The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo\u2019s third major home console release. It launched in late 1996 (early 1997 if you were in Europe or Australia) and was the only console of its generation to use cartridge media rather than the CDs used by PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Despite this technical limitation – which made many developers reluctant to create games for the console – the N64 thrived, selling 33 million units worldwide. That was thanks, in part, to an amazing software library. Here, in no particular order, are the top 25 N64 games of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Super Mario 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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No list of the best N64 games would be complete without a mention of Super Mario 64<\/em>. Arguably still the greatest launch title of all time, Super Mario 64 <\/em>catapulted its humble plumber star into three dimensions, launching an entire genre as it went (while Mario 64 <\/em>wasn\u2019t the first 3D platformer, it was arguably the first good one). Mario\u2019s movement is fluid and compelling, and the game presents an excellent series of levels in which to utilise that movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The Nintendo 64 was home to a surprising number of games often billed as the \u201cbest of all time\u201d. Super Mario 64 <\/em>is one, and Ocarina of Time <\/em>is another. Just like Mario<\/em>, this game took Link and his adventures into 3D, and it utilised the new dimension to create some of the series\u2019 most fiendish puzzles and satisfying exploration yet. Ocarina of Time <\/em>is stuffed full of things to do, iconic characters to meet, and items to master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The Legend of Zelda: Majora\u2019s Mask<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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If Ocarina of Time <\/em>is the golden child, then Majora\u2019s Mask <\/em>is the edgy sibling. Born from Ocarina <\/em>assets and requiring the N64\u2019s Expansion Pak add-on, Majora\u2019s Mask <\/em>is a profoundly weird experience, but no less great. It takes Link to the land of Termina, where the moon is set to destroy the world in three days. Link must relive the same three days over and over again in order to figure out a way to prevent the coming apocalypse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Super Smash Bros.<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The Smash Bros <\/em>franchise has become a world-conquering beast, but here\u2019s where it all began. Featuring a relatively humble roster of just twelve playable characters, Super Smash Bros <\/em>originated the series\u2019 platform fighter gameplay. Characters like Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby battled one another across iconic locations from Nintendo history, with powerups and various special moves adding to the chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Paper Mario<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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After Super Mario RPG <\/em>showed everyone that Mario could operate within an RPG environment, Paper Mario <\/em>cemented his legacy as a genuine JRPG hero. It featured the same sort of timing-heavy turn-based battling, but with a brand new papercraft aesthetic that felt simultaneously charming and cutting-edge. The Paper Mario <\/em>series may be floundering now, but its original title is still well worth checking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. GoldenEye 007<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Much has been made of the brilliance of GoldenEye 007<\/em>. It\u2019s worth noting that the game doesn\u2019t hold up today anywhere near as well as it might, but that for its time, the multiplayer gameplay was second to none. GoldenEye 007 <\/em>also features a surprisingly accomplished single-player campaign that takes you through the events of the Bond <\/em>movie on which the game is based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Banjo-Kazooie<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Of all of Rare\u2019s N64 platformers – and there were several – this is the only one that can be considered truly essential. Banjo-Tooie <\/em>is too long-winded, Donkey Kong 64 <\/em>is messy, and Conker\u2019s Bad Fur Day <\/em>is a little too edgy for its own good, but Banjo-Kazooie <\/em>hits the sweet spot. It\u2019s a great little collectathon platformer with oodles of character and some extremely memorable music courtesy of legendary composer Grant Kirkhope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Mario Kart 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Mario Kart 64 <\/em>wasn\u2019t the first Mario Kart <\/em>game, but it often feels like it should have been, such was the quantum leap between this game and its SNES predecessor. Iconic characters from the Mario <\/em>franchise race around a varied series of courses, throwing shells at each other and hoping that their friendships aren\u2019t ruined come the morning. That might just be us, actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Pokemon Snap<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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An on-rails shooter in which you photograph Pokemon <\/em>sounds like an oddball concept, but Pokemon Snap <\/em>effortlessly made it work. Spotting and snapping Pokemon in their natural habitats felt thrilling; suddenly, these weren\u2019t just 8-bit creatures on your Game Boy screen, but living, breathing animals, with realistic behaviours to match. Pokemon Snap<\/em>\u2019s only crime was being too short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. WWF No Mercy<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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While the WWF Smackdown <\/em>series (as it was then called) was a fairly successful interpretation of professional wrestling in the gaming space, WWF No Mercy <\/em>was a far more technical and involved beast. The engine is still celebrated today for offering a huge range of grapples, strikes, and other moves, while the wrestler creator function offered endless options for making your own jobber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Pokemon Stadium<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Pokemon Stadium <\/em>and its sequel weren\u2019t just 3D Pokemon <\/em>battling games. They were that, of course, but they were so much more, offering us the chance to feel like real Pokemon trainers. The games also offered the ability to play your Game Boy Pokemon <\/em>games on the big screen, as well as some surprisingly well-crafted minigames to play with your buddies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. Pilotwings 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The Pilotwings <\/em>franchise is a curious one. It\u2019s a relaxing, casual odyssey through a series of idyllic locations, but it\u2019s also fiendishly challenging at times, especially if you\u2019re aiming for the highest possible score on each challenge. While Pilotwings <\/em>can be a touch on the short side and can feel somewhat insubstantial, the N64\u2019s iteration was a wonderful addition to the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. Perfect Dark<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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This spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007 <\/em>didn\u2019t have any of the licensed characters of its forebear, but that didn\u2019t matter, because the shooting action was so much tighter. Again, if you wanted to get the most out of Perfect Dark<\/em>, you needed the N64\u2019s Expansion Pak, but if you had it, the multiplayer was frenetic, chaotic, and incredibly deep, while the single-player campaign was even better than GoldenEye<\/em>\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. Star Fox 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s okay to say this now, we think: Star Fox<\/em>\u2019s visuals leave a lot to be desired. While the SNES game was cutting-edge when it was first released, it now looks hopelessly dated. The same can\u2019t be said for Star Fox 64<\/em>, which still holds up today. It\u2019s short, yes, but its freewheeling dog-fight action still looks and feels great, and that iconic music still makes us feel like real space pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. Mario Party 2<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s hard to whittle down the Mario Party <\/em>franchise to just one recommended game, even on the N64 (there were three of them on this console alone!), but Mario Party 2 <\/em>is the one we\u2019re going for. It expanded the first game\u2019s formula of board game play interspersed with minigames, featuring some of the franchise\u2019s most iconic iterations of both. Check it out if you\u2019re looking for something fun to do with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater 2<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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To this day, Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater 2 <\/em>remains unmatched as a skating game. Sure, it doesn\u2019t have the simulation-level accuracy of EA\u2019s Skate <\/em>series, but it represents an era of gaming when these games were allowed to be fun without feeling tied to verisimilitude. The levels are sprawling and satisfying to explore, there are a ton of characters to unlock, and the skating is tight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. Rayman 2: The Great Escape<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The N64 couldn\u2019t breathe for great 3D platformers, so the fact that Rayman 2 <\/em>still finds a way to stand out in that crowded marketplace should be celebrated. This is an accomplished, confident 3D platformer that doesn\u2019t really innovate on any level, but that executes everything it sets out to do with aplomb. Rayman is just as adorable and characterful as ever, and the swashbuckling world he\u2019s exploring here is delightful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. Doom 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Contrary to what its name might make you believe, Doom 64 <\/em>isn\u2019t just a remake of the original Doom<\/em>. Instead, it\u2019s a completely original game, although it does feature many of the original game\u2019s enemies and weapons. Doom 64 <\/em>aims for more of an outright horror vibe than its predecessors, toning down the awesome metal music in favour of eerie ambient soundscapes and totally changing the feel in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. Mario Golf<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Camelot sure does know how to design sports games (or it did, anyway; more recent instalments of these franchises haven\u2019t turned out so well). Mario Golf <\/em>is an excellent arcade-style golf game, featuring plenty of iconic elements from the Mario <\/em>series. It\u2019s not a realistic take on the sport, of course, but when you\u2019re having this much fun, does that really matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20. Harvest Moon 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Continuing the fine tradition of \u201cfranchise name, but with 64 after it\u201d, Harvest Moon 64 <\/em>was, as you might expect, the Nintendo 64 entry for the Harvest Moon <\/em>series. As such, you\u2019re getting the same hopelessly addictive blend of farming and life sim gameplay, and if you let yourself get into this, it will destroy your life in exactly the same way. Just one more cycle\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21. ISS 64<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Remember when Konami was on top of the football gaming world? Those days might seem difficult to recall in the days of eFootball 2022<\/em>, but back in the N64 days, Konami was king, and ISS 64 <\/em>was the sceptre with which it ruled. Featuring a fully polygonal engine, deeply technical gameplay, and a score of modes, ISS 64 <\/em>is one of the best football games of its era, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ll be honest: we mostly remembered Turok 2 <\/em>for its black cartridge, which made us feel like we had something illicit and dangerous in our hands. Replaying it today, though, it turns out we did; this is still an excellent first-person shooter, complete with crisp visuals, satisfying gunplay, and a sense of irony that sets it apart from the po-faced military drudgery that was to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23. Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Yes, that is the real title of this game. Ogre Battle 64 <\/em>is a real-time strategy game in which you must guide your units across a series of maps, battling enemy battalions and making tactical decisions as you go. This isn\u2019t Fire Emblem<\/em>, either (which didn\u2019t get an N64 entry, more\u2019s the pity); it\u2019s far more immediate and tense than that game, and it will seriously test your tactical ability even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24. Resident Evil 2<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Forget the 2019 remake (although don\u2019t, because it\u2019s actually really good); this is the definitive version of the classic Resident Evil 2 <\/em>experience. The porting team\u2019s work on this version of the game is nothing short of astonishing; they managed to pack a game that came on two 700MB CDs on PlayStation into a 64MB cartridge, complete with FMVs. It\u2019s witchcraft, and you should check it out today to see what genius looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25. F-Zero X<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Shigeru Miyamoto once indicated that he was puzzled as to why anybody would want Nintendo to make another F-Zero <\/em>game. If you want to know the answer to that question, just play F-Zero X<\/em>, which is an excellent breakneck racer. It\u2019s so fast that you might struggle to keep up with it at first, but if you master it, you\u2019ll find a rewarding and surprisingly tactical experience on offer.       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo\u2019s third major home console release. It launched in late 1996 (early 1997 if you were in Europe or Australia) and was the only console of its generation to use cartridge media rather than the CDs used by PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Despite this technical limitation – which made many developers … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7644,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"close","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videogames","category-nostalgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7465"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7648,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions\/7648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}