N64 games in 2026

[red_demonman]

So I recently picked up one of these:
https://www.analogue.co/3d

and have been reliving my childhood by playing the remaining N64 games in my collection. About half of them are gone due to my crackhead cousin stealing them (I guess crack ain't cheap).

I played all of the classics like Goldeneye, Zelda:OOT, Zelda:MM, Mario 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Perfect Dark etc but I'm looking to go back and maybe play some sleeper hits that I missed. What games should I give a try?

I've heard Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon might be worth a try or Body Harvest.

[Ennewi]

I remember Army Men: Sarge's Heroes being stupid fun. Haven't touched it in the decades since, but it's still highly rated. Also, Vigilante 8 and the Beetle Adventure Racing

[WarpathEQ]

The original mario party was a joystick destroying banger. My friend had a copy of the Nagano winter olympics '98 game that I had never seen before or since but we used to play the crap out of that, was incredible for its time, not sure if it still holds up today. Bomberman 64 was tons of fun. Biggest problem is most great N64 memories, for me atleast, were multiplayer specific.

I do remember guantlet legends being a ton of fun on console since the arcade version was a pay to win scheme. Cruise N' USA was legendary from the arcade. Road Rash is a must.

[GinnasP99]

Turok dinosaur hunter

[OriginalContentGuy]

That looks groovy. The first thing I'd want to play on an upmodded N64 would be the Goldfinger fan mod of Goldeneye 007. I hope that reading between the lines correctly on their website means you can load 3rd party roms on an Everdrive or Flash Cart. Doom 64 might look amazing in 4k. Castlevania 64, F-Zero X would be solid too.

HHqNpHD3OgU
5aJZgB8j3Gw

[BradZax]

The starwars game was really good. Shadows of the Empire.

xUPVP5LoEpU

[BradZax]

Oh this is a must play, one of the best games ever made, almost got a remake, strange community of die hards online. God bless megaman 64.


4IwhO2heTAw

And this legendary gem, that is ironically funny now but was so cringe back then.

oP-vWNqjrvQ

[OriginalContentGuy]

Maybe it's to do with all the Michael Richards memes on the server recently but in that shot of Dash Rendar riding a hoverbike despite being impressive looking my first reaction is that dude looks like Kramer lol. Nice find.

[BradZax]

Maybe it's to do with all the Michael Richards memes on the server recently but in that shot of Dash Rendar riding a hoverbike despite being impressive looking my first reaction is that dude looks like Kramer lol. Nice find.

I found this one too, its cool but a little slow. But I liked that shitty trailer more hehe :p

Oyd_xFKbkw8

[Swish]

Road Rash 64 was a quiet title but me and a few friends loved the 4 screen multiplayer... I'm sure the main game was decent too and soundtrack was good.

[Neno]

If you liked the Kirby games then Kirby64 is worth checking out. I've been playing through it with my kid and having a good time.

[OriginalContentGuy]

I found this one too, its cool but a little slow. But I liked that shitty trailer more hehe :p

Oyd_xFKbkw8

Agreed. Also I don't think Dash Rendar is Snake Plisken's real name. Cool concept.

[zander358]

Nintendo consoles are whatever, to be honest but here you go

Must try, if you haven't yet:
Space Station Silicon Valley
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (the one with the Peach Mountain gang)
Kirby 64 Crystal Shards
NFL Blitz
Mischief Makers
The Pod Racing game
Perfect Dark (the frame rate is notoriously shite on this title, but still worth playing)
Mario Tennis
Star Fox 64
Banjo-Kazooie/Banjo-Tooie
Pilotwings 64 (I think this was one of the OG titles when the 64 came out, too)


Not bad but I wouldn't necessarily recommend to everyone

Donkey Kong 64 - it's kind of unnecessarily long
F-Zero X - if you're really into racing games...there are actually lot of them that are pretty decent on this platform
Smash Bros - Classic game, but it's not really THAT great if you're just jamming single player.
Yoshi's Story - cool "vibes" game but repetitive. Shortish game, though
Paper Mario - Like a strictly worse Super Mario RPG (SNES)
Mario Golf - meh...
Jet Force Gemini - Too long, but not a bad title. There just isn't any pay off, the storyline is shallow, and it's not like I'm expecting every title to be Zelda: OOT/MM...I almost want to say avoid this game.
Clay-Fighters - kind of a meme classic, just throwing this out there *GUMBALL*
Mario Kart was OK, I thought the SNES version was better, and the later iterations of this game on the Gamecube etc were far superior. Diddy Kong was the better title in this gen, IMO.


Don't be tempted by (these games just all kind of suck):

Castlevania 64 - quickly falls off a cliff, hard
Quest 64 - too long, boring
Mario Party 1 - the titles after this are superior in every way
Mega Man 64 - autism-coded
The South Park game
Any shooter (just awful controls on this system)
Pokemon Stadium games - may as well play a mobile game, it's 2026 wtf?
Pretty much any Super Hero game on the platform

[red_demonman]

Thank you for the suggestions! Some of these games I played either as rentals or owned but don't have the cartridge anymore.

I think my buddy had Army Men Sarge's Heroes and I remember that game being a blast, I think I'll give that one a go.

Space Station Silicon Valley got mentioned by a coworker as well so I might have to add that one to the list.

[Kich867]

Jet Force Gemini, Pilot Wings 64, Mischief Makers, Ogre Battle 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Snowboard Kids, Kirby 64 (the one where you can combine two powers), Quest 64 if you want to blow your brains out.

[kjs86z2]

Wayne Gretzky's 3d Hockey (lol)

[OriginalContentGuy]

Don't be tempted by (these games just all kind of suck):
...
Pretty much any Super Hero game on the platform

Superman 64 has made more than a few Worst Games Ever lists over the years. So maybe worth it for lulz I would say

[BradZax]

Yeah, Superman 64 is a must play.

That should’ve been on the top of the replies.

[BradZax]

more awesome shadows of the empire content. This is the game you shyould play op its so good!

bBuh4HUC-2A

JUt4zV9bK2E

[red_demonman]

I actually did play through shadows of the empire, the last level was super awesome and I remember WOMPA STOMPA or something like that enabling some fun cheats. I also remember some bullshit fight where you have to fight an AT-ST on foot with your blaster (lol).

[BradZax]

I actually did play through shadows of the empire, the last level was super awesome and I remember WOMPA STOMPA or something like that enabling some fun cheats. I also remember some bullshit fight where you have to fight an AT-ST on foot with your blaster (lol).

I was just watching this playthrough and i had so many memories i forgot about! This game had space flight, train levels, speeder bikes, wookies, jet packs, imperial bases, boss fights, man it had a lot!

I remember really liking the Boba Fett fight (https://youtu.be/h-Nup5NYDC0?t=3535), like at the time it was a first, toe to toe with the most dangerous bounty hunter for the first time!

h-Nup5NYDC0

[Kich867]

This thread is showing me that when I was a kid I thought there were so many fuckin N64 games but in reality there was like, less than a dozen maybe that I ever really played or anyone ever really gave a shit about XD.

[BradZax]

yeah I went through a top 100 and got like 3 recs lol

[Evia]

Omg that analogue n64 4k console looks sweet! I might have to pick one up myself!
Retro gaming is looking more and more like the best option if you want to actually own your games. The future looks bleak with Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all shifting towards an all digital "you will own nothing and be happy" future.

I bought a gamecube + HD adapter back in 2019, and a Backwards Compatible PS3 in 2021, and have been slowly collecting games for them. I may have to add N64 to the list!

As for n64 game suggestions, all that I would have suggested have already been mentioned here.

[Ekco]

The Nintendo 64 controller is frequently cited as one of the worst, or at least most awkward, controllers due to its bizarre three-pronged design, which required switching hand positions to access all buttons.

in a just and fair world it would have been Nintendo removed from the hardware business for that abomination and not Sega for the Dreamcast.

[red_demonman]

Booted up DK64 last night, forgot just how much random bullshit there is to collect in this game. DK Rap is amazing though.

[BradZax]

Booted up DK64 last night, forgot just how much random bullshit there is to collect in this game. DK Rap is amazing though.

I always thought the bananas were too many, like coins in mario felt right, but DK is like autism collection levels.

Man, but when you get to this level...

gVOzQfe_GQE

[kjs86z2]

Wave Race 64 pgud too

[Skarne]

the wrastlin games are pretty gr8

[BradZax]

Wave Race 64 pgud too

Yeah, that was a pretty fricking rad one I feel like that was like the first time we were like, slipping up and down on waves and water in a video game :eek:

T&C surf and California games on NES had surfing, but that was not really very cool or immersive. The skateboarding in T&C surf was dope.

[Swish]

California Games was great for its time. Enjoyed the half pipe and foot bag the most... never knew how to do half the foot bag tricks but spent hours trying out different things and combos.

[Swish]

Side note. The worst game I ever owned on the N64 was Glover. Don't play it.

[BradZax]

I remember actually liking the south park game.

-exRgI9M2ZY

[BradZax]

Hmm this little 4 hour RPG looks kind of fun to play through.

It reminds me of some of the early worst 8-bit RPG games, that I loved, because they were all that was available.

PCfWq4wpSBU

[Ciderpress]

Nintendo consoles are whatever, to be honest

Nintendo wisely realized that the gaming industry was quickly heading toward totally arbitrary interchangeable hardware, where your "console" is indistinguishable from a pc or laptop, hence their decision starting with the wii to make the hardware itself unique. The advantage of this decision is that they maintained a certain prestige for developing on their hardware, which naturally demanded more of developers and produced fewer, but higher quality games. Nintendo 1st party games are like, always good.

I mean who gives a shit if you have a ps5 or an xbox? They do the exact same thing. A switch 2? That's it's own unique experience and what do you know, now there's a steam deck which is a ripoff of a switch!

They know what they're doing.

[Ciderpress]

Also the answer is banjo kazooie (the first one; second one is good but objectively worse imo).

[spoil]

I remember 1080 Snowboarding was extremely addictive.

[red_demonman]

I'm actually at the endgame of Quest 64. It is a unique little RPG system. The main problems I have with it is once you get avalanche you really don't use many other offensive spells in the game.