N64 Retrospective – Staff Reflections

This past week, we’ve spent time discussing and looking back on our favorite Nintendo 64 games and how they changed the medium as a whole.

Today, we’re going to wrap the party up by sharing our personal memories and stories about the Nintendo 64. Take a look and share your own stories here and in our Reader Mailbag feature.

Previous Articles in this Feature

Greg

When the first Super Mario 64 screens hit American game magazines, I fell in love. Gaming in 3D was the future, and the future looked bright. I began to devour every review and bit of news that I could get my hands on.

I may not have reacted with the same gusto as the N64 kid, but I was pretty enthusiastic when I unwrapped the Nintendo 64 on Christmas day of 1996. I was in love with it from moment one. My relatives had all gotten together on this, so I had plenty of gaming to keep me busy for awhile in Super Mario 64, Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, and Quake.

While the Super Nintendo remains my favorite system, the Nintendo 64 had so many hits that it’ll always have a fond place in my heart. All of Nintendo’s best franchises had excellent versions on the N64.

My favorite N64 games: Zelda: OoT, Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Paper Mario, Pokemon Snap, Mischief Makers, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Starcraft 64, Space Station Silicon Valley, Ogre Battle 64, Harvest Moon 64, Jet Force Gemini

Nick Luckett

The N64 was the first video game console that I knew anything about before it was actually released. Sure, I may have known that Super Mario World was coming out for the launch of the SNES, but it wasn’t until the Ultra 64… err, excuse me, the Nintendo 64 that I followed a console many months prior to its release.

In fact, I was downright obsessed. I studied all the SGI people involved, read up on all the “Dream Team” developers and horded every magazine that had any information. At one point I even carried a spec sheet around in my pocket to show my friends just how powerful the N64 was going to be.

I also remember seeing the screenshots of Mario 64. I was floored. I had never seen anything as epic and beautiful as this new Mario that was set to kick off the true foray into 3D gaming.

And then came the day. The N64 was the first console that I reserved and I was there to pick it up two days before its official release date. My local Toys R Us called me and said they were breaking the street date and that I could come down and get mine. Boom. I was there in a heartbeat. I picked up the system, Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 and headed home.

Once I was there some of my friends met me at my house and I plugged it all in and booted up Mario 64. After about an hour of blissful play I asked if anyone else wanted to play. Instead, they said they would rather watch me. They said that just watching me play was amazing and that the game looked like a cartoon. They just wanted to see more.

Unfortunately, the following years of the N64 failed to live up to those amazing first few months. Notable games like Star Fox 64, Wave Race 64 and Banjo Kazooie were amazing, but the games came too few and far between. Every once in awhile, like with the release of Ocarina of Time, all eyes were on Nintendo and all my buddies would gather around and we would play for hours. The rest of the time… I had to watch as excellent games came out on competing systems. And at that time I was far too loyal and too much of fanboy to allow myself to purchase another system.

However, not all was lost with the N64. Not only do I think Nintendo got some sense knocked into them (which they are only now capitalizing on), but overall I have to say that from a game design standpoint, Nintendo did far more for the N64 than they did with the GameCube. Games like Pokemon Snap, Paper Mario, Wave Race 64, 1080 Snowboarding, Super Smash Bros and Mario Party showed classic Nintendo innovation and skill. With the GameCube I felt that they took a lot of their games and did just what they accused others of; they made sequels that weren’t that much improved and generally failed to innovate (minus some shinning examples like Pikmin).

My experience with the N64 was a roller coaster ride. At times I couldn’t believe how awesome the games were and how great Nintendo was. At other times I was ashamed to be so diehard Nintendo and wanted to jump ship and not miss out on awesome games on other systems. Yet, one of the most surprising things to me is how the N64 has lived on.

When I worked at EB games, the N64 was the king of used software. The first bin customers would go to was the N64 bin. And I know far more people had Playstations back then. But people love the N64. They love the quality first party Nintendo games that came out on the system. Looking back on the life the N64, some great games were released. If you were a hardcore gamer, waiting for those games could be tough. But if you had the opportunity to stop and look at the whole library, like we can now, the N64 was amazing. The games generally hold up better than PS1 or Saturn games in terms of graphics. And most of the time they hold up far better in terms of gameplay.

The N64 was a learning experience. For me it reaffirmed my love for Nintendo games, but it also showed me that good games are good games, regardless of the system. I think it taught Nintendo that they had to release their grip and let third parties in. The N64 brought 3D gaming to the masses and the Nintendo game developers continually showed the industry how to break boundaries. The N64 for will always have a special place in my heart. Not only for what it did, but maybe more importantly, what it didn’t do. Otherwise wii wouldn’t be where we are today.

N. Rumas

There has never been anything I’ve anticipated as much as the release of Nintendo 64, and there never will be. My pre-release obsession with the system was both legendary and frightening, to the point that it worried my family and friends. There were two main magazines that I carried with me at all times — at school, on vacations, in the car, etc. — the Space World N64 unveiling blowout issue of EGM, and the corresponding issue of Diehard Gamefan. That was in the late Fall of 9th grade (1995), and from that time I started saving money like mad. Over the course of the next year, I ended up saving something like $700, 2x more than I’d need, from doing every odd job in the book. I was focused like nobody’s business.

Once D-day hit, I’d already secured my pre-order at two different locations, and my brother was cool enough to give me a ride to the mall to pick the system up, along with Mario 64 and Pilotwings. Those two games, along with Waverace, 1080, Mario Kart and (much later) Zelda, were what made the system for me. Other titles that I loved were StarFox, F-Zero, Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo, Episode 1: Racer, Mario Tennis, Ridge Racer 64, and Rare’s classics. Honestly, outside of those games, there really wasn’t a whole lot that blew my skirt up, and the system collected a lot of dust from time to time, but I still loved it. Even as my friends sold theirs to get Playstations, I stuck by my N64, and managed to stay happy in the process.

Fast-forward to today. With the Wii release so close at hand, and along with it the Virtual Console, I find myself stricken with the 64-bit fever once again. One big question lingers, though, and it’s a big one: Will Iwata make good on his promise from a while back and make sure N64 VC games have nice, smooth frame rates? I sure hope so. Even back at the system’s release, Pilotwings nearly gave me motion sickness, and other games were a lot worse. Imagine playing Ocarina of Time and Waverace at a silky-smooth 60 fps…sounds like pure bliss to me. Please, Nintendo, don’t skimp on this one!

Vinnk

My N64 reflections? Close your ears fanboys; you might not want to hear this. First the good things I remember form the N64 days. I grew up on Nintendo, for me Nintendo was just another name for video game. I knew Sega Genesis existed but I felt it would disloyal to even think of playing one. I never had as much anticipation about a system launch as I did for the Nintendo 64. I read every video game magazine I could looking for any screenshot or tidbits about “Project Reality” and the “Ultra 64″ and I played Crusin’ USA and Killer Instinct with the knowledge that soon I would be playing these games in my own home. When I finally had one of my own and played Mario 64 for the first time, I was in heaven.

Yet, beyond those memories, I will remember the Nintendo 64 as the game system that made me give up playing video games. You see Mario 64 was great, so were Goldeneye and a handful more. But the majority of the N64 library was expensive and mediocre. The arcade titles I mentioned above did not look the same on the home system, which was a major disappointment to me. Also, I was a big RPG fan at the time and I remember actually looking forward to (and buying) Quest 64, which is one of the worst games, I have ever played. I missed the 2D games and many of the N64′s 3D games were pretty much the same. When I went off to college, I let my brother keep the N64. I was done with it. Of course because of that decision I missed a number of great games. But at the time I had never felt so let down by a system. The Super Nintendo had so many great games from so many genres. It was a golden age. The Nintendo 64 just never game me that same feeling.

I got back into games a few years later with the Sega Dreamcast, which though it had a shorter lifespan and fewer games, is remembered much more fondly, in my heart. When it was discontinued I got a Gamecube. The cube was fun but I spent far more time playing retro games and Neo Geo. The DS and the announcement of Wii is what brought me back to being a Nintendo fan.

The N64 and I had a falling out but there will be a happy ending to this story because all the great games (or most of them) that I missed out on will soon be available to play on the Wii. Just reading this retrospective this week made me realize how many classics I missed. So I am looking forward to playing Nintendo 64 again, for the first time.