The Nintendo 64 is 15 years old

[Robot]

Today, as I write this on September 29, 2011, is the 15th anniversary of the Nintendo 64 console being released in the United States. The N64 was the first console I got around launch time. My memory isn't too clear but I don't think it was longer than a month or so after its launch day. My mother got me one from someone (?) she worked with, not new, but like new. Only problem was that was it. No games. I had some allowance money, just enough to go to the local video store and rent one. I chose Super Mario 64. Definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made during my 24 year tenure on this earth. I remember plopping that cartridge into the console, turning it on (once we figured out how to plug it in since we were used to coaxal cables and not composite cables or as I called them "the three cables with different colors") and seeing the colorful Super Mario 64 logo careening towards me. Then I heard Mario's voice for the first time, "It's a-me! Mario!" Then Mario's head appeared on the title screen, completely in 3D. "Hello!" Hi, Mario! It's so nice to see you in this new way! I pressed start, started a new file and within a minute, I was running around outside Princess Toadstool's castle. I noticed she called herself Peach in her letter in the beginning. I thought that was her first name; you know, Princess Peach Toadstool. I guess now it's just Peach and Princess Toadstool was just dropped. I remember my mother admiring the water in the game. How clear it was, how peaceful that outside area was. I'll just say it now. Super Mario 64 is my favorite Mario game ever and is my favorite game for the Nintendo 64.



Now, if you follow my blogs, then you might know that I have a, shall we say, complicated impression of the Nintendo 64. However, I would say that others share the same sentiments, although maybe not to the same level as I do. The N64 is a darling to Nintendo fans and to those who love games of a whimsical quality and with an emphasis on multiplayer. However, for those of us who are old enough to know (which makes me feel old), the N64 also signaled Nintendo's fall from the top of the gaming world. The N64 may have been beloved but new competitor Sony's PlayStation was more beloved and outperformed the old guard Nintendo as well as Sega's Saturn console. I myself am on record as to saying that the N64 ultimately disappointed me but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy several games on Nintendo's 64 monster.

Banjo-Kazooie is a game I remember blowing me away when I first played it. The colorful locals, the cartoon like sense of humor and dialogue, and the expansiveness that was built upon Mario 64's worlds. I loved that game and although I never owned it back in the day, I would constantly rent it every week with my allowance. What's great is that most of the time, my save file was still there so I continued from where I left off. Check in tomorrow for my review of Banjo-Kazooie. Oh, and I do own a copy now. Another game that comes to mind is Super Smash Bros.. I had a friend at the time name Mark who owned a N64 and one day, he brought over his console and this new game he got. It didn't take long for me and my other friend Diego to be going at it with Mario, Link, Donkey Kong and Pikachu. We liked to have a computer opponent go against us as well. Also, yes. I only had two friends at that time. I eventually bought a copy from Funcoland and started unlocking characters that my friends hadn't yet. From what I remember, Mark had only unlocked Luigi and Jigglypuff up to that point. I found Captain Falcon and Ness. Sad to say that when we saw Ness, we all wondered who that was. Don't worry, I know now.



Oddly enough, another game my friends and I used to play was Rush 2. Now we didn't race, we used to just go into Stunt mode and take turns doing crazy tricks and try to land them. I swear, the Rush series is a hard set of games. Although it hasn't held up as well, I was in love with Donkey Kong 64 and I remember as a kid trying to play after my bed time by turn the volume down on my TV and being subtle with my playing because the controller made so much noise. One game that I loved was Conker's Bad Fur Day. The story mode was great and it was strange to hear these bad words coming out of these cartoon characters on screen but the one thing I remember was the multiplayer mode, Heist. Get a bazooka, hear you guy say "Bad Ass Motherfu**er", then blow up someone literally into pieces and try to put the controller down. It's a shame they took those modes out of the Xbox remake. Finally, as a lapse in judgement on my part, I remember costing my mothers $60 when I decided to keep my rented Blockbuster copy of Dark Rift. WTF was I thinking?

Cheers to you, Nintendo 64. Thank you for giving us rumble support, a capable analog stick, great multiplayer support as well as single player experiences and something I neglected to mention earlier, awesome wrestling games! Sure you had some quirks, like the controller design and not too many third party games worth playing but the older you get, the more I've come to love you more. And now to end things is a manner most enjoy, here's a quick list of 10 of my favorite N64 games in no particular order (except for Super Mario 64, that's number one):

• Donkey Kong 64
• Star Fox 64
• Mario Kart 64
• Super Mario 64
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Banjo-Tooie
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Super Smash Bros.
• Conker's Bad Fur DayPaper Mario

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9089014

[CrispyChicken]

N64 has like 10-15 games that I find extremely fun. I guess I'll throw in a Top 10 of my own

1. Paper Mario (My second favorite game of all time)
2. Super Mario 64
3. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Super Smash. Bros
5. Banjo-Kazooie
6. Donkey Kong 64
7. Banjo-Tooie
8. Star Fox 64
9. GoldenEye 007
10. Mario Kart 64

[bearhawk72]

I don't think I even owned 10 N64 games

-Mario 64
-OoT
-Shadows of the Empire
-Killer Instinct Gold
-Goldeneye

Those are the ones I remember

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Robot

I remember plopping that cartridge into the console, turning it on (once we figured out how to plug it in since we were used to coaxal cables and not composite cables or as I called them "the three cables with different colors") and seeing the colorful Super Mario 64 logo careening towards me. Then I heard Mario's voice for the first time, "It's a-me! Mario!" Then Mario's head appeared on the title screen, completely in 3D. "Hello!" Hi, Mario! It's so nice to see you in this new way!

It seems that everyone who ever writes about their first experience with polygonal graphics (not just SM64) has a reaction like this.

"Wow, this is so cool!"
"A 3D world and it's so big!"
"What is this analog stick magic?"

I wonder why I didn't. When polygons came around it was a natural move for me.

[OmegaShadow]

Some of my favorite N64 games in no particular order:

-Super Mario 64
-Mega Man 64
-Bomberman Hero
-Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
-F-Zero X
-Mario Party (1/2/3)
-Super Smash Bros.

Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie and Donkey Kong 64 were just tedious and all-around boring to me and I never did finish them.
I wanted to get both Bomberman 64 games but I never had the money for them at the time.

[Dudebro]

There were lots of games I liked on N64 but the main ones were the great wrestling games. Imo they still play better than the garbage ones we have nowdays.

[yoshi_star10]

My favorite games on the 64...
Buck bumble, Mario kart 64, Mario golf 64, super Mario 64, Ocarina, Tetrisphere. These probably got the most play time of all the games i own on the N64

[Kugyince]

I'm tired of all these sudden video game birthdays. Enough already.


P.S. The N64 blew chunks. There were three good games out of the entire library.

[CatalystiCam]

I also had the stunning experience of playing that 3d. It weas the first time our parents let us play on the big 27" Bubble TV. (Was a huge tv back then). We got to play Cruisn' USA and it was just unbelievable. Words could not describe. Being 4 or 5 at the time, video games were my world. So you can imagine how great it was... maybe :P

To this day it is probably my favourite console. I have a tough time deciding between SNES and N64 to be honest. So many great games, and so many great memories. My bros and I would rent like games every week for em, and the sad part was that we rented some games so much like Mario Party and the Rush games, that we could have boughten them several times each.

To name a huge honorable Mentions list:

-San Francisco Rush
-Rush 2
-DK 64
-Mario Kart 64
-Diddy Kong Racing
-Destruction Derby
-Cruisn' USA
-Command & Conquer
-Yoshi's Story
-Battletanx 1 & 2
-Mario Party 1 & 3 (haven't played 2 until very, very recently)
-Extreme G I & II
-1080
-Top gear Rally

And ESPECIALLY Perfect Dark!

Just to name a few that gave me fond memories.

---------- Post added at 02:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:41 PM ----------

I'm tired of all these sudden video game birthdays. Enough already.


P.S. The N64 blew chunks. There were three good games out of the entire library.

Opinionated post is opinionated. You don't have lots of fantastic memories like I do, or a lot of others do

[warghoul]

I played so much 007 and mario kart 64 in high school great memories.
N64 you will always be close to my heart.

[Tails]

I really didn't like the N64 aside from Banjo-Kazooie series and Pokemon Puzzle League.

[Slime Slayer]

No RPG's makes me rank it as one of the worst systems of all time, RPG's being my favorite genre.

[Seahawk]

Majora's Mask, Paper Mario, and Banjo Kazooie can all tie for first place in my book. Beyond those three it'd get too hard to rank the games I like.

[Mareeps]

I remember when I got my N64. It came with Star Wars Racer. My favorite games on the N64 were Mario Kart 64, Majora's Mask, and Super Smash Bros.

[CrispyChicken]

@Seahawk- Glad I'm not the only one who loved Paper Mario

The N64 did lack in RPG, but at the time when I had the N64, the only things I played were adventure/platformers.

@Tails- Oh my god, Pokemon Puzzle League is so much fun lol.

[Kugyince]

Originally Posted by Cam3ron36

Opinionated post is opinionated. You don't have lots of fantastic memories like I do, or a lot of others do

Well duh. Of course it's my opinion just like its yours that there's something even remotely worthy about that console.

[Demon-Mask]

The N64 had some good games, you know the only wrestling games worth playing, Majora's Mask, Banjo Kazooie and 1080. There were some others, but as a whole I wasn't a huge fan of it.
I can see why people might like it, but it just didn't do it for me.
It was hurting for some good fighters, and RPGs. It probably had a few fighters and RPGs, but they really weren't great or even good.

Wait, there was this one RPG I really liked, it was called Quest 64 or something like that. The only good RPG I can remember on the console. I doubt I still have it.
I never got a chance to play Paper Mario, so I can't even begin to judge it.

[CatalystiCam]

The N64 had some good games, you know the only wrestling games worth playing

As I've mentioned in the past, I still prefer Day of Reckoning games on GC by a long shot.

[cecil]

first mario cart came played for hours on end , wow I was only 20 back then, times were simpler

[Dudebro]

I didn't really care for it but NT swears by Ogre Battle 64. One game that was horrible though was the Starcraft port. It's only passable if you never played it on PC or any other RTS on pc.

[RU Joe]

The N64 was a lot of fun, in my opinion.

Loved Perfect Dark {whose sound effects are still being used in games and movies to this day}, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and of course Duke Nukem: Zero Hour.
This is not to say that I didn't play lots of other great games on the console too such as:

Pokemon Stadium 2
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Mario Party
XG2
Star Wars Racer

and an assortment of others, but there was one really well - done racing game that centered around completion of certain driving challenges during a race, rather than just straight winning of races like most games.
Not only was the gameplay challenging and exiting, but the graphics on this particular game rivaled even SW: RS with the expansion pack - exceptional for the system.
Can't remember the name of it but I'm kicking myself for having sold or traded it ..

[CrispyChicken]

@JG- Oh yeah, the Pokemon Stadium games were fun!

[Demon-Mask]

I enjoyed Pokemon Snap.

[psimaster]

Originally Posted by Dudebro

There were lots of games I liked on N64 but the main ones were the great wrestling games. Imo they still play better than the garbage ones we have nowdays.

If only I Had one! The first system I ever got was the game cube. God, I love that thing. I still have it today. And yeah, I also hate the garbage of today, too. I just get bored of my wii games, and since we don't have wi-fi, we can't get nintendo 64 games off of the internet. So yeah, I'm screwed.