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What is the most visually stunning game on the Nintendo 64?

SiG

SiG

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,485
"This looks like an N64 game" is often a phrase I've seen people throw around in jest, as if muddy visuals, fog, and poor IQ are always synonymous with the system...

...but was it really? I've seen some very nice, clean looking, if not high-resolution games run on the Nintendo 64. Certainly there were way more lookers than there were duds (i.e. Cruisn' USA), but I'm unsure which would win the top spot.

World Driver Championship


This game boasted a hi-res mode before the Expansion Pak even came out, and while it was hard to compete with the likes of Gran Turismo, World Driver Championship was as close as you could get to a proper racing-sim on the system.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron


Factor 5's debut on the system, and a real showcase for the Expansion Pak. Rogue Squadron boasted all sorts of effects put into use on the system, such as real-time lighting, ground troops, craft and location detail while having amazing draw distance (for its time) and not to mention an hours worth of voiced cutscenes.

Other notable graphically impressive games on the system:
Turok 2/3
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Banjo-Tooie
Conker's Bad Fur Day
 
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DigitalTravis

Member
Oct 28, 2017
290
Banjo Kazooie/Tooie and Conker and anything clean you have seen was not using unmodified hardware. N64 scales like shit no matter what unless you are using Ultra HDMI or emulating. The console video output looks like vomit.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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Oct 17, 2018
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Conker takes the cake. It could pass for a "pretty good" Dreamcast game.
 
ClickyCal'

ClickyCal'

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Oct 25, 2017
59,487
Probably either paper mario or kirby 64.
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Sgt. Demblant

Sgt. Demblant

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Oct 25, 2017
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I would say Paper Mario has aged the best.
Sadly the text is barely readable, that's my only issue with the visuals.
 
AztecComplex

AztecComplex

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Oct 25, 2017
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I was always partial toward Jet Force Gemini. Conker is great and all but not once did it made me stop and go "wow that looks good". JFG did that many times.
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And unlike Conker, this wasn't a super late N64 game from 2001. This was a 1999 game.
 
grand

grand

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,899
Conker and Majora's Mask come to mind

Which isn't shocking. EAD and Rare were the two developers to get the most out of the N64
 
Hilarious_Bearious

Hilarious_Bearious

Member
Nov 4, 2017
7,348
Factor 5 definitely had some dominance in this field with their games.

However, I feel like Kirby 64 has a visual style that leans heavily into the capabilities off the system, and benefits immensely from it. The cute cartoony style holds up IMO. JFG also looks damn good in those screen shots.
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,030
World Driver Championship is surely among the best looking 3D games on N64.
However OP Battle for Naboo is the best looking Star Wars game on N64.

There are obviously other standout titles like for example:
Banjo Kazooie which I consider over BT and DK64 for its smoother framerate while still looking very pretty.
Conker Bad Fur Day
The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
1080 Snowboarding
Paper Mario 64
Sin & Punishment
Top Gear Overdrive shows the genius of Ezra Dreisbach (programmer behind some incredible games for Sega Saturn when he was working for Lobotomy) and was a total looker when it was released in 1998
Beetle Adventure Racing
San Francisco Rush 2049

A few gifs of some of ther above games:

Top Gear Overdrive (1998)
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World Driver Championship (1999)
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Star wars Battle for Naboo (2000)
Factor5 wrote a particle system for the N64's RSP co-processor in microcode that could display up to 3000 particles at any given time without any slowdown and without using the CPU at all.
VAmpBz.gif


Sin and Punishment (2000)
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1080 Snowboarding (1998)
yo8pZg.gif


John Dunbar said:
space station silicon valley is the best looking n64 game that looks like an n64 game.
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space station silicon valley is among the best games on N64 and of that generation of consoles (Rockstar at its finest before becoming the Rockstar known for GTA 3D open world).
 
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Rolodzeo

Rolodzeo

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Nov 10, 2017
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The N64 could do technical marvels in proper hands. RE2, WDC, SW Battle for Naboo, San Francisco Rush 2049, Sin & Punishment...
 
Bitanator

Bitanator

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Oct 27, 2017
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Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is an underrated game, it had some really nice looking areas
 
Grunty

Grunty

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Oct 28, 2017
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Gruntilda’s Lair
Rare always delivers so many great games visually often looks better than a lot of The other games released in some shape or form. The super expensive silicon graphics of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on SNES, Conker on N64, Starfox Adventures on GameCube, Conker: Live and Reloaded on Xbox, the water in Sea of Thieves.
 
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EinBear

EinBear

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,663
Not sure if it's quite in the spirit of the thread, as it's visually fairly plain, but F Zero X running at 60fps blew my mind as a kid. It was before I knew what a 'framerate' was, but playing that game on a system where everything else was ~20fps was a revelation.
 

EAD Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
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Oct 27, 2017
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World Driver Championship.

Why are people posting those late RARE games with atrocious frame rates?
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,030
SiG said:
You should check out 1080 Snowboarding, another slick-looking title that has a very clean presentation.
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EAD was the first to understand that to do a good snowboarding game, good physics and animation that replicate the peculiar traversal of a snowy road with a snowboard were key components.
They coupled that principles with a good visual representation of a snowy environment (realtime reflection on ice surfaces, real time shadow effect, snow particle effects, the snow furrow and waves produced by the snowboard).
Basically if one compare 1080 Snowboardiong with the other snowboarding games available at the time for console it can appreciate how the game was one generation ahead.
 
LewieP

LewieP

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Oct 26, 2017
18,093
EinBear said:
Not sure if it's quite in the spirit of the thread, as it's visually fairly plain, but F Zero X running at 60fps blew my mind as a kid. It was before I knew what a 'framerate' was, but playing that game on a system where everything else was ~20fps was a revelation.
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Especially with the number of cars on the track.
 

ColR100

Member
Jan 13, 2018
293
John Dunbar said:
space station silicon valley is the best looking n64 game that looks like an n64 game.
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Celine said:
World Driver Championship is surely among the best looking 3D games on N64.
World Driver Championship (1999)
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space station silicon valley is among the best games on N64 and of that generation of consoles (Rockstar at its finest before becoming the Rockstar known for GTA 3D open world).
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Not sure I quite agree with the Space Station Silicon Valley mention, looks especially muddy visually now compared to a few other titles here. It's effects work is pretty astounding for the N64 though, and for the time was one of the best original titles on the platform.

World Driver Championship I remember at the time of release being lauded as one of the best looking titles on the platform, and seeing this small capture above reinforces that. Some info here below grabbed from wiki...I do recall it having some sort of special high res mode, think it cropped the picture though slightly so it could run in the mode.

One of the last racing simulations to be released for Nintendo 64, this graphically intensive title uses custom microcode optimization and high polygon count modelling. The development team was able to optimize the usage of the various processors within the N64 to allow a great draw distance (reducing the need for fog or pop-up), highly detailed texturing and models, Doppler effect MP3 audio, and advanced lighting and fog effects for realistic weather conditions. Increasingly prevalent toward the latter years of the N64's commercial lifetime, the game has a high resolution 640x480 mode that does not require the add-on N64 RAM Expansion Pak. Additionally, unlike many other games of its type on the platform, the game runs high resolution at a smooth pace.
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Perfect Dark, Conkers Bad Fur Day and Sin & Punishment are three other titles that sit close to the above also.
 
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Mr Moot

Mr Moot

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May 10, 2018
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Annecy, France
AztecComplex said:
I was always partial toward Jet Force Gemini. Conker is great and all but not once did it made me stop and go "wow that looks good". JFG did that many times.
s6344cbe5.jpg

O4tR6AA.png

96Gsqzx.png

gfs_42365_2_11.jpg

And unlike Conker, this wasn't a super late N64 game from 2001. This was a 1999 game.
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Videogame magazines were saying it was the most visually stunning game on that console back in the day. And I think they're right, by a margin.
 
Prof Bathtub

Prof Bathtub

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Apr 26, 2018
2,677
SiG said:
"This looks like an N64 game" is often a phrase I've seen people throw around in jest, as if muddy visuals, fog, and poor IQ are always synonymous with the system...
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To be fair, most people who say that phrase are either being disingenuous or needlessly hyperbolic.

Majora probably feels like the most well-rounded, though Tooie and Conker also eschew boxy environments and fog if one is fine with slower performance. The Factor 5 examples are also great, but they always did feel like their draw distance was hampered.
 
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Nuclear Muffin

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Oct 29, 2017
4,721
It's Conker's Bad Fur Day. This isn't even a contest.

Only other games that come close are Perfect Dark and Banjo Tooie (but the frame rate in those two games is so bad that the winner has to be Conker).
 
Algorum

Algorum

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Technically nothing really surpasses Conker but Banjo Tooie was pretty impressive as well.
 
PsionBolt

PsionBolt

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Oct 27, 2017
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yuoke said:
Probably either paper mario or kirby 64.
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Paper Mario is pick for the best-looking game on the system for sure, but...
capitalCORN said:
Sin and Punishment.
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...If the criteria is "visually stunning", it's hard to top the spectacle on display in Sin and Punishment. I changed the timestamp in this video to the aircraft carrier level because I feel like that one stands out the most in people's memories, but almost every stage had a ton going on visually. It's a ridiculous game.
 

Deleted member 4247

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F-Zero X. Not in terms of detail, but that smooth 60fps framerate with tons of vehicles on screen is pretty unique for the console.
 
steviestar3

steviestar3

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Jul 3, 2018
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Kirby 64 genuinely stil looks great. Its artstyle plays to the strengths of the console incredibly well.
 
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