Let's Talk N64

On 04/11/2017 at 09:45 PM by KnightDriver

I was thinking about the consoles I collected in the 90s. There was the NES, SNES, Genesis (with 32X and CD add-ons), Playstation and N64. I had some great game experiences with all of them, but when I think about which one I enjoyed the most, it was the N64.

N64

Look at that console design, isn't it sleek? The console is contoured like a car, the controller like a spaceship. I even like the switches, the plugs for the controllers, and game cartridges. I love the whole design of it. I guess that's why I still have the one I had in the 90s, something I can't say about any of the other systems.

I was surprised going over the list of released games at how few there were. Seems Nintendo was very careful about what got on their system. I was also surprised that I played very few of the most famous games, just a little bit of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and GoldenEye 007. I never finished any of them. Mostly it was ports of the PC games I played. There were: Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake, and Hexen ports and a new FPS series, Turok. Those didn't make the N64 unique in any way, so I thought I'd mention the ones that got me into new genres.

1997

Diddy Kong Racing (DKR) was a spin off of the Donkey Kong Country series I loved on the SNES (I gave myself blisters playing those). I guess DKR was Rare's attempt to compete with Mario Kart. It is a Kart game but with an adventure mode, which is what sold me on it. In adventure mode you advanced to new areas by doing races with cars, hover craft and airplanes. You also had a battle mode and boss chase to do in each location to move on.

I have a vivid memory of being in the hub area with my girlfriend in the room. Usually I don't game in her presence because I'm usually at Mark's or playing violent shooters not to her taste, but this was tame enough to pass muster and the music was gently funky and playful. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece of gaming, but having cool music and an adventure mode certainly got me into a Kart racer.

1998

What would get me into fighting games in the late 90s? Make it claymation and full of silly one-liners and put in a story. Woah! That sounds like a recipe for a little kids game. Well, I guess I'm a little kid and like fart jokes and colorful graphics. Wee! Anyway, I do like humor in games and I was a big fan of Aardman Animations and their Wallace and Gromit claymation films.

I clearly remember buying Clayfighter Sculptor's Cut at a Blockbuster in their game sales area even though wiki says it was made only for rental. Maybe sometime later it was thrown in the sales bin. I didn't know it at the time, but it turned out this "Sculptor's Cut" version of Clayfighter 63 1/3 was a Blockbuster exclusive and is now one of the rarest N64 games. Who knew? Not I.

It is not a great fighting game but is very funny. The voice cast is mostly people who did the Animaniacs TV show. This special version also has a song with lyrics at the beginning and four new characters. I still sing the song now and then. One of the lines in the chorus goes: "Clayfighter, pounding clay is all the rage". I sing it from time to time for a giggle to this day.

1999

Destruction Derby 64 (DD64) wasn't the first crash-racing game to capture my attention, that was Destruction Derby 2 on Playstation back in '96, but I had a heap of fun with DD64, solidifying my love of the genre and preparing me to be open to the first Burnout game in 2001.

I like the idea of a destruction derby game but not with arenas. That's why I go for the crash-racing variant. I want tracks that go somewhere and then crash and bash along the way. This gave you that. Mark and I would play this multiplayer all the time. You could end up going opposite directions on the same road and create head-on collisions, a precursor, I suppose, to crash mode in the Burnout series.

pokemonsnap

Pokemon Snap was a huge favorite of mine and has never been replicated or sequeled. What genre is this game? An on-rails-3D-shooter where your camera is the gun. What was the object? Photograph all the Pokemon to Prof. Oak's satisfaction. My love of photography assures this will never leave my collection.

I played the N64 for only those three years. It was a small window of fun but I enjoyed it more than any other system in the 90s.

Next up is a system released in '99 and my favorite for a similarly brief time as the world crossed over into the 21st century.

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/11/2017 at 10:30 PM

Wait ... Augmented reality pokemon snap ... I think i it saved

KnightDriver

04/11/2017 at 11:21 PM

Yea, that is true. Pokemon Go is basically the next evolution of a game like Pokemon Snap. I like that P. Snap focused in on photography though. (P. Snap would be a good rapper name).

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/11/2017 at 11:53 PM

yo yo I'm P Snap and I'm here to rap about my pile of gats!

mothman

04/12/2017 at 07:34 PM

No, you are P. Snee-ee.

04/12/2017 at 03:32 AM

I meant more like it would be really cool if the next snap game was AR.

Like it would be a geotagging/photography games where certain locations inserted different pokemon into the pictures then on your phone.

04/12/2017 at 10:57 PM

Oh, that would be cool. Why not use the photography angle? Lots of games have a photo mode these days, but no game really uses it as a main gameplay feature. Now I think of it, Bioshock did encorportate photography in a way that affected gameplay. Then there was that game Afrika on PS3 which didn't get such great reviews. I sometimes think of how a photo game might be interesting.

04/13/2017 at 01:31 AM

I still need to play Beyond Good & Evil as well. Don't you play a reporter?

04/13/2017 at 07:51 PM

Oh yea. Yes, you're a reporter and photography is a pretty big part of that game. You get your money by shooting all the wildlife you find. That makes it another of my favorites.

Cary Woodham

04/11/2017 at 10:34 PM

I got the N64 on day one and loved a lot of games on it, like Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, Kirby 64, the Zeldas, Smash Bros., and many more. But it was the lack of games on the N64 that made me get a PlayStation so I could review more games for the newspaper. And that was the first time I ever bought another company's console!

I wish I could gotten that ClayFighter game. Hate that I missed out on it.

04/11/2017 at 11:18 PM

It's funny that most of the games talked about in regards the N64 are not games I played back then. I seemed to have missed all the best ones. I do remember wanting to buy Paper Mario one year, but it was pricey at the covention I was at, so I didn't get it.

Sculptor's Cut is marginally better than 63 1/3. I don't think you missed very much.

04/12/2017 at 09:25 AM

I didn't play any of the ClayFighter games on the N64, so I did miss out.

04/12/2017 at 11:00 PM

I never played the earlier Clayfighter games on SNES. I should remedy that sometime.

SanAndreas

04/12/2017 at 01:00 AM

I got a N64 with Super Mario 64 in Christmas of 1996, and of course I was looking forward to what was then called Zelda 64. I also really enjoyed Mario Kart 64 and Star Fox 64.

For me, though, the N64's undoing was the almost complete lack of RPGs. Earthbound 64 (Mother 3) and Tales of Phantasia 2 (which later became Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube) were the only ones announced early on and both of those got re-routed to other systems. Games like Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Harvest Moon 64, and Ogre Battle 64 did eventually come out, but I couldn't resist the siren's song that was Final Fantasy VII and ended up buying a PlayStation a couple years later.

04/12/2017 at 11:03 PM

Yea, not much on the RPG side. I didn't really get into RPGs much because Mark and I were always playing stuff together. Although, we did play Shining in the Darkness on Genesis somehow.

The Last Ninja

04/16/2017 at 03:31 PM

People tend to act like the N64 is the worst console ever, but while it had few games, it has some of the greatest games of all time. Also, it was the party system. PS1 didn't even have four players! The lack of RPGs is a bummer, but let's not forget Paper Mario and Ogre Battle 64 (which are both great). I have tons of great memories with the system, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

04/16/2017 at 08:40 PM

Yea, Mark and I played multiplayer in a lot of games on N64. Most of the PS1 games we played we had to do seperately or in turns except for Wargames Defcon 1. That had campaign co-op and was a blast.

goaztecs

04/20/2017 at 12:03 PM

I was fully entrenched in Team Playstation so I never got around to buying the N64. I do regret this now because at the time the Toys R Us in San Diego had the Pokemon N64 on clearance for $50 and I refused to buy it. That would have been a cool item to have.

Anyways I don't think anyone ever played the single player of Goldeneye. It was all multiplayer, and that's one of the games I would play with friends. I wish I would have known that info about the special Clayfighter. I used to visit Blockbuster all the time just to check out their sale games bin. I found a couple of cool items and I must have crossed that cart a couple of times.

04/20/2017 at 10:26 PM

I used to scrounge Blockbuster sales bins all the time for cheap, interesting games. I had a Playstation too and played that almost as much. Of course, I got all this stuff at flea markets and a few years after they came out when their prices went down.

04/26/2017 at 11:40 AM

Those were the days. Now its tough finding classic plastic without reseller guy, or eBay guy buying everything. Right when a new console hit, all the older stuff used to start showing up at thrifts or flea markets.

04/26/2017 at 11:13 PM

Yea, the days before the internet took over, and ebay. Hunting classic plastic was so fun.

PixlBit