The Decade of the N64

1up is running a piece looking back at the ten years since the N64's launch. The start of Nintendo's slump, the N64 still managed to come out of the console wars with some great and lasting memories, like GoldenEye, Smash Bros., and Ocarina of Time. From the article: "Nintendo certainly gave players plenty of time to get all 120 stars. By the end of 1996, the N64 still had fewer than a dozen games, and even that anemic library was glutted with mediocrity like Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Cruis'n USA. Sure, there were gems like Mario Kart 64 and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and there was the stubborn optimism of Nintendo of America President Howard Lincoln (who insisted N64 games sold more than 250,000 per title), but industry commentators were starting to see through the emperor's clothes. Meanwhile, Sony was turning up the heat with massive blockbusters like Final Fantasy VII." The Press the Buttons blog has some additional commentary on Nintendo's first 'meh' console.

Comments

Meh?

[AKAImBatman]

The Press the Buttons blog has some additional commentary on Nintendo's first 'meh' console.

I'm not following this sudden 'meh' comment. The N64 was a great machine with a lot of great games. Its only real failing was that it was bloody expensive due to its cartridge format. Nintendo still had a solid base going into the Gamecube. It's just too bad they pissed it away with a poor launch lineup, loss of third party support, and a rather small library of *good* games.

Probably the biggest blow, however, was the loss of Rare and its properties. Rare carried the N64 with its Donkey Kong, Banjo & Kazooie, and Conqeror titles. Unfortunately, the loss was internal to Rare, so there wasn't much Nintendo could do other than unload it. :(

Re:Meh?

[Amalas]

I'm not following this sudden 'meh' comment. The N64 was a great machine with a lot of great games.

I agree. The N64 was the first console I ever had and it was great! Ocarina was the first game I ever beat and I wasted sooo much time playing Goldeneye.

I did finally trade in the 64 to get a Gamecube, but I believe I kept the Ocarina game for sentimental value. Or something.

Anyway, how dare they call the N64 'meh'!

Re:Meh?

[AKAImBatman]

I don't remember playing much of anything after that.

*deep breath*

Mario Party 1-3, Mario Kart 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, BlastCorp, Diddy Kong Racing, Killer Instinct Gold, Banjo-Tooie, Wave Race 64, Mario Golf, Super Smash Bros., F-Zero X, Hydro Thunder, SF Rush, SF Rush 2049, and that's without even trying.

You must have had your head stuck in the sand to not be able to find a good game, especially considering that the N64 had a much higher signal to noise ratio than the Playstation.

Re:Meh?

[AKAImBatman]

Nintendo totally bailed on Rare at the right time.

Yeah, no kidding. Because the loss was internal to Rare. (Is there an echo in here?) Rare lost the programmers that made it Rare, then went down the tube quickly. There was nothing Nintendo could do except unload it. (There's that echo again.)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Uh Perfect Dark?

[voice_of_all_reason]

Nothing could truly perpare you for unlocking darksims, eagerly loading them into the next slo-motion multiplayer game and watching them spin their torso around and shooting at you while continuing to climb a ladder.

List 'o memories:

-You killing Elvis' friend in the underwater mission. "Everything's going wrong!" while he tears at his hair in an eerily poignant moment.
-The amusing lines of other guards when you headshot someone in another room with a silenced weapon. "MY GOD! Whhhyyyyyy!"
-The bonus mission where you replay an earlier level but get access to other areas (alien suicide mission to blow up the spaceship so it doesn't fall into human hands). I always liked those "you should not be here..." wall textures in other early FPS.
-...and Morgan Freeman as "The President"
-Laptop sentry guns saving the day in combat simulator challenge missions

Ahh, such a good console!

[chebucto]

Will any game ever be better than F1 World Grand Prix? I seriously doubt it. If there is a better game in existence, it's probably GoldenEye, or Ocarina. The N64 kicked ass.

oh, and by the way, does anyone else here prefer the cartridge format? No danger of scratches, quick load-times, generally a physically strong media.

With today's cheap and expansive flash memory, shouldn't someone be thinking about bringing cartridges back? Surely 1-2GB is enough for passably good graphics

First Meh Console? Virtual Boy!

[TibbonZero]

I'd say that Nintendo's first released flop was the Virtual Boy. It wasn't quite portable, but it wasn't quite a home VR system either. Sales were horrible, people had headaches, and games all in red just look bad!

I personally think that the N64 was pretty darn good! Mario 64 was great, as were the Zelda games. Ok, it wasn't a huge library of tons and tons of games, but quite a few were very high quality. Nintendo was thinking outside the box a bit with Smash Bros, and started on the 'party game' thing again, something that Sony only got a bit of with DDR and guitar hero, and MSFT has been left out mostly on IMHO. Sure Sony/MSFT can put out a lot of pretty games, but nintendo makes just fun ones that still are fun, and to my eyes don't look that dated, as they weren't made to be 'the super pretty hyper-realistic games'. They were meant to be fun. There's a reason that I still have a 8 bit, and 16 bit nintendo sitting around, AND two game boy advances. I also have a PS2, but I don't have an Xbox/Xbox 360, or a PS1. Nor will I have a PSP, etc. I just want fun games.

Of course Nintendo's first super stupid major flop, was the falling out with Sony while developing the PS1.

N64!

[joe 155]

Brilliant, I got mine with Goldeneye, a fantastic game and still the gold standard for FPSs, Then there was Zelda:OoT, a perfect game, stunning in every way, then Majora's mask - even better. The best game ever. In fact it was one of the best systems I've ever owned, and my first downloads on the wii back game system will be n64 games.

Simply stunning, no room for "meh"

Re:It wasn't great, but Mencia wasn't entirely rig

[discstickers]

I think he mean Rouge Squadron

N64's Secret Gem

[Anonymous Coward]

With the possible exception of Pong - Nintendo has ruled console Tennis games with an iron fist. First was Super Tennis for the SuperNes - still the best tennis game around - followed by N64 Mario Tennis. Not that anybody has really noticed seeing as Tennis games are just so rabidly popular... I have played just about every console tennis game (it's a quirk of mine) and I can honestly say that most developers forget to include gameplay (especially H2H) in their game design.

Hats of to the Big N for their tennis excellence and I'll keep my eyes open for the first wii tennis game!

PS vs N64

[bussdriver]

PS: 50+ copied games
played 8 of them
replayed 3
heavily played 1

N64: 12 games, many rented
played 11
replayed 9
heavily played 3

The best game of the period, Mario Kart 64:
Priceless.