Friday, June 23, 2006
The N64 Turns 10
Well in Japan anyway, we've got until the end of September for America.
But anyway, the N64 is the system where I started following games extensively and became hardcore. It gave me my first taste of real 3D gaming also. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were the first two games I followed from early concept art and videos to finish. They still rank as 2 of my top 5 favorite games. I'd also have a PSX during the time but to me the N64 is a greater system than that would ever be.
So like I love to do, my Top 10 N64 Games.
1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day
4. Goldeneye 007
5. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
6. Star Fox 64
7. Paper Mario
8. Perfect Dark
9. Blast Corps.
10. Harvest Moon 64
Yes my list is made up almost entirely of Nintendo and Rare. Sadly that is also a reality of the system. Pitiful 3rd party support. There were some good ones but very little that compared to what Nintendo and Rare put out. It also was Rare's heyday as the company seems incapable of making the same quality of games they made back in the day. For Nintendo, the high quality of many of their games makes it nearly impossible for further entries to be judged fairly. For as much as I love Mario 64 and OoT, some people hold them in such high regard that they'll bitch about the tiniest flaw in newer installments so they can avoid possibly having to think that Nintendo could eventually surpass them. It happened with SMS and TWW (which had flaws, no doubt) and I'm prepared to see OoT and SM64 fans rip every small imperfection of Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy into gaping holes of claimed failure. No game is perfect and TP and SMG won't be but that won't stop certain groups of people from nitpiking every small things if there is nothing entirely obvious.
As it is, I believe the GameCube to be a better system overall than the N64. It's Mario and Zelda might not have achieved OoT's or SM64's overall quality but compared to the N64 the GCN's relatively sheer variety of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party titles puts it light years ahead of the N64. But as far as nostalgia goes, the N64 will always shine just a bit brighter for me.
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But anyway, the N64 is the system where I started following games extensively and became hardcore. It gave me my first taste of real 3D gaming also. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were the first two games I followed from early concept art and videos to finish. They still rank as 2 of my top 5 favorite games. I'd also have a PSX during the time but to me the N64 is a greater system than that would ever be.
So like I love to do, my Top 10 N64 Games.
1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day
4. Goldeneye 007
5. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
6. Star Fox 64
7. Paper Mario
8. Perfect Dark
9. Blast Corps.
10. Harvest Moon 64
Yes my list is made up almost entirely of Nintendo and Rare. Sadly that is also a reality of the system. Pitiful 3rd party support. There were some good ones but very little that compared to what Nintendo and Rare put out. It also was Rare's heyday as the company seems incapable of making the same quality of games they made back in the day. For Nintendo, the high quality of many of their games makes it nearly impossible for further entries to be judged fairly. For as much as I love Mario 64 and OoT, some people hold them in such high regard that they'll bitch about the tiniest flaw in newer installments so they can avoid possibly having to think that Nintendo could eventually surpass them. It happened with SMS and TWW (which had flaws, no doubt) and I'm prepared to see OoT and SM64 fans rip every small imperfection of Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy into gaping holes of claimed failure. No game is perfect and TP and SMG won't be but that won't stop certain groups of people from nitpiking every small things if there is nothing entirely obvious.
As it is, I believe the GameCube to be a better system overall than the N64. It's Mario and Zelda might not have achieved OoT's or SM64's overall quality but compared to the N64 the GCN's relatively sheer variety of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party titles puts it light years ahead of the N64. But as far as nostalgia goes, the N64 will always shine just a bit brighter for me.
