The [NOT SO] Definitive Top 50 N64 Games

[PekoponTAS | 171]

On 12/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, ThePhleo said:

I mean the proper thing is to put MM above OOT because that’s the right thing to do 

Not to start up this whole silly argument again, but I'll put out my thoughts on these two games.

I love Majora's Mask for its story, innovative game concept, and consistently quality dark fantasy theme. There's an absolute endless amount of things to love about this game, and its story and atmosphere clobber the snot out of Ocarina of Time.

Yet Majora's moment to moment gameplay is a lot slower paced and irritating than Ocarina of Time, and there are WAY too many segments of Majora's Mask that aren't fun to actually play.

• Beaver races
• Hot spring water to elder Goron
• Gibdo cavern fetch quests
• Stone tower ascent
• Zora egg collecting
• The entire first cycle
• Sneaking into Deku Palace prison
• The entire water temple. (Which is worse than Ocarina's Water temple, yet nobody seems to complain about it)

Ocarina of Time has a more cliche story that rips off a Link to the Past, but the story is still entertaining enough, and Ocarina as a whole is much faster paced and less confusing when it comes to the gameplay segments. While I overall respect Majora's Mask way more, Ocarina of Time is the game I'll actually replay far more often. In that way, I do think Ocarina is better than Majora.

[PekoponTAS | 171]

Also there are plenty of great N64 games. I had a library of about 20 games as a kid, and they were all fun. Sure the system is pretty hard to revisit at this point, but I have many extremely fond memories of the N64. Great system, and I don't regret not owning a Playstation.

Special shout outs to Pokemon Puzzle League, Dr. Mario 64, Mario Tennis, and Star Wars Rogue Squadron, which all tend to get overlooked.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

10 hours ago, PekoponTAS said:

Mario Tennis

Mario Tennis is excellent and I will stand by it to this day.

[OptOut | 8,883]

Right, I've read through the thread now, and checked out the list.

Honestly, I'm really not sure what this list is supposed to show? The most popular games, in terms of current eBay sales?

Whatever it is, its missing a FUCK TON of excellent games on the system, actually some of the best games are totally absent.

If you restricted your N64 playing experience to this list, you would be poorer off for it IMO.

[T-Pac | 7,532]

22 hours ago, Jeevan said:

don't worry, I'll have you a list of top tier games in about a decade or so.....

[Jeevan | 8,910]

8 hours ago, CasualCart said:

I'm using this for the club   

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

Winback is #1, no contest. 
 

@Jeevan if you need any help please let me know. It’s a cool undertaking and N64 deserves some love. 

[Jeevan | 8,910]

23 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Winback is #1, no contest. 
 

@Jeevan if you need any help please let me know. It’s a cool undertaking and N64 deserves some love. 

as of right now, all i need is a microphone setup to play hey you pikachu and also a pokemon gb cart to play stadium 1 & 2 with and without pokemans.  

[WalterWhiteJr. | 1,162]

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[ThePhleo | 2,184]

On 12/4/2022 at 1:00 AM, OptOut said:

Right, I've read through the thread now, and checked out the list.

Honestly, I'm really not sure what this list is supposed to show? The most popular games, in terms of current eBay sales?

Whatever it is, its missing a FUCK TON of excellent games on the system, actually some of the best games are totally absent.

If you restricted your N64 playing experience to this list, you would be poorer off for it IMO.

Yeah, I MADE the list and I no longer understand what this and my NES list means anymore.

Its literally just a guide for “Current Availability versus Demand”

it’s mostly useless data, but at the same time it might be worth pursuing it again in 90 days to see what changes.

Originally I wanted to make a unbiased rarity guide, with market hype being the deciding factor for everything…but now? Well, I guess it’s a good starting point but not much else.

 

Someone smarter than me needs to take the data and make it useful. There’s SOMETHING in there, I just don’t know entirely what.

Edited December 5, 2022 by ThePhleo

[Jeevan | 8,910]

FYI, I started a club for the n64 rankings.  It is not where I will be posting them.  I have a select group of folks who have done this and are familiar with the n64.  If you want to help out, reach out via pm's, but for now I wanna keep the group small so as not to give spoilers to folks!  I will open the club up after all is said and done if you all would be interested in reading how the "journey" went!  I don't have a problem with that at all!

I will be doing either a blog or a thread about the actual rankings themselves.  If reed so chooses, this can be moved to a site that he has as well.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

On 11/30/2022 at 1:01 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

Quest 64 is the 45th best seller in the above data out of a library of 300... Think about THAT!!!

In fairness, as crap as Quest 64 is, it's one of only two true RPGs on the system, the other being the equally atrocious Aidyn Chronicles.  And the number of people who wanted ANY RPG would account for a good chunk of the sales figures.  

[Jeevan | 8,910]

The "rankings" have begun folks!!!!!!  Look forward to it in the next decade or so, but I have beaten 2 games that I have never played before!  So far it puts me well over 25% .  Look forward to feedback from @Reed Rothchild @OptOut @fox @spacepup @Splain.  @OptOut is already a bit disappointed in my choice in rating 1 game, but i believe he will be happy overall!  Wish me luck as I have only "completed" 76/296 as of right now!  I will get through it all or at least attempt all 200 sports and fighting games .  But seriously, I will do my best to give every game a fair shake shake, mishchief makers reference there, and rate them on several categories!

[OptOut | 8,883]

2 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

In fairness, as crap as Quest 64 is, it's one of only two true RPGs on the system, the other being the equally atrocious Aidyn Chronicles.  And the number of people who wanted ANY RPG would account for a good chunk of the sales figures.  

People who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about will take any opportunity they can to shit on N64.

If anyone wants some ACTUAL suggestions of decent games to play, deep within the N64 library, hit me up.

[Jeevan | 8,910]

19 minutes ago, OptOut said:

People who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about will take any opportunity they can to shit on N64.

If anyone wants some ACTUAL suggestions of decent games to play, deep within the N64 library, hit me up.

hopefully we can align on some of our thoughts   I look forward to working with you to rank the whole NA library buddy!!!!!

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,012]

Reading through the OP made me realize how many N64 games I played through. From the 50, I only haven't played 4 games. That is really saying something bc I can count how many N64 games I played on one had in the past 2 decades lol. My OG N64 got MILES on it when I was a kid. 

[OptOut | 8,883]

1 hour ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Reading through the OP made me realize how many N64 games I played through. From the 50, I only haven't played 4 games. That is really saying something bc I can count how many N64 games I played on one had in the past 2 decades lol. My OG N64 got MILES on it when I was a kid. 

Plug it back in and try again! Start with some of your favourites from back in the day, give em another go, and then let your curiosity lead you to new experiences on the system.

People always say how "shallow" the N64 library is, and then you ask them what they've actually played and they mumble something about how Goldeneye hasn't aged well, and they "don't have three hands"... 

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,012]

2 hours ago, OptOut said:

Plug it back in and try again! Start with some of your favourites from back in the day, give em another go, and then let your curiosity lead you to new experiences on the system.

People always say how "shallow" the N64 library is, and then you ask them what they've actually played and they mumble something about how Goldeneye hasn't aged well, and they "don't have three hands"... 

It's actually the only retro console I have hooked up in the living room since I have the HDMI mod. It sits there w the Xbox one & Switch lol. I have the everdrive too and tbh I've beaten so so many games as a kid on the N64 it's hard to believe. It's easily my most played console, up there with the Dreamcast. Those two were my golden age of gaming. 

The N64 also has a tough place in my memory bc it was my escape from my parents divorce. I got the N64 was a birthday present a couple months before they split up and I eventually ended up living w my dad and my N64 was at my mom's where I spent my weekends and subsequently did most of my gaming. My dad always tried to compete but didn't want to get me the same system I had at my mom's so he literally bought me every other system - Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and PS1.

Over time I developed a real distain for my step dad, so most weekends ended up just being me bunkered in my room w blockbuster game and a couple N64 games. So once I got out of that situation, I just kinda never went back to the console bc 1) I played the absolute shit out of it over that 6 year period and 2) it wasn't my fondest memories since a lot of the playing was to promote isolation. 

But it turned out that it's the main one of 2 consoles that my wife will actually play. So over the past 6-7 years I've had a real renewed interest and started to enjoy collecting and playing again.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

7 hours ago, OptOut said:

People who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about will take any opportunity they can to shit on N64.

If anyone wants some ACTUAL suggestions of decent games to play, deep within the N64 library, hit me up.

I'm sure there's some great games that I've never played, but from what I have, the only ones I enjoyed are the THQ wrestling games, Harvest Moon 64, Perfect Dark, Conker, and DK64.  I'm not big on racing games, so that's around 200 games right off the top. I found the Zelda games to be boring slogs that weren't worth the effort, and Goldeneye was janky and overrated (though in fairness I didn't play it until around 10 years ago...it was likely amazing when it came out).  

[Jeevan | 8,910]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:03 PM, RegularGuyGamer said:

It's actually the only retro console I have hooked up in the living room since I have the HDMI mod. It sits there w the Xbox one & Switch lol. I have the everdrive too and tbh I've beaten so so many games as a kid on the N64 it's hard to believe. It's easily my most played console, up there with the Dreamcast. Those two were my golden age of gaming. 

The N64 also has a tough place in my memory bc it was my escape from my parents divorce. I got the N64 was a birthday present a couple months before they split up and I eventually ended up living w my dad and my N64 was at my mom's where I spent my weekends and subsequently did most of my gaming. My dad always tried to compete but didn't want to get me the same system I had at my mom's so he literally bought me every other system - Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and PS1.

Over time I developed a real distain for my step dad, so most weekends ended up just being me bunkered in my room w blockbuster game and a couple N64 games. So once I got out of that situation, I just kinda never went back to the console bc 1) I played the absolute shit out of it over that 6 year period and 2) it wasn't my fondest memories since a lot of the playing was to promote isolation. 

But it turned out that it's the main one of 2 consoles that my wife will actually play. So over the past 6-7 years I've had a real renewed interest and started to enjoy collecting and playing again.

Glad you found solace in the N64.  Granted, I disagree about the "golden age," but that is really up to the individual.  I hold the SNES days as the golden age of gaming.  Hopefully you will enjoy the write ups as they come out.

On 12/11/2022 at 2:13 PM, the_wizard_666 said:

I'm sure there's some great games that I've never played, but from what I have, the only ones I enjoyed are the THQ wrestling games, Harvest Moon 64, Perfect Dark, Conker, and DK64.  I'm not big on racing games, so that's around 200 games right off the top. I found the Zelda games to be boring slogs that weren't worth the effort, and Goldeneye was janky and overrated (though in fairness I didn't play it until around 10 years ago...it was likely amazing when it came out).  

Dude, THQ wrasslin' was the shit.  They will be high in nostalgia for me, we shall see where they fall in the rankings.  You need to do yourself a favor and follow along when the write ups come out because there are a lot of games that are enjoyable.  I will do my best to steer you in the right direction.