Top Nintendo 64 Games

The Wednesday feature is where Nintendo began to flounder as a console maker, the Nintendo 64. Many good franchises either started or continued on this system, but the third-party support was too low and that led to Sony's success in my opinion. Nonetheless, there were some classics to fill a Top 10.

10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - For the first and only time so far in the Zelda series, Nintendo had to come up with a second game on a system using the same control and graphical layout. The game suffers from not being as good as Ocarina of Time, but that's unfair because OOT was perhaps one of the best 3 games in history. This game is actually more deep if you go and try to get all the masks, and ends up being enjoyable in the end.

9. Mario Kart 64 - The follow-up to the huge SNES hit did not disappoint, as the graphics upgraded significantly and the courses were just as good as the original. The real improvement in this version was the better courses.

8. Starfox 64 - The original Starfox was great due to the FX graphics on the 16-bit SNES, but a jump to 64 made things much better and more realistic. All the worlds and paths to Venom are fun to play through so this game has a lot of replay value. The controls are smooth and familiar, working at their best in the 3D boss battles.

7. Waverace 64 - Given the title of the last 3 games on the list, you can see the lack of creativity in this era of Nintendo game-naming. Near the launch of the console, Waverace took a completely new race genre (jet ski) and actually managed to pull it off very well. The physics and randomness of the waves and how they affect you are a great challenge. This looked to not be a huge title at launch but ended up being one of the greats.

6. Perfect Dark - This was dubbed the improved version of the super-popular Goldeneye 007. While the game utilized the expansion memory pack well, the game was not much of an improvement over Goldeneye. Graphically more pretty, this game was an excuse (along with Majora's Mask) to help sell more expansion memory packs. Still one of the best first person shooters ever brought out on a Nintendo system.

5. Goldeneye 007 - The classic first person shooter on the N64 wins a top five slot by being the Halo of its day. Halo 1-3 has and is single-handedly selling a good percentage of the Xbox systems sold, but the first game to really master the genre was Goldeneye. Not only did this game follow the movie very faithfully, the multiplayer was outstanding. The original Halo was a true highlight of the N64 experience.

4. Mario Party - While Goldeneye was far more popular and perhaps better back in the day, in retrospect the beginning of this franchise was a brillant move by Nintendo. Combining the fun of minigames with a board game background is a formula that has been sold for 8 iterations now successfully. This game did not have very good graphics, but it did have great party value.

3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Just like Eternal Darkness on GCN, this is my sleeper pick that not many people played but everyone should experience. BFD mixed a lot of pop culture references of the day (incorporating the Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and many other things) with some very funny original characters (Opera singing Poop Monster anyone?) to create one of the most playable and funny games in history. Yes it is a little crude in humor, but more adult humor in a game is always appreciated when well done. Also a good multiplayer mode to put this in the top 3. On some systems this might be the top game, but...

2. Super Mario 64 - Another Mario launch title, another great game to lead the console into the market. This game introduced the platforming game and the gaming world in general to 3D gaming, and what an introduction it was. This game pushed the limits of the hardware but ran so smoothly that nobody could possibly complain. We were all too wrapped up in the graphics and the notion of playing in true 3D. The game is also truly fun with bunches of different levels and lots of variety to get all 120 stars. A real gem and Top 10 all time likely.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Perhaps the greatest game of all time, OOT took everything Nintendo learned in making SM64 and took it to a whole new level. The graphics are even better (you could just watch the sun rise and set and the moon move across the horizon in awe without being bored) and Zelda moved into 3D combat perfectly. The storyline was very well written and the different elemental kinds of dungeons has continued to present-day Zeldas (Forest, Fire, Water/Ice, Shadow, Desert, Light/Shadow). The movement between young link and adult link is also a great part of thr story. This game was the definition of success and should not be missed by anyone.

Well there's the short list for the N64. Looking ahead, the Thursday feature will be the Super Nintendo, and we'll be back up to 15 games as the first golden age of Nintendo is what we will be going back to tomorrow.