Because the Nintendo 64 is great: Short reviews of all N64 games I own (in progress)

[A Black Falcon]

If I like beat em ups, 1 on 1 fighters or RPG's what games am I gonna play on this shi'tay system? Yes one of those free roaming adventure games that I wasted far to much time as a child trying to like.

Beat 'em ups -- None of the systems that generation have much to offer in that genre, unfortunately. The N64 does have only two, even fewer than Saturn or PSX, and neither is too good (Fighting Force 64, Batman Beyond), but considering how mediocre the genre as a whole was that gen, it's not TOO bad off I think.

Fighting games -- if you like traditional 2d fighters, the N64 doesn't have much. It does have some okay to good 3d fighters, though, including the Fighter's Destiny games, Dual Heroes, and Mace: The Dark Age, and of course SSB, which is fantastic. And as for RPGs... if you mean traditional JRPGs, sure, all it's got is Paper Mario. Paper Mario is a fantastic game, but it is only one ~30 hour title. Apart from that, many JRPG fans will like the Japanese strategy game Ogre Battle 64; it's an exceptional game for sure. There's also Quest 64, which almost everyone hates but I've never played. For Western RPGs, Aidyn Chronicles is about it; see my review in the OP to see my thoughts on that good, but seriously flawed, game.

The N64's library is strongest in racing games, 3d platformers, FPSes, and other 3d action-adventure games.

Impressive review project, a good way to showcase the more obscure N64 games.

That is one of the main goals.

I haven't played SBK 2 but from what screenshots I could find the courses look wholly new so you'd be getting a new set of courses. I wouldn't expect it to be like SSX where it's just the same mountain with different obstacles most games.

Probably so. I'll need to get it sometime, but only if I get some more controller paks too, I think...

Also, no Duck Dodgers, Densha de Go, or Derby Stallion 64? Fushigi no Dungeon is decent too. Mario Golf is quite a good light game; you can also annoy your competitor during his swing with obnoxious noises; the courses have music too, not a common feature in golf games and always much needed.
Aha, and you like Indiana Jones, a good sign.

For Duck Dodgers, no, I don't own everything for the system yet... I have a lot of games, but not everything. That is certainly a game I want to play.

For those other two, I don't own any import titles, US releases only. And a horse racing game and train sim would be VERY low on my list I think, based on their genres at least... I don't know much about the games in specific. There are some import games I'd like to have, and Shiren 2 might be on that list, yeah (I'm sure I'd find it really hard and frustrating, but it clearly is good for its genre), but I don't know about those two...

As for Mario Golf, I don't like golf, and can't think of any golf game I've ever really enjoyed. I like some minigolf games, but golf? I find them boring at best, and almost always dislike them. I have very little interest in Mario Golf...

On the note of missing games though, no one's commented that I don't own Goldeneye yet? It is true. I did borrow the game from a friend back in 2000 and finish the game on the normal setting, so I have beaten it, but I never bought it after that; the game's nowhere near as good as Perfect Dark, so I've never thought it'd actually be worth the money. I mean, it's good for 1997, but honestly, today, I'd rather play any of the other three 1997 N64 FPSes over Goldeneye, probably... not saying they're better overall, but I'd rather play them today (that is, Hexen 64, Doom 64, and Turok 1).

Oh, The World Is Not Enough is as good as or better than Goldeneye too. It's a clone of course, but it's a good one. Goldeneye was somewhat revolutionary in 1997, but later titles exceeded it. OH, and Goldeneye's story is awful, too, and makes next to no sense unless you already know about the franchise and movie. When I first played the game I'd never seen a Bond movie before, so I had no clue who any of the characters were or what was going on, but very little was explained. The story only made any sense at all after I watched the film later on. Perfect Dark, in contrast, actually does a fine job with its storytelling.

@ cowboyscowboys = Super Smash Brothers, Dual Heroes, and Quest 64.

... You actually liked Quest 64, or are you not being serious? Because SSB is a great game.

[Thenewguy]

There's a lot of stuff there, I only perused them a little and noticed the Glover write-up but I'll read through the rest at a later time.

I've been playing Glover recently and I haven't found it to be frustrating or difficult at all, I've blasted through most of the game in no time with few level restarts, I've just run into the 1st difficult section thats giving me trouble, a boss fight with Frankenstein's monster, this seems to be the penultimate boss fight though, so I'm glad its finally heating up as I think It only has one more set of stages to do after this.

Glover got mainly luke-warm positive reviews back in the day, a couple of great ones, and a couple of mediocre ones, it gets some mentionings in lists of "underrated games" from time to time too. Some of the reviews said the game was unfair, but I didn't notice anything like that so I chalked it up to player fault, it certainly requires a lot of precision, and skill, but its not been out and out unfair to me so far.

[cheaterdragon1]

Good to see someone who loves the N64. Most of my favorite games are on the system and there's still plenty of games that I haven't played.

[NeoZeedeater]

Beat 'em ups -- None of the systems that generation have much to offer in that genre, unfortunately.

The Saturn has Guardian Heroes, Three Dirty Dwarves, Capcom's D&D games, Die Hard Arcade.

[A Black Falcon]

The Saturn has Guardian Heroes, Three Dirty Dwarves, Capcom's D&D games, Die Hard Arcade.

Is there anything much on Playstation? I know there are some bad licensed ones, and Fighting Force, but anything else? Does that Jackie Chan game count? It looks kind of okay.

As for Fighting Force though, I liked beat 'em ups in the late '80s through the mid '90s, but I remember playing Fighting Force 64 a few times back in '99 or '00 and thinking that it was terrible. I haven't played it again since, though, and I've never played the Batman Beyond game.

As for those Saturn games, that's a decent lineup, sure. Die Hard Arcade isn't as good as Dynamite Cop or Zombie Revenge on the DC, and I wish it saved scores and credits and such, but it is a fun game. Guardian Heroes I've only played a very little of, but it seems good. I do dislike that three-lines design, though -- true isomentric movement is a lot better. I haven't played Three Dirty Dwarves. As for the D&D Collection though, it is Japan-only, and while the arcade games are good, I have heard the Saturn port's not quite equal to the arcades. Still, for that gen it's probably one of the better ones anyway...

There's a lot of stuff there, I only perused them a little and noticed the Glover write-up but I'll read through the rest at a later time.

I've been playing Glover recently and I haven't found it to be frustrating or difficult at all, I've blasted through most of the game in no time with few level restarts, I've just run into the 1st difficult section thats giving me trouble, a boss fight with Frankenstein's monster, this seems to be the penultimate boss fight though, so I'm glad its finally heating up as I think It only has one more set of stages to do after this.

Glover got mainly luke-warm positive reviews back in the day, a couple of great ones, and a couple of mediocre ones, it gets some mentionings in lists of "underrated games" from time to time too. Some of the reviews said the game was unfair, but I didn't notice anything like that so I chalked it up to player fault, it certainly requires a lot of precision, and skill, but its not been out and out unfair to me so far.

I agree that Glover got lukewarm-positive reviews, but I do remember it often being criticized for its high, unfair difficulty level, and that's one of my primary memories of the game too. I like the game more than my cousin did -- he hated it, largely because of how hard it is I think -- but yeah, it can be a tough game for sure.

Once you get ball control down, and start taking your time and being careful, it does get a bit easier, but then the game gets harder, too... it's definitely borderline unfair, I think. I agree that with a lot of skill you can do well at the game, and that with patience you can figure out the puzzles and get through it and maybe also have fun, even, but a lot of the players couldn't quite manage enough skill to start enjoying it, clearly. Still, it is too bad that the sequel was cancelled well into development.

[Thenewguy]

Being loudmouthed and opinionated as usual (but hey people probably expect this from me by now anyway) I would say -

Kirby game - this was kinda' alright, but a bit too slow and stale, it was entertaining enough for a while I guess though

Goemon's Great Adventure - Awesome, underrated game, being that its not often brought up I expected it to be weaker than its SNES siblings, but its not, at all. Great side-on fast action game with 2-player co-op.

Body Harvest - it took me a long time to get into, but I love this game now, definitely think its superior to Jet Force Gemini, as soon as I drove full speed across a bridge dodging flying insects coming after me, jumped out and into an airplane, started shooting down insects, was forced into a landing, managed to take off again, crashed my airplane into a giant bug and then ran off shooting pursuing flying insects again until I found a tank, I just loved it. Waay too hard though unfortuantely, needs more save points.

Oot - One of the most overrated games of all time, an accomplished, technically excellent (in both graphics and design) game, which also manages to be very souless, and clinical. Bland environments, and a crap storyline (which is a thinly veiled videogame plot added in to explain the gameplay) also hinder the experience. Don't get me wrong, its easily a 9/10 game, but best ever? no way!

XG2 - hated it, found it to be a huge disappointment after the 1st one, the music, which was good in the original is utterly awful here, and this game frustratingly throws you around facing the wrong direction all the bloody time.

Forsaken - agreed, needs a map, needs save points between stages too, instead of every 5 stages, the game is still pretty good though, its also very surprisingly smooth and fast.

Banjo Tooie - great sequel, the characters, and world is much more fleshed out here, there's humour, and more attempt at a story, other new additions include some excellent boss fights and set-pieces, graphics are a big improvement but the framerate takes a hit (its not too bad though). I found this one to be much better than the original, it just has a lot more personality.

[NeoZeedeater]

Is there anything much on Playstation?

I remember Panzer Bandit and Fist of the North Star being good. A lot of people seem to like Nekketsu Oyako (also on Saturn) but I found it to be mediocre. I'm probably forgetting something important.

[j_factor]

Gekido is a pretty decent beat 'em up on Playstation. Not great, but better than Fighting Force. There was also a Japan-only port of Captain Commando.

[StarMist]

The Saturn has Guardian Heroes, Three Dirty Dwarves, Capcom's D&D games, Die Hard Arcade.

D&D is awful: 2P only and loading everywhere. Die Hard Arcade is enjoyable but very gimmicky with the way weapons dominate play, moreover it's virtually a single screen game--most areas fit within 1 to 2 screens of movement, you don't travel through levels...the arena subspecies of brawler (even Cannon Spike has more movement, though Deka's the better game).

What you're forgetting = Gekido. Excellent graphics (polygons) for the genre, 4P simul, and good gameplay. Also has a couple versus modes. -- edit: ninja'd, too many tabs open.

[DarkDragon]

I thought Gekido was horrible. Its got some of the worst soundtrack/music ever. Fighting Force is fun if you use the invincibility code.

[sketch]

It takes a while, I need to go back and play some of these some more, for instance (reviews like that MRC review could benefit from me playing the game again, for example), and of course I need to write the second half of the reviews too... but yeah, it's fun. I love the N64, so I want to do the games justice...

It is a worthy endeavor and well worth your time. The N64 is not remembered well by most, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, imperfect though it may have been. It's amusing to me that my favorite Nintendo console is the one that is virtually universally panned.

Your list reminds me of a list I used to go to for quick Genesis reviews when I was collecting games. I just went and checked and it's still there. If anyone's curious, just type in "rage games genesis quick reviews" into Google and it will pop up. I think there's one for SNES, and perhaps other systems as well.

I'm not actually sure which is my favorite 3d fighter on the N64; my favorite N64 fighting game would have to be SSB, but that's 2.5d. SSB is a very good game, though, so even if the N64 doesn't have much in quantity, it does have quality. Of the 3d ones, Fighter's Destiny, Fighter Destiny 2, and Mace: The Dark Age are definitely my favorites. I'm not certain what order those three games would go in, though... As for the overall quality of 3d N64 fighting games, though, I've said before that I don't think that overall they're much worse than 3d fighting games on Saturn or Playstation. Most 3d fighting games on all three systems are pretty bad games by modern standards, I think. 5th gen 3d fighting games have aged more than just about any other genre that generation. Even I sometimes have trouble judging them just by the standards of their time... still, though, some of the N64 ones are decent. As I said, I'd guess that the N64's decent to worse ratio among 3d fighting games is similar to the other consoles that gen.

I think 3d fighters were pretty rough in the 32-bit era; they were just starting out. Still, I enjoyed Fighting Vipers and Fighter's Megamix. Also played some Battle Arena Toshinden on the PSX at a friends. But none of them really hold up today. I wish I still had an N64 to take Fighter's destiny for a spin.

SSB always seemed like it's own genre to me.

tl, dr.
Actually it's pleasant to see N64 support here even if it is always from the same two or four folk.

I admit, I always come to the N64's defense when I see these threads. It's like seeing the wimpy kid getting picked on at recess. Just doesn't seem right. It's too easy to pick on the weak kid.

The N64 was a flawed machine, but it was cart-based (which I like) and it had a few games that were literally mind blowing at the time and are still fun today (Goldeneye, Mario 64). I'll always have a soft spot for this machine.

That must be the longest post in the history of the Internet. Naturally, I couldn't be bothered to read it.

Mr Smith's guide to N64 games:
Goldeneye: Awesome
Zelda OoT: Awesome
Everything Else: Overrated and/or tosh

In Summary: Play Mega Drive.

I will agree with you on Goldeneye and your summary, Smith. There are a handful of games besides Goldeneye on the N64 that are worth playing, however: Mario 64, SF Rush, Jet Force Gemini, Starfox, Mario Kart 64 all provided me with some serious fun back in the day.

[Thenewguy]

In regards to the Diddy Kong write-up, this may be me blowing smoke, but I believe there is a revision of Diddy Kong Racing where its next to impossible to beat the running wizpig boss.

Back in the day I tried to beat this boss over, and over, and over, by the 3rd lap i'd always be close to getting lapped, then when I bought a US copy after deciding to replace my 50hz collection, I did it first time, and it was actually really easy, I went back to by original copy and played it over, and over, and over, still not even getting remotely close to winning, back to the new copy and bam, done again on the 1st time.

There wasn't really even any comparison, on my original copy the best I'd done was using some ridiculous tactic where I had to hit every single booster, and get kicked forwards by Wizpig at certain areas I'd memorised, whilst in the new copy all I had to do was hit all the boosters and not make more than a handful of mistakes!

Originally I took it as though the PAL version of the game was bugged, but after talking to people I found that many other brits had actually done the game with no problems, so I told myself there were multiple revisions, not sure if thats true, but thats my 10 cents.

[Team Andromeda]

D&D is awful: 2P only and loading everywhere. Die Hard Arcade is enjoyable but very gimmicky with the way weapons dominate play, moreover it's virtually a single screen game--most areas fit within 1 to 2 screens of movement, you don't travel through levels...the arena subspecies of brawler (even Cannon Spike has more movement, though Deka's the better game).

What you're forgetting = Gekido. Excellent graphics (polygons) for the genre, 4P simul, and good gameplay. Also has a couple versus modes. -- edit: ninja'd, too many tabs open.

You can play D&D in 1 player and its far from awful, though it's true to say there's quite a lot of it in Shadow Over Mystaria .Die Hard Arcade is much better than it's rather poor sequel and imo the best 3D beat them up ever made .

Also there was quite a number of Beat Them up's on the Saturn that haven't been talked of yet including the likes Crows, Tenchi Wo Kurau .

[Kamahl]

though I feel as though I, by far, won the debate.

While you may have won that debate, as soon as Mr. Smith voiced his opinion your 'victory' became irrelevant.

[GameMaster600]

While you may have won that debate, as soon as Mr. Smith voiced his opinion your 'victory' became irrelevant.

I have to ask, are you and Mr. Smith best friends? Are you actually the same person using different accounts? You always seem to stick up for him, it's a bit odd.