Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

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Green Ranger
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#11 » Thu May 24, 2018 6:09 pm

The lack of great 3rd party games and the controller is what made me move on from Nintendo to other console developers.

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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#12 » Thu May 24, 2018 7:43 pm

I think you guys are being a bit harsh. I can understand not liking the N64 or believing many look back with too rose tinted glasses, but the N64 was a great machine in many ways too.

Super Mario 64 set the benchmark for 3D platforming, and was a brilliantly innovative title. Goldeneye (and Perfect Dark) are still superior to many FPS titles in gameplay terms, even with a dodgy frame rate in mind - they advanced the genre, with mission focussed levels (A vast improvement over repetitive "kill all enemies" Doom clones), 4 way multiplayer etc.
In fact the DC would be unlikely to come with 4 ports had the N64 not pioneered it as a standard feature. The ability to not just play with a mate, but play at a party, was a huge jump. And yes the games were few and far between for it's years, but it tended to be filled with top-tier game changers - especially from Factor 5 and Rare.

But the N64 did have some negatives which stick out badly in retrospect.
First the build quality was awful. To be fair they last forever but I'm talking specifically outputs - composite only? Really? Nintendo had the foresight to add RGB to the SNES (as choppy as it is) so why rip it out of the N64? You have to mod the console to get an image that isn't just goop.
Bear in mind the N64 came out two years after the competition and both the Saturn and PlayStation had Crystal clear RGB signals. Hell, the Master System had native Crystal clear RGB (The SG1000 Mk III's was too dark) ten years prior to the N64's launch! This was unbelievably short sighted of them.

The controller - but for different reasons to other mentions here. The N64 controller, while confusing, was comfortable to use. However it looked as if it was a perfect left-and-right handed controller. If there were equivalent A and B buttons on the left side, the three pronged look would have made more sense. It was a pointless effort without the two buttons, leaving the D-Pad and left shoulder button practically useless.

Finally was the third party support. Nintendo's own output, and those of second parties like Rare and Factor 5, made the N64 great, but outside of a few examples (such as Mystical Ninja Starring Goeman) there weren't any major third party titles worth writing home about.

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mazonemayu
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#13 » Sat May 26, 2018 2:57 am

You forgot to mention they stole the idea for Mario 64 from Argonaut, who were the first to make a real 3D platformer, in the form of a new Yoshi game...which Nintendo refused when they saw the demo, but used the idea to start working on Mario 64. Argonaut then had to redo all the characters & story and shit, coz obviously they couldn't release it as a Yoshi game anymore, so the game was pushed back another year, it eventually came out as...Croc on the Saturn & Playstation. So Mario 64 isn't as innovative as most folks would think it was, they were simply first because they screwed Argonaut in the ass...which obviously led to Argonaut not making games for em anymore for over a decade
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#14 » Sat May 26, 2018 4:23 am

The N64 has some real masterpieces in its library. Playing multiplayer with friends was a blast and is still fun to this day if i and some friends play some N64 multiplayer.

If you played with the Controller to that time you were used to it, no big deal.

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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#15 » Wed Jun 06, 2018 7:42 pm

Long boring post warning with typos and bad spelling wrote via a crappy phone :shock:


Id have to disagree on most all points of the original post and would say that anyone who doesnt love the n64 has missed or forgot the point of what the n64 was all about and what it was doing,its a rough console to get back into but it all comes back if you allow it to and give it some time and spend a little on getting some good original controllers,expansion pak and a few 1st party mem paks.

My top 3 consoles are nes n64 and saturn in that order,i remember buying an n64 at release and continually not being happy/content with it,i was VERY critical back then and expectations were very high becase coming from a snes,the n64 launch games and its slow game development and release timelines along with the price tag per game and the fact many games felt a bit shallow and not as robust as they could be seemed to be the case time after time even zelda oot felt lacking to me back then,i wanted more of it,i wanted it to last longer,mario 64 star runs after completing the main game felt a bit cheap just to keep me going and the reward for 120 stars was a kick in the face.

I also remember owning my n64 for 2 years and hearing on the radio that nintendo were dropping support for the console,it seemed a flop and goldeneye,mario64,banjo and turok were not going to keep me going forever and i lost interest becase back then when you bought a console,you bought into the idea of the console and the trust in the company not to fuck you over and fail so i ditched n64 2 years in,its not like today with disposable incomes,cheap second hand loose carts and an after the fact approch to the console becase it doesnt actually matter anymore if you own it or not.

Fast dorward in time and i started getting into the pc scene and emulators and n64,little did i realise the sheer volume of games available in that console,there were many more games than i had known about and obviously i never played the later games for the system either by this point,and some surprising titles were found on it that i never knew exsisted but as we all know,n64 emulation was slow and still hasnt changed much over the last few years,some games still wont run at all and some wirh glitches and bad audio and so on.

And then i decided to ditch emulators and get all my old consoles back,i would never have thought id own an n64 but when i thought about it being the only real way to play goldeneye,perfect dark pilotwings and a handful of other half emulated games that no one can deny are not only classics but also can be enjoyed as much today as way back then,it makes owning an n64 a given.

There is no doubt that there are at least 50 variating game sets that almost anyone would,could and should own in part or fully and by that i mean there would be all the obvious great games and that can easily hit 35 and then another 15 games or so that you either never got to play but are good or those special games you remember and enjoy that maybe not everyone likes but they come with memories and as far as im concerned,40, 50 or 60 great worthwhile games for any one console is worth owning without the nit picking at certain games or franchises or how one game could have been better .... the n64 will satisfy any gamer and actually usually keeps 4 people happy at any one time.

Hardware ... n64 is better than ps1 and its better than saturn,yeh i do love my saturn but after a long stint on the n64 and coming back to saturn i find iits a bit primitive looking at times,long loading times and expensive discs that need proper care and storage and old dying cd drive lenses and motors, and ps1 is also awful looking in many cases and worse than the saturn by default,i only own one for a handful of games and i hardly use the thing,i still cant find it in myself to respect sony but i do accept there are plenty of good games for it,the n64 however is cool,quiet and works 100%,its game carts will most likely be around after im dead, n64 graphics wise and sound quality also feels like a true step up from the saturn and ps1 in terms of graphics power and the obvious multiplayer capabilities help,its sound quality while cart based is still crisp and hi quality for the most part in most games.It does feel like the others consoles are more for die hard fans (i being one of them too),my kids for instance all under10 when i got n64 - LOVE the n64,iv never heard them say goodeneye is blurry or slow,mario party and smash cause arguments but i enjoy seing them really get into the game and i oten see my daughter olay n64 on her own yet none of them bother with the other consoles apart from some snes and genesis,the dreamcsst and saturn are hated in most regards but virtua cop 2 with guns and daytona with the wheel does get them going.
But hardware wise the n64 smooth graphics and its crisp audio and its oten full 3d enviroments feel more in line with newer games of today and my kids love it,the fact its a 4 player machine,the other fact that its cart based all help make it a better retro console and one that will last longer too.

Controller .. n64 controller is my fav controller of all time end of,sure its stick is a love hate relationshp due to it being such an amazing PROPER REAL hardware mouse in a stick form unlike the ss 3d controller,its stick was great and unlike the ss 3d controller,the n64 controller was very comfortable and unlike the psx or ss mk1 controller the n64 controller had superior dpad and buttons and a stick to boot but sure at the same time the n64 controller stick is great they do sadly degrade over time,but putting the stick to one side,the actual shape and comfort of the controller,its great button layout and c buttons and a great nintendo dpad make it a brilliant controller.I often find people use the n64 controller wrong,they hold it wrong and they find it confusing .. i find it confusing that anyone would find an n64 controller confusing and not know fine well how to hold it and utilise all of its buttons,the n64 controller like just about every other controller EVER is held and played left to right by the centre prong/stick in your left hand just like every other controller and your right hand is on the buttons,FORGET the dpad,that doad was an afterthought and used for only a handful of games like fighters and as an extra 4 button inputs,this is how me and everyone i ever knew used the controller,most games were designed with thwt layout in mind yet some people thought they could use a dpad as buttons then complain that its layout was weird ... then there are those that say the controller was only good for fps games and some say its only good for racing games and some say its only good for 3d platformers and no one ever says its good for a fighting game and i say its the best for all of those games well for me at least,i found all buttons,dpad,shoulder and trigger and c buttons perfect.Try tony hawks 2,mortal kombat,killer instinct or even classic nes games via an everdrive holding the controller in the traditiinal way using the dpad and its as good as any snes or snes or gen/saturn 6 button controller,play f zero x,wave race,beetle adventure racing,mrc racing,wioeout,ridge racer or mario kart with the srick and you get a superior level of control from the n64 stick and go try any fos game like goldeneye,perfect dark,tutok and so on and you get a silky smooth level of movement that no other 32bit console could offer along with plenty buttons and cbuttons for movement/strafe,thr n64 controller gave you more buttons and a better layout and a far superior stick that is more akin to a pc mouse than an digitial analog stick and at the time thwt controller was revolutionary and if you get one today with a nice stick it still is a fantastic versatile controller,i think then at the very least for those who tend to give the n64 controller a hard time should rethink and retry at least becase while it may not be everyones fav controller,its a bloody good one amd i am glad nintendo invented it,and lets not forget the rumble pak,i sware nintendo had the dynamic rumble down to a tee,i remember trying dreamcast and original xbox rumble many years later and thinking it was weak,it was local and non dynamic as in,it didnt rumble light and heavy the way the n64 one did and iv still to find a better rumble on a game controller,fuck .. these days its just a vibrator with next to no ingame deph coding.

Games ..i love carts,that isnt to say that i dont have a love for my segacd and cd based media,the memories of being able to play music discs in it and the fmv still makes me happy and even the saturn and my vcds,i do like cd media but i was quite shocked going back to n64 to find that nintendo were right,there was very little need for cd,most could be done on cart,when i seen big games like dk64,perfect dark,majoras mask,aidyn chronicals and resident evil 2,and even tony hawks 2/3 rayman 2,ridge racer and conkers bad fur day,i could see and i could hear that cd based media was not exactly required and the n64 done very very well without it.
Games in general in the n64 are pure hit and miss ofcourse like any console,but if you stick to a top 30 n64 games list you will be fine,there are tons of great games,and tons more good games besides an then a few hidden gems as well,the n64 i always found to be a difficult console to gauge if a game is good or not,you really need to just play it for yourself,some games simply did not age well and unless you have deep fond memories of those games,you will find them garbage and nausiating and in some cases overpriced too,i bought games being sure they would be great after playing in an emulator and or yourube reviews to find some games to be terrible,i guess some games were only good at the time if you had played them back then but most of the time this thankfully wasnt the case, thankfully there are a ton of true tried and tested great games for the system,games like goldeneye require you to spend at least an hour before it all clicks back in amd you realise how fucking good the game is,its blurry look and its framerate and the controller all out you off especially if your used to an xbox conttoller and an emulator for goldeneye but you relalise that the real hardware and the real controller are miles better after a while and you wonder why you went soo long without your n64 by your side.

Many games are like that but i have wrote tooooo much,the n64 its games and its controller are great to me and i urge anyone to get one,still cheap enough and its a truly unique console,its hardware and its software are auite defined,defined enough that its maybe unfair to pin the n64 against the saturn or ps1,its got its highs and lows but its low points are forgivable amd if you look past some of its weakness in regards to smaller more compact games like tony hawks series where the music is lower quality and shorter tracks and its crap memory pak,some overly blurry textures and some dodgy framerates,you get to enjoy a great console for what it really is and some fantastic games,sure its not perfect but it was being many thing amazingly well back then and it still holds up today.

1 mario64
2 f zero x
3 banjo kazooie
4 castlevania legacy
5 mystical ninja staring goemon
6 mrc championship
7 ridge racer
8 ready to rumble
9 killer instinct
10 resident evil 2
11 wave race
12 pilotwings 64
13 turok
14 starfox 64
15 aidyn chronicals
16 tetrisphere
17 mario kart 64
18 goldeneye
19 banjo tooie
20 shadowgate four towers
21 zelda oot
22 beetle adventure racing
23 snowboard kids
24 international superstar soccer 98
25 perfect dark
26 excitebike 64
27 zelda majoras mask
28 mario golf
29 mario tennis
30 1080 snowboarding
31tony hawks 2
32 blastcorps
33 smash bros
34 rayman great escape
35 mortal kombat trillogy or mk4
36 paper mario
37 mario party 2
38 donkey kong 64
39 command & conquer
40 wf no mercy
41worms
42 spiderman
43 rocket robot
44 rampage world tour
45 vigilante 8
46 crusin exotica
47 gauntlet legends
48 harvest moon
49 forsaken
50 turok 3

Theres 50 great games worth owning an n64 for,those are my personal favs and some are games i owned at release and i understand fine well that those games wont come across well to someone who hasnt played them before,all i can say is that some of my choices while not in the usual lists,ARE good games,they are good becase they are good,framerates might be bad in places or they might look dated more than other games but they actually do still give you a good experience,for instance there are a few games not on the list like diddy kong racing or extreme g,i loved rhose games but they are horrible now and practically unplayable.you would be hard pushed to find 50 quality games for most other consoles,sure some of those can be played on dreamcast or other methods but personally id rather take the cart and the smoother graphics and framerate than the fmv intros and full cd sound becase these games were naturally 32bit games like rayman tony hawks and a few others,just becase there are smoother ports on the dreamcast doesnt mean the n64 couterpart is any less a great game and those games ahouldnt really be considered 128 bit dreamcast games either,instead they are the best ports of those games on the n64,even tony hawks series is better in the n64 than on the playstation 1 becase they look and run better,they control better and actually sound good too and ill take a durable cart and no load times over a few more music tracks and fmv,maybe back in the day this would have been different but not today.

At the end of the day i love all of these consoles and i am a die hard sega saturn fan but the n64 rocks,its games can be a bit hit and miss finding ones that your eyes and stomach can cooe well with but i assure you all the games listed above are more than serviceable.

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azel
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#16 » Fri Mar 06, 2020 6:25 pm

I think n64 is a truly great console and it blew my mind in 1996. Mario 64 and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire were awesome games and graphically a step ahead of anything on psx or saturn at the time.

That said I'm surprised that so little has been mentioned of what is the n64s biggest flaws and that is the hardware itself. The vaseline blur over most of the games, the blurry textures and most importantly the brutal frame rate that plagues even a lot of classics like the Zeldas and even worse many of the classic Rare titles like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini regularly dip into single digit frame rates.

I remember taking Perfect Dark home when I got it on launch day when I was in high school and immediately being disappointed with the frame rate, so it's not a new thing. Every review at the time panned it for that too. Luckily it is an amazing game despite that glaring issue and I was able to put a lot of time into it.

PSX and Saturn while at the time definitely looked rougher at the time have aged much better imo. That pixellated early 3d look is a lot more crisp and the frame rates are generally a lot better with most games at least a steady 30fps and some even 60fps.

The n64 is still very playable but I prefer to play the Zeldas on 3ds because of this and if I still had one would play the Rare games on the collection on xbox. Mario 64 is probably the game that has aged the best. It's simple visual design looks good still, the blurry textures fit the look of the game and the frame rate is decent.

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azel
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#17 » Fri Mar 06, 2020 6:32 pm

mazonemayu wrote:You forgot to mention they stole the idea for Mario 64 from Argonaut, who were the first to make a real 3D platformer, in the form of a new Yoshi game...which Nintendo refused when they saw the demo, but used the idea to start working on Mario 64. Argonaut then had to redo all the characters & story and shit, coz obviously they couldn't release it as a Yoshi game anymore, so the game was pushed back another year, it eventually came out as...Croc on the Saturn & Playstation. So Mario 64 isn't as innovative as most folks would think it was, they were simply first because they screwed Argonaut in the ass...which obviously led to Argonaut not making games for em anymore for over a decade

I'm just going to say that if you think Croc was anywhere near as revolutionary as Mario 64 you're out of your mind. That game was never particularly great while Mario 64, other than the camera has aged amazingly.

The controls are so good to this day, even Mario Odyssey is just a refined version of it. Looking at any other 3d games of the time Mario is just a step ahead, even from games I still adore like Tomb Raider 1. Mario was a true leap ahead for gaming.

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HuntrRose
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#18 » Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:24 pm

i remember this thread..

I still want a hori...

beanboy
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#19 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:10 am

It needed some more fighting games. Moreso, a Street Fighter 2 game, and cross over fighting games, like X-men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Dark Stalkers, Samurai Showdown etc.

But then again, people who love fighting games more than me, complained that the sequels to alot of classic fighting games during that time were cool, but were unfortunately nerfed. And that sucked for alot of fighting game fans. So maybe in a way, not having more 3rd party fighting games that unfortunately kinda sucked, was a good thing for nintendo 64? But despite that, nintendo 64 needed some more fighting games. And more cool 3rd party games too.
Last edited by beanboy on Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mazonemayu
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Re: Everything Wrong With the Nintendo 64

Post#20 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 7:18 am

azel wrote:I'm just going to say that if you think Croc was anywhere near as revolutionary as Mario 64 you're out of your mind. That game was never particularly great while Mario 64, other than the camera has aged amazingly.

The controls are so good to this day, even Mario Odyssey is just a refined version of it. Looking at any other 3d games of the time Mario is just a step ahead, even from games I still adore like Tomb Raider 1. Mario was a true leap ahead for gaming.


You're missing the point here: had Croc come out on the n64, it would've been a completely different beast, thanks to the better hardware. I'm just talking about the fact that Nintendo (as usual) picked up on the idea & used it for themselves with the obvious improvements...had Croc been an n64 launch title, next to Mario 64, then Mario 64 wouldn't have been so "innovation"...by playing it the way they did, Nintendo got all the credit for the first "truel" 3D platformer.
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