear by the first 3D installment.  While Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii have more refined graphics, Nintendo added new gimmicks that focused on teamwork instead of the flat-out competition and multiplayer moded.

I think a comment on Reddit from “ickingfudiot” was what convinced me most to include it in the main list, “Sadly, he (and Nintendo in releasing Mario Kart Wii) completely missed out on the utter glory of FFA Balloon Battle on Block Fort or Skyscraper. We still bust that out on Virtual Console. Sadly, MK Wii turned it into a team-based snorefest, particularly because of the removal of permadeath. RIP Balloon Battle ”

Also just recently, racketboy member, Ack shared his fond memories of Mario Kart 64’s Battle Mode, “I used to go to all-night parties where all we played was Mario Kart 64’s Battle Mode. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had at parties, to be honest. It was a feature that I don’t think ever got enough attention, and to this day I still say Mario Kart 64 was one of the two best in the series, if not the best(I can’t in good faith say that something was better than the original…I love them both). ”

Even though some of the graphics might be a little rough around the edges, Mario Kart 64 still puts up a mean fight against its newer siblings and it a cornerstone of N64-based gaming parties.
Full Review of Mario Kart 64
Find Mario Kart 64: (eBay / Amazon)

Ogre Battle 64

Ever since Squaresoft transitioned the bulk of their development from the Super Nintendo to Sony’s Playstation, Nintendo has never had a very strong RPG lineup.   However, the Japanese development house, Quest, took it upon themselves to create a wonderful RPG that makes the most of its cartridge-based limitations.

As you could expect from the Ogre Battle series, the N64 sequel is a wonderful blend of both RPG and Tactical elements.   And of course, instead of only focusing on the strategy, experience points, and item management, Ogre Battle also is blessed with an engaging story and plot that will keep you coming back for more.  Ogre Battle 64 also bucks the trend of many of the games on the N64 in that it doesn’t use 3D just because it can.  Instead, this sequel actually stays true to the original game with sprite-based graphics being the focus and using  3D elements in places that they are suitable such as the overworld map and as subtle accents.  It’s actually quite refreshing to see such beautiful 2D graphics on a console that had such a focus on 3D.

Strategy RPG fans seem to fall in love with just about any installment in the series (on both the SNES and Playstation), but the N64 version still falls right in line with the level of quality and enjoyment. And when you look at the Gamecube and Wii lineup, the only other games that really match up would be the Fire Emblem series.  The Fire Emblem series gets very high marks, but I don’t think it should disqualify Ogre Battle 64 from this list.
Full Review of Ogre Battle 64
Find Legend of Ogre Battle 64: (eBay / Amazon)

Wetrix

The best way to describe Wetrix is by imaging a 3D Tetris that has been drowned underwater…  with rubber ducks thrown in. The objective of the game is to build lakes on a flat playing board step by step, raising the ground level with “uppers” to form lakes, lowering it with “downers” and filling these lakes with water. As more pieces fall, you have to constantly adapt your lakes to accommodate the extra water, or divert the water away from a hole in your land created by a bomb.

As water leaks off the side, it is collected into a tank on the right hand side of the screen, and once this tank is full, it’s game over. You can lower the amount of water in the tank by dropping a fireball into one of your lakes, evaporating it and allowing you to fill it again.

Wetrix is a novel twist on the simple block-based puzzle genre established by Tetris and is one of the few games of this type that works in 3D. It’s an addictive, but challenging game which rewards solid playing hours with the sight of rainbows and the aforementioned rubber ducks sprouting up across your lovingly crafted lakes.   The multiplayer in Wetrix is one of the best of its kind, with a game between two good players being a highly enjoyable frantic dash to get ducks and evaporate water, while throwing earthquakes and ice at the other player to hamper them.  A sequel, Aqua Aqua, was released for the PS2 but failed to capture the magic of the original. All in all, a very good original puzzle game, and by far the best on the N64.
Full Review of Wetrix
Find Wetrix: (eBay / Amazon)

Pilotwings 64

Pilotwings 64 is the sequel to the popular SNES game, Pilotwings. In it, you take to the skies in an assortment of flying contraptions, ranging from Gyrocopters to Rocket Belts, in order to complete a series of predefined tasks, such as flying through floating rings or taking pictures of the pretty scenery. You are judged after each event on several factors and given an overall score.

The goal of the game is to achieve as high as possible score in each event, unlocking new challenges and vehicles. What separates Pilotwings from most other flight sims is the sense of freedom, of exploration, of flying! Like most of Nintendo’s greatest games, a lot of the fun of Pilotwings comes from jumping into the assortment of vehicles and taking to the skies with no aims in mind, just to see what you can do.

Personally, the joy of Pilotwings didn’t really display itself to me until I unlocked the Birdman stage.  There are no objectives in this stage, no stress of fuel supplies or ground rushing towards you. Just you, the sky, and a pair of feathery wings attached to your arms.  This stage really captures the freedom of flight.  Flying through the well constructed islands, exploring each crevice, then soaring high above the skyline of a city, makes for a relaxed gaming experience and one that just can’t be found on modern games consoles (well, until Pilotwings Wii comes out)
Full Review of Pilotwings 64
Find Pilotwings 64: (eBay / Amazon)

Body Harvest

Around the time of the N64 launch, a small company by the name of DMA Designs Limited started work on two projects: A top down racer codenamed Race’n’Chase for the PC, and a free roaming shooter for the then under development N64. The PC game morphed several times and eventually became the original Grand Theft Auto, which, of course, propelled DMA (now known as Rockstar North) into the limelight and made them a lot of money in the process.

However, their other game, Body Harvest, came out to a muted fan fare. It was given very positive reviews at the time of its launch, but was generally forgotten as the N64 progressed. Body Harvest is a 3rd person shooter in which your character is a genetically enhanced soldier sent back in time to defeat a human devouring race of aliens that landed on Earth, killing most of the population. You travel through 5 different areas at 5 different times of the invasion: Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991 and finally the Alien Homeworld 2046.

You might say that Body Harvest is a pretty standard 3rd person shooter, but the thing that makes Body Harvest stand out from other shooters of its time is the interactivity of the world and the ability to hop into any vehicle on the map. Essentially, Body Harvest was the foundation blocks for GTA3, where the developers were first trying out the designs and techniques that would later go into their prime franchise.   Although the graphics have dated a bit, the manic gameplay and free roaming elements make this an enjoyable and overlooked game. If you are interested in the heritage of GTA, or are just looking for a fun way to kill a few bugs, Body Harvest is well worth your time.
Full Review of Body Harvest
Find Body Harvest: (eBay / Amazon)

Space Station Silicon Valley

Space Station Silicon Valley is gem by DMA Designs, and is still a classic to this day. To be honest, I can’t quite put my finger on what makes this 3D action platformer so good. The level design is superb, ranging from pathetically easy in the opening stages to joypad-crushingly-difficult as you reach the games climax.

The animal switching mechanism (another nod to future GTA projects) works wonderfully, meaning that each new level usually has you playing as an entirely new character, with different abilities and stats. This also means that any enemy that you kill within the game can be “possessed” and you can use all of their own abilities against other animals, leading to a leap frog effect as you climb the food chain up to the top.

The game plays for the most part like a puzzle game, with challenges being presented to you through the environment and the tools to solve them given by the animals you can inhabit, but has some hardcore platforming stages too, which rival some of the best in the business.  The most striking thing about the game though, is its style. Diesel-powered foxes chase electric mice with sharp tails and turbo boost, while buoyant penguins throw snowballs at steam powered polar bears, who are laying mines in order to kill the wolves on skies, as they fire missiles launched from their back. The wackiness and brilliance of the character design meant that there is always something to come back to, always some new and inventive way of killing that damn Rocket Dog! Needless to say, Space Station Silicon Valley absolutely floored me when it came out, and has continued to impress me every time I plug the cartridge in.
Full Review of Space Station Silicon Valley
Find Space Station Silicon Valley: (eBay / Amazon)

Honorable Mentions:

You may be wondering why one of your all-time favorites are not included on the list above. There are many games that were ground-breaking in their day and are still very fun, but have either been much improved upon or are in a genre that has experienced a great leap in quality since the N64 era.  Here are a few of the most popular N64 games that aren’t quite as good as their newer counterparts.

• Goldeneye 007/Perfect Dark – When these games came out, they were the best console shooters ever made. I cannot recommend them highly enough, they are easily two of the best games for the N64, BUT (and it’s a big but!), the console FPS market has moved on leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. These days, brilliant FPSs are 10 a penny on home consoles. Halo, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Half Life 2, Timesplitters Future Perfect or even Metroid Prime! All of these games are just better than the Rare duo, and they cannot stand up against the quality of games with nostalgia alone.
• Super Smash Bros – An absolute classic, but really very outdated now, especially with the two sequels out. Good fun when it came out, but just has dated extremely badly with time. Try it on an emulator; you’ll see what I mean.  However, some experienced Smash Bros players claim that each installment has its own unique flair to it.  So it would be understandable if some prefer the original.  To each his own.
• The Mario Party Series – I’m not a huge fan of the games, but they can be fun if you are in the mood.  Many fans of the series claim that the earlier N64 version are actually the best in the series.  (Personally, I’m been more of a fan of the minigames on New Super Mario Bros on the DS.)
• Rayman 2 – Still an excellent 3D platformer, but you could find better one a newer console or you could even play the higher-quality Dreamcast or PS2 versions as well.
• Banjo Kazooie/Tooie – Another duo of Rare games, and another honorable mention. The Banjo Kazooie games are so much fun to play, but pale in comparison to Super Mario 64. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for quality N64 titles, it’s just that they didn’t do anything that Mario hadn’t done before, and do not have quite as much sparkle to them now. They are old games, and I think you can see that when you play them.
• Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh – This insane import shooter from Treasure is definitely worth trying out, but the Dreamcast version (known simply as Bangai-O) is has enhancements and will be much more affordable.
• Paper Mario – The original Paper Mario is still and excellent RPG adventure, but I would probably still recommend the newer installments first and then maybe come back to this one if you still want more of the same.
• Jet Force Gemini – One of the later N64 games, I remember it being hyped for months leading up to its release. Like every game in this list, it was very good new, but just like the Perfect Dark/Goldeneye duo, 3rd person shooters are very common on consoles now, and Jet Force Gemini doesn’t have any unusual or different features to make it stand out from the prettier games of today.
• Wave Race 64 – Yes it was quite groundbreaking at the time with its amazing water effects, but Wave Race Blue Storm on the Cube nailed that as well.
• Star Wars Episode I Racer – Great fun, but there were superior ports on the Dreamcast, PC, and Mac

Many of the most old-school of gamers still pride themselves on playing all the classics on the original hardware and look down on emulation. Many other Nintendo fans may be loading up their Wiis with plenty of excellent N64 games on the Virtual Console. However, if you are looking for something to breath a bit of fresh air into your favorite N64 games, you may want to look into some neat little hacks you can do with an N64 emulator and some select plugins and texture packs.

What Can These Tweaks Do?

Even though it was 64-bit, the N64 was still in that era where 3D processing was at its infancy and the graphics weren’t quite as smooth as we might like. In fact, the 32-bit Playstation had a number of later games that gave the best of the N64 a run for its money in terms of graphics. However, with some emulation tweaks, we can give some of your favorite N64 classics a significant boost to help transition them into the modern era.

While I wasn’t as impressed with most of these as much as I was with the PS1 emulation enhancements we covered a while back, there are some very interesting examples of a high-gloss finish added to some of the best of the N64 library.

Basic Image Enhancement Plugins

Without doing anything too terribly complicated, you can make most any N64 game look significantly better by using Project64 with a plugin, typically the Rice Video Plugin (find others on list of plugins here). These improvements are usually made by enhancing the 3D model textures and using anti-aliasing techniques to smoothen the rough edges of the polygons. Here are some great examples of enhanced screenshots (click to enlarge)

Kirby 64

Super Smash Bros.

Another Super Smash Bros shot

Jet Force Gemini

Goldeneye 007

Yes, you can render the Sky Box – Glide64 HQ plugin works well also
Another screenshot

Custom Texture Packs

One of the coolest tricks in N64 emulation is re-texturing. With this technique, the original graphics of the game are taken out, redone using high resolution textures or a different graphic style (such as Cell Shading), and then reinserted for playback on the PC. These texture packs consist of zipped files that you download and use in combination with a copy of the original game ROM and specific emulators. (See this guide for a detailed example)

The only disadvantage to this technique is that there is a lot of time and effort that goes into these texture packs. Dedicated members of the N64 emulation community pour their creativity and skill into these creations and is is no small task to adequately take care of one game, let alone the entire N64 library. Because of this, not every N64 game is going to have high-resolution texture packs available. Although, you are free to join in on the initiative yourself.

Below are some of my favorite examples of texture packs (click to enlarge screens), but there are more available. If you have a favorite that isn’t mentioned, feel free to drop some links in the comments section below.

Mario 64 – RiSiO’s Alternative Cartoon Mario 64

More Screenshots
Video Sample
Download Texture Pack

The Legend of Zelda: OoT – Hi-Res Pack

More Screenshots (With Before & After)
Zelda-Specific Instructions
Download Texture Pack

Paper Mario – Mollymutt’s Hi-rez

More Screenshots
Long thread with updates

Banjo-Kazooie - Macphisto’s Hi-Res Banjo-Kazooie

More Screenshots
Download Texture Pack

F-Zero X – speiles F-ZERO X retexture

More Screenshots
Download Texture Pack

Other Texture Packs (thanks CoolROM):

• Diddy Kong Racing by _pm_
• GoldenEye 007 by Kerber2k
• Legend of Zelda, The: Majora’s Mask by Djipi and MDtauk (Screenshots here)
• Mario Kart 64 by Mazzocchi
• Monopoly by krhyluv
• Starfox 64 by Kid A
• Super Mario 64 by cloudscapes, _pm_, and John Doe
• Super Smash Bros. by _pm_ and optimus$prime
• Virtual Chess 64 by sToRm_seveN
• Wave Race 64 by The Dave
• WWF No Mercy by alanchiz

Special thanks: NeoGAF members from this thread that shared their N64 screenshots and

Do you have a bunch of old game sitting in your closet that you’d like to trade in for a stack of cash? Or are you on the hunt for the most desirable games for your collection? In stark contrast to the Cheapest Games series, This new series will round up the rarest and most valuable games for a given console or handheld so you’ll know what to look for whether you are buying or selling.

For our first entry of the series, JJ Hendricks takes a look a the Nintendo 64 and the treasure that lie in its library. JJ owns VideoGamePriceCharts.com and writes the Video Game Pricing blog which analyzes video game prices, pricing trends, and charts historic video game prices. He used his pricing statistics to find both the average selling price and the highest selling price for each game over the last two months.

Below you will see two prices beside each title. The first is the average selling price, which is typically the going rate for the cartridge by itself. The second price is the peak selling price of recent history. These are typically games that are complete with box or possibly still sealed and new.

The Expensive Imports

	Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh (Bangai-O): $80 – $120 Yes, before this cult classic shooter from Treasure blasted its way to the Dreamcast, it was actually a Japanese-only release for the N64. In addition to being one of the best games on the system, it was also limited to a print run of only 10,000. The N64 version of Bangai-O doesn’t show up on eBay too often (a sign of a game that is truely rare), so its hard to get accurate values. Check for Bangai-O on eBay
	Tsumi to Batsu Hoshi no Keishōsha (Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Planet) $45 – $50 Much like many import-only Treasure games like Radiant Silvergun, this game isn’t especially rare in Japan, but the cult status of the game itself pushes its collectability status. Since Sin and Punishment has now been re-released on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console service, the value of the original cartridge has actually dropped about $20 since last year. Check for Sin and Punishment on eBay
	International Superstar Soccer 2000: $44 – $80 This PAL only release is one of the hardest to find N64 games of any region, but since its an old sports game, there isn’t a huge demand for it. Every now and then you can find the carts for under $50, but they are especially hard to find complete with box. If you find a complete copy, you can expect a much higher premium from collectors. Check for ISS 2000 on eBay

Treasured USA Releases

	Worms Armageddon: $55 – $120 Didn’t sell well when released and is one of the only strategy games for the system. One of the hardest games to find, low supply, and very fun too, high demand. The combination makes this the most expensive game on the Nintendo 64. Check for Worms Armageddon on eBay
	Clay Fighter 63 1/3 Sculptors Cut : $45 – $110 Released as a Blockbuster Video exclusive, Sculpter’s Cut did not get wide distribution and is now very hard to find. It is now regarded as possibly the rarest USA N64 release you can have in your collection in complete condition. You might be able to find some cartridges of this rare release at a semi-reasonable price, but because of the Blockbuster deal, it is especially difficult to find a boxed copy. Check for Clay Fighters Sculpter’s Cut on eBay
	Ogre Battle 64: $40 – $105 Atlus’s is notorious for small production runs and Ogre Battle was no exception. It is also one of the only RPG’s for N64 and critically acclaimed so there is quite a bit of demand for the game. Typically, you can score this game for under $50, but there was recently a sealed copy that reached the $100 point. Check for Ogre Battle 64 on eBay
	Harvest Moon: $38 – $80 A very niche game that was not produced in large quantities, but has a bit of a cult following. One of the hardest Nintendo 64 games to find. Check for Harvest Moon on eBay
	Mario Party 3: $32 – $50 Came out near the end of the Nintendo 64’s life in 2001 so did not sell as well as the other Mario Party games, less than 1 million units. Expensive because it is so popular, not because it is rare. Check for Mario Party 3 on eBay
	Bomberman 64 The Second Attack: $30 – $87 A rare sequel to a game that didn’t sell very well to start with. Second Attack came out near the end of the Nintendo 64’s life cycle which didn’t help the sequel sell any better. Normally, even a boxed version of Second Attack could be scored for under $50, but a sealed copy recently sold on eBay for $87. Check for Bomberman 64 The Second Attack on eBay
	Conker’s Bad Fur Day: $30 – $50 Another game hurt by being released near the end of the Nintendo 64’s life. Within one year of the game’s release, the N64 was discontinued. The game was received very well critically and is praised for having the best graphics for a Nintendo 64 game. Conker is still a personal favorite to many fans. Check for Conker on eBay
	Super Smash Bros.: $30 – $43 2.92 million units sold in the US so the game isn’t rare, but is very popular. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii is being released in Feb. 2008 so people might be trying to buy the original to get ready for the new game. Check for Super Smash Bros on eBay
	Starcraft 64: $29 – $33 Another strategy game in the top ten. It wasn’t a popular genre on the N64. This is also one of the only real time strategy game for the system. The N64 controller was not made for RTS games and this title hurt sales wise because of this. Check for Starcraft 64 on eBay
	Super Bowling: $28 – $38 Not a popular game at all. Combine the fact that it had a relatively low print run with them barely flying off the shelves that they were on and you have a rare collectible. Check for Super Bowling on eBay

Additional N64 Games of Value

• Castlevania Legacy of Darkness: $27 – $40
• Mario Kart 64: $26 – $34
• Mario Party 2: $25 – $33
• Mario Party: $25 – $33
• Space Station Silicon Valley: $25 – $30
• Ms. Pacman Maze Madness: $25 – $36
• New Tetris: $24 – $27
• Dr. Mario: $24 – $50
• Paper Mario: $24 – $29
• Tom and Jerry: $23 – $27
• Beast Wars Transmetals: $22 – $24
• Banjo-Tooie: $21 – $45
• Goemon Great Adventure: $21 – $44
• Super Mario 64: $20 – $25
• Snowboard Kids: $20 – $40
• Indiana Jones & The Infernal Machine: $18 – $25
• Monopoly 64: $17 – $22
• Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon: $16 – $27

N64 Video Game Prices provided by VideoGamePriceCharts.com. The source for daily updated prices on over 8,500 video games. The prices are the highest price and average from November, 1st 2007 to December, 31st 2007.

Note from racketboy: I felt this piece from fastbilly1 did a wonderful job looking at one of the most pivotal console FPSs and how it is still relevant and practical today. I hope you enjoy it.

Few games have caused as much awe and frustration as Rareware’s 1997 Goldeneye 007. Bringing four-player FPS multiplayer to a console was unheard of at the time to the vast majority of gamers. Sure there were the PC fans who had played through Wolfenstien 3D, Rise of the Triad, or Doom 1 & 2, but the casual crowd had yet been exposed to slaughtering their friends for fun. Predating Half Life by a year, Goldeneye provided us a reason to gather up the troops and stalk the halls of the temple. But how does it play today?

Controls

Simplicity was what made Goldeneye unique and special. While not as simple as Mario Kart 64, compared to other FPSs, Goldeneye’s control scheme was intuitive enough that even the very casual gamers could pick up the majority of the nuances with just a handful of games under their belts. “Use the joystick to move and the trigger to shoot, blue button opens doors and reloads the gun” with that basic rundown of controls most anyone could join you until they either wanted to learn the more advanced controls or became bored of the game (this would become commonplace if you played with people who always hunted down the new players, you all know what I am talking about).

The controls are still spot on, and have been added into more modern games as optional controls (in Halo that is Legacy with the triggers in Southpaw). They may seem alittle akward at first, but after a couple games you will feel the groove coming back. And if you cannot get use to the single joystick controls, pick one of the 2.1 control styles and grab another controller. Sure it means on a 1 on 1 game but you will get a more modern control style.

Multiplayer:

Goldeneyes is not so much unique as it is an example of utter brilliance. The stage designs are nearly flawless. From the open breezeways of the Temple, to the labyrinth like Complex, to the harrowing halls of the Facility, the stages had the right amount of everything to make for epic battles of supremacy. Though after ten years of playing Temple it grows quite stale. The same goes for the Facility.

If you played the game to the extent that the majority of us did, you will still remember the hiding spots in the Complex, the high holes in the Temple’s main room, and ofcourse the bullet proof glass in the Facility, they will seem like old friends. But after playing them for a few hours you will remember that the Facility is bottlenecked at the bullet proof glass, the hiding spots in complex are nigh useless, and that still nobody remembers those holes in the Temple’s walls. Is this to say that the stages are bad? No, but I do not believe that most people will be willing to put in anywhere near the amount of time the use to on them. They were amazing, but by todays standards they are very plain and lack gusto. Then again I started playing through Goldeneye again a couple weeks ago and have enjoyed the spats of multiplayer quite a bit. But when compared to something like Timesplitters 2/Future Perfect, Halo, or Half Life 2, there really is no fair comparison.

The weapons in Goldeneye were always a mixed bag. I knew very few people who actually liked getting the PP7 (commonly referred to as the PPtrash) and even less who liked timed mines. Mixed bag or not the weapons still provide a nice balance that few games have replicated. Weapon sets may have annoyed many players, something that Perfect Dark “fixed,” but it just kept with the idea that the game was made to be simple. I mean when choosing Automatics, all the guns use the same bullets. How can that be any simpler? Yes simplicity is good to get new players, but the balance is what kept people coming back. The most powerful weapon will always spawn in the same place, the RCP90 is going to be outside the bathroom door, but you have a clear shot to it from most of the way down the hallway if you are crouched, and a headshot with the magnum will kill them. And while your RCP90 can shoot through that metal door, much like the moonraker, my Magnum can shoot through the bullet proof glass AND the door behind it. And for some reason fire can go through walls, 10 years and I still haven’t figured that one out. Ask any fan of the game two simple words and the stories will come pouring out, proximity mine. I could go on about games in Bunker, or the Temple respawn pattern, but that is not why yall are here. If you cannot tell already, I would say that apart from the Unreal Tournaments and possibly Red Fraction, there has not been a more balanced set of weapons, let alone weapon sets, in an fps. I just wish I would stop getting stuck with that daggum klobb when we are not playing License to Kill.

Scenario-wise Goldeneye pulled from its parents in the genre and ironed out a lot of the kinks in making a console version of them. Your standard deathmatch is fairly straight forward. But adding in a one shot kill option, License to Kill, spiced things up some (then people actually want the klobb). Limited lives, You only Live Twice, was fun for tournaments but not so much for casual play, sans drinking games potential. Flag tag, The Living Daylights, was probably our least played game type, even more so than limited lives. The concept is that there is one flag, and you try to hold on to it the longest, timewise. It never clicked with my group of friends and family, so my exposure to it is jaded and boorish. Ofcourse there are your usual team layouts, 2v2 and 3v1, neither all that profound, but a whole mess of a lot of fun. Finally we have one of the best, The Man with the Golden Gun. This is a very simple one where there is one Goldengun, it forces the weapon set to be goldengun, whoever grabs the gun is “it” and is the only one who can get points, everyone else is on a team to best them and grab the gun (best when played without a time limit). Enough variety to keep most players happy for sometime, it is hard to say what kind of impact it made since most of these scenarios had been in games before it. But there is no question that even by todays standards the scenarios are worthwhile, and more importantly they are still fun. However the lack of being able to use more than one at a time is a sad drawback. Team License to Kill and a true Capture the Flag mode would have been choice additions, but sadly it just is not so (though the first can be accomplished through modifiying players health and/or using a gameshark).

With twelve available by default, 33 after completing the game, and 64 if you used a cheat, there is a character for everyone. Be it the cast of the movie, your generic badguys, or even old Bond villains, the multiplayer characters are as diverse as the people who play them. Granted you will run into people who only will only play the short man oddjob or maybe that ghillisuit esq Siberian Special Forces, but there is little to gripe about characterwise. Newer games boast cast in the hundreds, Timesplitters, but really how many do you really need? Granted I do have over 1000 characters on my Mugen roster so I cant really talk.

Overall the multiplayer is still amazingly fun, even if the stage designs are a bit dated. All the tricks have been figured out and there are no secrets left, but with alittle practice, and some good friends, Goldeneye can still dish out what you remember it doing back in the 90s. Sure it is dated, the characters only kinda look like the people they are supposed to represent, and there are no reload animations, but it can still dole out that sweet endorphin rush of days gone by.

Singleplayer:

Goldeneye may have been known mostly for its divine multiplayer, but the single player was no slouch either. Following the movie decently, good enough for a movie game, the storyline took you all over the world. Starting off with the dam with that big green truck that you have to out run and ending with a brilliant jump to the bottom of the Cradle. While there were slow parts, Statue, and parts that were over the top violent, Runway’s tank, the game played fluidly from stage to stage. However the storytelling dynamics are ruined by stock characters and a somewhat convoluted jump from part to part with bare reasons for such a jump.

While this can be construed to be just like the movie, or most Bond movies for that matter, it does not translated well into a ground breaking single player experience. In its time it was unrivaled, but now with brilliant retellings of the second World War, stories of intergalactic civil wars of racism and hate, and a lonely MIT graduate in the wrong place at the wrong time, Goldeneye shows its age. And while that is not a bad thing in some aspects, the single player game did not age anywhere near as good as the multiplayer. This does not mean it is a horrible game, just that it has been surpassed.

Playing Goldeneye 007 Today

If you want to dive back into Goldeye ten years after its released, you really have three options:

1. Dust off the Nintendo 64
2. Play a Goldeneye Mod for another game
3. Emulate

We will hit all three of these in fair detail, pro and con, and some how-tos to make your experience more enjoyable

Nintendo 64:
If you don’t have one, they go for $15 at goodwill and about $30 with two controllers and a game on eBay (pre-shipping). Goldeneye will set you back another $10 or so. (You could even find a system bundled with the game) So yes it is cheap, but there are two problems with playing it on the N64:

First of all, old hardware can be spotty, I know in college we went through a N64 in a year and a half playing Mario Kart 64 (ended up that when we added extra cooling it started to work again, but who wants a pc heatsink on a console?).

Secondly, the controllers can be a hassle. Yes the great thing about playing the game is that the N64 controller was spot on, nigh perfect, for the game. However, the joysticks on the controllers are simply tripe. How do you know if your controller is shot, the easy way to do it is hold it by one of the claws and shake it around in a gentle circle. If the stick moves around, well it might be time to get some new ones. Sure you can still play with the busted up sticks, I did it for years, but the difference between the sticks is night and day. Downside to this is it is increasingly difficult to purchase new first party controllers for a decent price, even on eBay.

There is another way, if you are comfortable with electronics, or know someone who is that owes you a favor, you can easily and painlessly replace the joystick and for about $7 per controller. eBay is littered with people selling the joysticks and the triwing screwdriver you may need. Once open it is a matter of plug and play to switch out the joysticks, I will make the safe bet of ten minutes per, but in reality it can take as few as two after you figure it out. So for about forty dollars and maybe an hour, you can replace all your joysticks, clean your contacts for your buttons, and have four N64 controllers that feel like new.

That is by far the best way to get better controllers, but if you do not already have four controllers eBay or craigslist are your best options. Do be careful though and make sure you are buying Nintendo brand controllers and not the third party kind. Even if the seller says they are first party if they have slowmo features, well that should be a hint.

Mods:
The most popular of all the Goldeneye mods is obviously Goldeneye Source. Utilizing the power of the Source Engine, and the creativity of the Half Life community, Goldeneye Source provides a very faithful rendition of the multiplayer to the modern audience. Sporting both online play and more maps the game could be played endlessly. However there are some drawbacks. For one you need a decent computer to run it, Half Life 2 will run on most anything, but Goldeneye Source has brought my pc down to a crawl on decently populated servers. It also requires a copy of a base Source game, your best option would be either Half Life 2 or The Orange Box. A better question would be why don’t you already have a copy or two of Half Life 2 (but that is just the TFC fan I me screaming for later this year).

One thing that I did not like about Goldeneye Source, and this is just a personal gripe, is that they took away your ability to not fall off of things. Sure it makes sense to do it that way, but that was one “problem” with Goldeneye that I actually liked. It added something so unintuitive that it through everyone for a loop the first couple games, that and I do not like falling to my death (that’s the UT/Quake fan in me talking).

Personally I prefer the mods for the Unreal Tournament series, even if they were never finished. The maps were redone in a more UT style, ie the columns in the Library main room, and really fit the game. However the guns are worthless, in comparison to even their original form. I take it to mean that the Lizard people are just that strong that it takes several shots from the Goldengun to kill them. Just using the maps with the UT weapons leads for some funny battles, but this is in no way a substitute for the original game.

Either choice is good, but for a real rendition, there is really no reason to look any further than Goldeneye Source. Sadly though it is a pcgame, meaning one player per pc (this is not Serious Sam you know), taking away some of the fun, but online and lanparties do alleviate you of that.

Emulation:
Ah the sticky subject, well this one is still kind of iffy. Rareware utilized a unique skybox that so far the emulation community has yet to duplicate. Meaning all stages that are supposed to have a sky just have black, makes Surface kinda apocalyptically foreboding. It really does not affect multiplayer that much but it is worthwhile to point out. Emulation has several major advantages over the other two options. Not only do you still have four players on one system, you can also have online through kalliera (project64k and mupen64k). You can also enhanced the graphics, though I would suggest against that, and you can up the ram to the game so you do not have as many slowdowns as you use to. However you are stuck with pretty crappy controls, and to play fourplayer with less slowdown you need a fairly “cherry” pc. The pc problem can be fixed over time or simply for a couple hundred if you are not so technically inclined, the controls are another problem all together.

You could cheat and use a mouse and keyboard, but that takes away ALL of the challenge. The more common way of playing is with pc controllers, Logictech’s DualShock styled one being the most obvious choice (which racketboy personly uses and enjoys). The Wiimote can also be used through glovepie and a Bluetooth dongle, but like the mouse and keyboard I believe the precision takes the challenge out of the game, well except when you are fighting the auto aim.

However, there is a still another easy way to get better controls, console adaptors. For N64 to USB you have two choices, Adaptoids which are the more expensive, N64-only solution or the PS1/PS2/N64 adapters that are available from eBay, Amazon, and other retailers. Sadly I have missed out on the last shipment of Adaptoids and currently play using a Super Joybox 5 and PS2 controllers. It is by far not the most ideal way of playing, the deadzone on the PS2 controllers is smaller than the N64 so sometimes when strafing you start looking up really quickly, but it is very much playable.

Another fantastic aspect of emulation is that you can hack the game. Not only can you start out with all 64 players in multiplayer available by default, you can play new stages in multiplayer. That’s right there are stages for Goldeneye that you have not memorized; Namely the Cradle (the last stage for the single player game) and the Citadel (a beta multiplayer stage – unfinished but very playable). However any stage can become a multiplayer stage with the help of the Goldeneye level editor care of the brilliant minds of the Rare Witch Project. This editor allows you to lay down items, characters, weapons, cover, statues, and even miniaturized tanks, if that is what you fancy. With this powerful tool you could simply add another set of body armor to a stage or go so far as to create your own stage – though I feel I should warn you that this does involve a fair bit of work and I did end up crashing the emulator countless times, my entire pc once, for one reason or another (standard fare for me and level creation actually).

With the ability to make new stages and missions, coop missions at that; this could be seen as reason enough to configure an N64 emulator and figure out the editor. This powerful tool actually breathes more life into the game than anything else. Thanks to SubDrag, Zoinkity, Wreck, whoever else worked on this, and the Project64 team, almost every qualm I ever had with Goldeneye over the years is instantly gone. Sadly there is still no way to play a standard game of capture the flag, but I can live with that. Also with these tools you can finally have that All Bonds cheat, granted it really is not worth it. Sadly the last update to the Rare Witch Project was in 2005 and they never did get enough levels to create their repository they were hoping for. But hopefully enough people will take interest with it now in that even a $300 pc from Best Buy (on sale this week) can run the emulated game as well as the console and we have just passed the 10th anniversary. Granted I hope to get four adaptoids the next time they go on sale, so maybe I am not the best one to lead this charge.

SupDrag has many videos of his fantastic maps up on youtube for those who wish to know more. He even went so far as to port some of the better Perfect Dark stages to Goldeneye then, using a backup device, tested them on a console. If that is not a hardcore fan, then what does it take?

In Summary…

So this started out as a simple review of an old game to more modern counterparts, but evolved into much more. As you can see the game is as good as it was back then, even if games have surpassed it in different categories. You still get to be Bond, you still get to save the world, and you still get to kill you friends. Best of all, even after all these years the game is still fun. Subdrag and his team took the game to the next level and sadly most people did not realize that. Now, days after the 10th anniversary, we can finally give the game a proper revival. With all sorts of licensing issues it is doubtful that it will ever be re-released on a modern console, but it is fairly easy to track down, cartridge or rom, and even better the game has expanded from those twenty missions and eleven multiplayer stages we all were enthralled with back in 1997.

And who knows, maybe we will have a grassroots revival of the game, mapmakers with flock to the editor and create amazing things. Then the online community can take off and really bring the game back. If that happens, I might have to chair a league.