"It may have lost to playstation, but it takes a console with a Final Fantasy VII to beat a N64."

Nintendo 64

Introduction:
Way back in the golden age of gaming, Nintendo had to develop a successor to the ever successful Super Nintendo. In the meantime, a troubled Sega was producing the what would be known as Saturn. So Nintendo looked into a disc based console, getting help from Sony. They canned the idea, and Sony took it and made the Playstation. Nintendo made the cartridge based Nintendo 64. The graphics were 64-bit, thus half the games having “64” at the end. Nintendo wasn't as successful this time around. Developers went to the disc based Playstation. Now, I love Nintendo 64, and I know a lot of people who do. Beyond the flaws were great games, games Playstation could never have, Nintendo classics. In fact, Nintendo 64 was just as popular as Playstation, even though it was in second place. It kind of reminds me of how Xbox was to this generation. The latest graphics, a weird controller, a lack of RPG's while the system has about 3 excellent ones, getting second in the console race, being beaten by Sony. However, its just something i noticed. On with the review...

Graphics and Sound:
In 1995, these graphics nearly blew everyone's mind. Ah, early 3D. People nearly flipped over Super Mario 64. This was the gateway to 3D in the mainstream. Thanks to good old cartridge format, graphics were...well awesome. It beat Playstation's and Saturn's. Only thing the disc had over this was the CG cinemas, which unfortunately the N64 was not capable of. It wasn't a big deal, because for the rest of the game, things were in full blown 3D. As for sound, it was good, no problems. You could have either hooked it up through the AC adapter or AV cables, and some games used Dolby Surround Sound.
Graphics and Sound: 10/10

Hardware:
Ah, this hardware, simply put, was one of the two biggest flaws in the console. All because of cartridge format. Now the system worked fine, and was durable as hell, as Nintendo always does well. I mean sure, it froze if you yanked on the cables really hard, but that's about the worst you would ever experience. So what made this hardware so bad? It was expensive. Controller packs to save certain games, expansion packs to run certain games, it was a extra cost to get them. Plus, thanks to these cartridges, we lost a lot, I mean a lot, of third party support. Plus some games cost upwards of $60. You had to pay if you wanted to play Nintendo. It was durable, but expensive.
Hardware: 7/10

Controller:
This has got to be one of the weirdest controllers ever made. Its got those 3 “handles”, and your supposed to hold it by the center and right ones, which gives you access to most of the buttons. On the left was the control pad and L button, which were rarely used. It would be awkward to access them from the normal position, but usually the L button did something minor in the game (like turn the map on and off in Zelda), as was the control pad. The N64 was the first to utilize the “analog stick”, Playstation soon copied. This was used because of the 3D gaming. There is a slot on the back for a rumble or controller pack. Rumble packs were packs that made the controller, well, rumble, also a first from Nintendo. It had a “Z” button on the back, a great trigger button for FPS games, and the controller came in a wide variety of colors. The controller was weird, and some people don't like it, but it was cool.
Controller: 8/10

Games:

The N64 had some of the best games ever programmed. N64 had a well...crappy third party support, especially towards the end. The were some good games here and there, but thank God for Nintendo, they make there own games. N64 had a bunch of killer games, mostly first party games. The must haves: Mario Kart 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Zelda Majora's Mask, 007 Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, Mario Party 2, Paper Mario, and I'm sure there's more. Now there were some good third party games, like Star Wars: Rouge Squadron, but Nintendo supplied most of the must haves. Either way, I'm going to review the genres of games for N64.

Action/Adventure:

By God did we have a lot of this. Nintendo's best genre. We had Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, Kirby, a crapload of Star Wars games, it was all good. Sure there were a lot of crappy ones (cough Blast Corps 64 cough), but hey, every system has them. A strong amount in this catagory.
Action/Adventure: 9/10

Shooters:
Okay, maybe action adventure wasn't Nintendo's best genre this time around. Starfox and the some of the Star Wars games are...action-y shooters, and there were some cult favorites like Winback, Doom, and The World is not Enough (a personal favorite of mine) but there were only two games that make this catagory perfect. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. These were the N64's Halo. Thanks to these games we have Halo, and fanboys have been happy ever since. A great system for FPS, the only system that you can get them on at the time (if you didn't have a PC).
Shooters: 10/10

RPG's:
Oh boy, remember when I said the console has two big flaws. This is the second flaw. Simple story: Square went to Sony, we got screwed out of RPG's. Now we had SOME. Those some pretty much sucked (Quest 64). Yet I'm going to be nice. Notice how I didn't put Zelda in Action/Adventure. I know there is a huge debate, but it is considered a RPG by a lot of people, because it has RPG elements, so it is kind of a mix of both (the term people call it is Action RPG). It wasn't as deep, but the two Zelda's can compete with Final Fantasy VII. Not to mention, if you like RPG's the Zelda's are must haves. Besides, if you like RPG, you will most likely like Zelda, and there was also another good one, Paper Mario, and I have heard good things about Ogre Battle 64. So 4 games can be considered RPG's on this system that are worth owning. Zelda Ocarina of Time, Zelda Majora's Mask, Paper Mario, and Ogre Battle 64. 4 games, that's it.
RPG's: 3/10

Racing:
We had a strong amount of Racing games. Top Gear was good I remember renting it, we had some Star Wars Episode I racer, which wasn't bad, but the best one was Mario Kart 64. A must have, and the systems best. Not bad in the Racing genre.
Racing: 8/10

Fighting:
Here's one that wasn't that strong a genre either. We had the basic Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct, they had mixed reviews. Super Smash Brothers (once again by Nintendo) was the best here. Not a good console choice if you liked fighting games.
Fighting: 5/10

Party/Misc:
God there were some good ones here, 3 Mario Party's were the consoles best Party games. This was a party game system. We had a fair share of games here.
Party/Misc: 9/10

Sports:
Like any other system. Nothing to say here. The basic NBA, NFL, MLB, I didn't find any of the sports games I played bad. A mixed bag, pretty much what the other systems got. A added plus (once again from Nintendo) was the Mario Golf and Tennis games.
Sports: 8/10

Games overall: 8/10 (thanks to the high quality games)

Multiplayer:
A great system for multiplayer. N64 invented 4 player split screen. Starfox, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, all these games had great multiplayer (Starfox has aged but, whatever). Hours of fun for your friends, this was a party system which wasted hours of hour lives.
Multiplayer: 10/10

Conclusion:
Nintendo pulled through. The console was losing support, but it had enough classics to become a great system. It's been said over and over again, you need both a N64 and a PS1 to enjoy everything from the 32/64-bit era. Nintendo 64 was a great system, had plently of games, to pull it's own weight. A lot of people like these better then the new Nintendo games. I like some of these games better too. Starfox 64 to Starfox Assault? What are you kidding me, Starfox 64 blows it out of the water, and it was made in 1997! Zelda Ocarina of Time or Zelda Majora's Mask to Zelda Wind Waker? Both Zelda's have more depth then Wind Waker, plus there just more memorable. So despite its huge flaws, Nintendo made a great, underrated console..

Final Score:
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/06, Updated 06/23/06