The Nintendo 64 was what turned me into an actual gamer, and in turn a hardcore Nintendo fan. (I own stock!) Via rentals, I think I've played about half of its library. Here is a list of the inarguably good exclusive games on the system that I've played:
1080° Snowboarding
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Beetle Adventure Racing
Blast Corps
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
F-Zero X
GoldenEye 007
Harvest Moon 64
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Paper Mario
Perfect Dark
Pokémon Snap
Pokémon Stadium
Pokémon Stadium 2
Robotron 64
Star Fox 64 (
The first game I played on the system, and the first game I ever loved)
Super Smash Bros.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Wave Race 64
That's 25 games right there...so much for the "it only has Mario, GoldenEye, and Zelda!" crowd. :P Now let's add in the inarguably good
non-exclusives that I've played:
Cruis'n USA
Hydro Thunder
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Worms Armageddon
Another 8...now for the
arguably good games I've played:
Bomberman 64
Destruction Derby 64
Extreme-G
Extreme-G 2
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Mario Party 3
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Top Gear Rally
WWF Attitude (also WWF War Zone, but it's almost the same game, and Attitude is better)
Just like that, we're at 45! Now for games that I have mixed feelings about, but are worth looking at:
AeroGauge
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2
Gex 64: Enter the Gecko
Mario Golf
Mission: Impossible
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
Spider-Man
Star Wars: Episode I Battle for Naboo
The World Is Not Enough
And finally, games that either I don't like or haven't played, but have definite high acclaim:
Excitebike 64
Mario Tennis
Mischief Makers
Pokémon Puzzle League
Resident Evil 2
San Francisco Rush 2049
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Super Mario 64
WWF No Mercy
64 legit games! So much for the "it's just Nintendo, Rareware, and kiddy platformers!" crowd! And that's not even counting popular games I don't know enough about like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Yoshi's Story, or cult favorites such as the Goemon games, the Snowboard Kids games, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Jet Force Gemini, Pilotwings 64, and Space Station Silicon Valley.
People give the Nintendo 64 so much flak compared to the PS1 for not having JRPGs, oodles of grimdark and dudebro games, CD-quality music, and FMVs, but when you have a system with so many genre-defining games, so many all-time classic multiplayer party games, no loading times, and a surprisingly deep and varied catalogue as seen above, all that smack talk just slides right off.
Oh, and lets not forget it did the analog stick first, rumble first, and had six controller colours right out of the gate! :D
Check out
this swell Nintendo 64 forum if you obsess over the system as much as I do! ;P