Gavin Lane, Editor – N64
“Oof, N64? Bizarre controller, ugly video games, Nintendo heading off a cliff after the 16-bit technology. Unhappy.”
Poor take, Made-Up Contratrian Particular person! I am going to concede that commercially the N64 signalled a decline in Nintendo’s cultural dominance with Sony within the ascent within the mid-’90s, however you aren’t getting to dismiss a library of genre-definers as “ugly”!
Look. Mario 64 is clearly the ace within the gap right here, however you possibly can’t cling a complete console on one nice sport, whether or not it guided a complete style or not. So, let’s throw in somewhat one thing else like, oh I do not know, Ocarina of Time. One epic Zelda journey not sufficient for you? Right here, have a Majora’s Masks, too. That is the most effective one, anyway.
Pff, boring! Each Nintendo console’s obtained good Marios and Zeldas. What else is there? Properly, how about the most effective Star Fox, the most effective F-Zero, and the most effective Mario Celebration (not my bag, however that is what you of us say)? The N64 was the birthplace of Paper Mario, Smash Bros., Pokémon Snap, and the primary four-player Mario Kart. Wave Race 64 is an all-time piece of software program that holds up superbly as we speak (not the PAL model, by no means the PAL model), after which there’s the majesty of video games like 1080 Snowboarding and Pilotwings 64, simply a few lower-tier releases that put AAAs on different consoles to disgrace. There was even a Kirby sport, if you happen to like that kind of factor.
I’ve deliberately not talked about the Nintendo-published Uncommon video games above in an effort to focus on how the Extremely 64 wasn’t only a Rareware machine. However throw simply a few these within the combine — say, GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie — and the standard, breadth, and sheer originality of N64’s first-party output is unmatched by every other system.
(Shoutout to the handhelds, although — I really like you, too!)