While the N64’s collection of games is its greatest strength, the lack of depth in its library is a glaring weak point to many. Almost every console released to date has some great games and a handful of true masterpieces to their credit, but the Nintendo 64 has dozens of genre defining and awe-inspiring classics. And the list goes on: Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Banjo-Kazooie, Super Smash Bros, Star Fox 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Perfect Dark, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and on and on. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, to this day, is seen by many as the greatest video game of all time. Super Mario 64 was the first game to feature a camera that could be moved freely and independently of the character, giving the player freedom and control in a 3D space like never before, and changing 3D game development forever. With its atmospheric single player campaign, and its wide array of competitive multiplayer options, GoldenEye paved the way for the Halos and Call of Dutys to come. GoldenEye 007 took the beloved genre of First-Person Shooters, which had previously only found true success on the PC platform, and made it viable on consoles.

Four controller ports, thumb-sticks, trigger buttons and the rumble feature all became industry standard moving forward.Ĭool hardware innovations are always welcome, but consoles are remembered for their greatest games, and the N64 had no shortage of industry changing titles. Yes, the Nintendo 64 was behind on the times when it came to the use of CD-ROM technology, but it changed the industry none the less. Those three-pronged controllers were also the first on a home console to have a rumble feature, thanks to the Rumble Pak which debuted alongside Star Fox 64, and it also pioneered the use of trigger style buttons with its Z-Trigger. The controllers which plugged into said ports featured the first digital thumb-stick, allowing the player 360 degree control over their in-game avatar, and best of all, the stick could be controlled using just a thumb, unlike those huge analog joysticks from past consoles. With a growing trend towards multiplayer games, the N64 was the first console to launch with four controller ports. Nintendo consoles have always been at the forefront of innovation, and the N64 was no exception. Some simply couldn’t get past its weirdly shaped controller, and many criticized Nintendo’s choice of sticking with cartridges when CD-ROM was already the norm, but no one can deny the console’s impact on the industry, in terms of both hardware and software. Ask someone about it, and they’ll most likely rank it with the best consoles ever released, or way down at the bottom of the list with the likes of the Virtual Boy and the N-Gage. The Nintendo 64 is probably Nintendo’s most polarizing console released to date.

Conkers bad fur day wii u