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Console Debate #16 Nintendo 64


fox

How do you rate N64?  

83 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate N64?

    • 10/10 GOAT. Greatest console of all time.
    • 9/10 Bad@$$. One of the best.
    • 8/10 Exceptional. Everyone should play it.
    • 7/10 Superior. More than a few games you like.
    • 6/10 Good. You might occasionally enjoy playing it.
    • 5/10 Average. Smack dab in the middle.
    • 4/10 Mediocre. Not something you will go out of your way to play.
    • 3/10 Inferior. There are better alternatives to this.
    • 2/10 Poor. Barely worth turning on.
    • 1/10 Trash. No redeeming features.
      0
    • Haven’t played, but interested.
      0
    • No interest in it.
      0


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11 hours ago, nrslam said:

C'mon,the Atari 5200 and early 400/800 computers had 4 controller ports, and even the 2600 gave 4-player play with Warlords since you could hook 2 paddles to each of its two ports.  I love the N64, but 4-player was hardly revolutionary.

Warlords is still a great couch party game to this day.  The arcade cocktail is even better.  But yeah, Atari started the 4-player way of gaming, but, as someone said, Nintendo popularized it with the N64, due to the size of the game industry by that point compared to when Atari was pioneering the industry.

I know most of you probably only have ever played MULE on the NES, but if you ever find yourself with an Atari 800 computer, try MULE on that.  Much better than the NES version!

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1 hour ago, Sumer said:

I know most of you probably only have ever played MULE on the NES, but if you ever find yourself with an Atari 800 computer, try MULE on that.  Much better than the NES version!

Totally agree that MULE on Atari 800 is best version.  My computer only has two controller ports, so never played it with four humans.  Still, even the solo or 2P experience is awesome.

NES version tried some new things that didn't work and ruined the awesome theme song in the process.

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11 hours ago, GPX said:

I think this is the core issue - lack of third party support. And for what support there were, the only 2 companies that seem to understand the console intricacies were Nintendo themselves and Rare. 

Other companies were seemingly pumping out generic titles or were probably more focused on the PlayStation 1.

Thankfully Nintendo were still at their inventive best and games like Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Zelda Ocarina, Smash Bros ensured Nintendo fans were still kept interested. Without the interest, the GameCube may not have happened, and perhaps then no Switch! 

Another point is that the N64 was like a pilot console for the 3D venture in gaming. Technology was still raw back then so it’s worth to give it some kudos points. Any comparisons with the SNES is sort of unfair, as Nintendo had the NES to perfect the 2D gaming ventures.

Oh I don't know about that.  I think Lucasarts and Midway did a very good job at pumping out some quality releases.  The whole small run of Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff was top notch.  And then Midway, it was a sliding scale but they did excellent arcade conversions and some sequels and knowing what I do having worked there and seen the last Blitz being tested on N64, they seemingly cared to try harder on N64 than PS1 for games both systems got.  Look up the display, and general frame rate and performance of the N64 vs PS1 games, the PS1 versions were atrocities in some cases.

Mind you sadly(disgustingly too?) their footprint was small and tiny repsectively, but Konami and Capcom put some ace quality stuff out for the little they did.  Oh and well there is the now Konami owned and slighted Hudson that did some really fine Bomberman titles too.

Come to think of it, while the company was crap, Acclaim did a fantastic job with the Turok license.

 

They didn't have a lot of third parties, but enough of them when they put something on there, more often than not they tried quite a bit to get your money around the Nintendo and Rare double teaming.  People seem to have thin memories when it comes to N64 saying it didn't have games or good stuff, it did, you just had to open your eyes and bother to look because it's there, just not large amounts of it annoyingly.

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4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Oh I don't know about that.  I think Lucasarts and Midway did a very good job at pumping out some quality releases.  The whole small run of Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff was top notch.  And then Midway, it was a sliding scale but they did excellent arcade conversions and some sequels and knowing what I do having worked there and seen the last Blitz being tested on N64, they seemingly cared to try harder on N64 than PS1 for games both systems got.  Look up the display, and general frame rate and performance of the N64 vs PS1 games, the PS1 versions were atrocities in some cases.

Mind you sadly(disgustingly too?) their footprint was small and tiny repsectively, but Konami and Capcom put some ace quality stuff out for the little they did.  Oh and well there is the now Konami owned and slighted Hudson that did some really fine Bomberman titles too.

Come to think of it, while the company was crap, Acclaim did a fantastic job with the Turok license.

 

They didn't have a lot of third parties, but enough of them when they put something on there, more often than not they tried quite a bit to get your money around the Nintendo and Rare double teaming.  People seem to have thin memories when it comes to N64 saying it didn't have games or good stuff, it did, you just had to open your eyes and bother to look because it's there, just not large amounts of it annoyingly.

I don’t think our views are directly opposing. I tend to agree with most of what you said. The Star Wars games were generally quality and some exclusive or cross-platform games here and there that are worth some game time.

However, you hit the nail on the head in your last sentence “People seem to have thin memories when it comes to N64 saying it didn't have games or good stuff, it did, you just had to open your eyes and bother to look because it's there, just not large amounts of it annoyingly.” The key point we’re agreeing on is that the good stuff was rather a small sample size, and more so if trying to find some good exclusive games on the N64 other than Nintendo or Rare titles.

If we delve further into the issue, you mentioned Konami and Capcom as third party support. I looked up and found there were about 10 games in total by these (then) heavyweights! How many did they make for the PS1? I would imagine a whole lot more. Lack of third party support is what made gamers turn towards other platforms for their fix on variety. 

 

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Well I don't much care about if the n64 vs ps1 had ports, that was still an era most people just owned one console.  The rabid thought of pokemoning every console on the market didn't kick off until after when it starting hitting some extremes.  Despite that though, yeah Konami and Capcom put dozens more games on Sony, no surprise, optical is cheap.  But exclusives, Capcom...zero.  Konami though did, quite a bit which was a surprise.  2 Goemon games, Hybrid Heaven, the broken beta Castlevania then the complete Legacy of Darkness, and there are others.  The indy/star was ones thankfully were if we ignore their crappier versions, were console N64 exclusive.  The thing is, it's not hard to pull at least 30 or so games (10-20%+ of the library as unique and worth owning (outside of Nintendo/Rare games) which isn't bad at all.

I think it was the lack of care the third parties took in exclusives to the N64 vs just lacking support for the companies that did bother to make games for it.  There was some really strange one off games, some fantastic, others not so much.  Strangely quite a few PS1-N64 ports, outside of the CD audio and FMV bubble did better on N64 which was an amusing trade off.  It was just was a weird time.  People dumped on 64 owners because of a certain mantra, but looking back, whether they believed it or not, it was true.  Nintendo 64 survived on quality over quantity and did a good job of it.  What held them back was the lack of some companies making games at all, and it's hard to blame them given the price/capacity of a 32-64MB cart vs a CD that would hold 10x that.

Also fair to call shameful, the N64 stuff that didn't leave Japan that should have.  There was some really good titles overseas we got iced out of that knowing what we do now of the market then, would have sold.  Some denied, some companies just failed so the product vanished.

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A groundbreaking system that brought Nintendo into the 3D world in a big way.  Despite a funky design, the analog controller became the standard for gaming going forward.  In addition, the 4 controller ports lead to some of the greatest multiplayer party games and experiences.

So many titles from both Nintendo and Rare are just stone cold classics.  Mario 64, Zelda (Oot and MM), Goldeneye, Banjo, Mario Kart 64, Smash, etc.  You could easily make a top 20 out of those 2 developers alone.  Third party support is a bit more mixed bag due to the decision to go with carts over CDs.  You just have stuff like Beetle Adventure Racing and No Mercy, rather than Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid.

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Events Team · Posted
4 hours ago, sg17 said:

9/10, but I wouldn't give any home console 10/10 for that matter, so it's maximal.

But granted, it's not for everyone. If you hate good games, the system is probably not for you.

 

6 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

10/10 is reserved for your favorite system

 

His favorite console isn't out yet.  Be another 20 years, allowing 5 year lifecycles. 

 

Edited by JamesRobot
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I gave it a 7/10. I remember seeing my buddy playing Wave race and was blown away with the 3D. I chose it over the PS1 and Saturn at the time. I justified my purchase because at the time I was really into first person shooters. I loved the first Turok, Doom 64, Duke Nukem 64. But hated Goldeneye(Fight me! lol) I love Ogre Battle 64 and Rogue Squadron. The Nintendo titles like Star Fox 64, Mario Kart 64 among others I still enjoy to this day. Still pissed Robotech Crystal Dreams never saw the light of day!

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1 hour ago, Bighab said:

 Still pissed Robotech Crystal Dreams never saw the light of day!

Agreed on this.

Funny little side note.  25 years ago about when I was neck deep into my warezy seedy emulation days and stuff working with daves video gaming classics, I actually found online a private webspace hosted by a (the?) main coding developer of Robotech N64 and he had a bunch of useful data, images, sounds, and other assets.  A key one was a somewhat working beta of the game you can find online now.  I got into contact with him and after some back and forward got the nod to take the file, host it at DVGC and got it distributed online for people to try out.  Sadly back then emulators were crap, still sadly seem to be a bit these day too unfortunately, so it never worked except for those who had self made flash kits or old dev equipment.  I really wish more of the game had been finished, but it does have quite a few accessible stages to try out, and some of the zentraedi cap ships in that thing are just monstrously huge which was a sight for N64 limitations.

That site is still mirrored/backup hosted online but hasn't been updated since 2003.  Check it out if you like.

http://opusgames.com/games/rcd/rcd.html

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Graphics Team · Posted
7 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

10/10 is reserved for your favorite system

Are these polls really that strict for what determines each point-value? I always saw the scale-descriptions as a helpful guideline, not an absolute rule.

I mean, I recognize that it would be good to adhere more strictly for the sake of consistency, but I feel like part of the fun here is seeing individual users' reasoning for their votes - even if it's a bit divergent. (Also makes polls feel more like an enjoyable activity and less like homework haha).

-CasualCart

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31 minutes ago, CasualCart said:

Are these polls really that strict for what determines each point-value? I always saw the scale-descriptions as a helpful guideline, not an absolute rule.

I mean, I recognize that it would be good to adhere more strictly for the sake of consistency, but I feel like part of the fun here is seeing individual users' reasoning for their votes - even if it's a bit divergent. (Also makes polls feel more like an enjoyable activity and less like homework haha).

-CasualCart

There Can Be Only One Highlander GIF

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Editorials Team · Posted
33 minutes ago, CasualCart said:

Are these polls really that strict for what determines each point-value? I always saw the scale-descriptions as a helpful guideline, not an absolute rule.

I mean, I recognize that it would be good to adhere more strictly for the sake of consistency, but I feel like part of the fun here is seeing individual users' reasoning for their votes - even if it's a bit divergent. (Also makes polls feel more like an enjoyable activity and less like homework haha).

-CasualCart

I 'unno.  It's fox's poll.

I just think it's strange where it says a 10 is the "GOAT" and then people say they don't have a 10.

But if fox doesn't care then no harm no foul.

I was just calling it out since I assumed people overlook it.

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3 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I 'unno.  It's fox's poll.

I just think it's strange where it says a 10 is the "GOAT" and then people say they don't have a 10.

But if fox doesn't care then no harm no foul.

I was just calling it out since I assumed people overlook it.

It's gonna kill me to give the SNES a 9 then.

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Graphics Team · Posted
2 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I 'unno.  It's fox's poll.

I just think it's strange where it says a 10 is the "GOAT" and then people say they don't have a 10.

But if fox doesn't care then no harm no foul.

I was just calling it out since I assumed people overlook it.

Fair enough haha.

I guess I'm just looking at it more subjectively - there are consoles that I could see as "Greatest Of All Time" contenders even if they aren't my personal favorite. (Since I've got unconventional tastes, but I can still recognize a system's merits even if they don't conform to my own preferences).

But at the same time, I could probably be convinced that "GOAT" is specifically reserved for judgements of personal preference. More subjectivity again haha.

-CasualCart

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