"A bad start, but a strong comeback..."

I'll admit one thing before I do the review: Nintendo 64 never had too many games out. And it wasn't the best system ever. But it was still great anyway, and I'll tell you why, right here, right now.

System pitch - N64 started off on the wrong foot by a lack of released games by the time the release date came around. But the good news is, even with the 250 or so games (this might be right or wrong, I don't know) that have been released in North America, a lot of them are reasonably high quality (have gotten good support from the public) and that's the big part of the system. And personally, I'd much rather have 20% or so of 250 games being high quality for one console than only 5% of 500 games being high quality for another console. Several of my friends have N64's (when it comes to people I know that have different consoles, Nintendo 64 romps PlayStation with a ratio of 6 to 1).

Sure, CDs have about 650MB of space and Nintendo 64 only goes from 8MB (e.g. Super Mario 64) to 64MB (Resident Evil 2). Look at Mario 64, it got 9.7 from IGN64 and it scored high from a lot of other people, too. Imagine getting such a good game into only 8MB? And you think that a 2GB hard disk on your computer is small. You can get into a bit of a financial problem with N64, thanks to cartridges, but that's what you got to lose when you wait almost a year to get a game (no, seriously, it happened to me with Rush 2049).

N64 has four controller slots, which means four players can play - and rest assured whenever I have parties at my house video games are the main attraction. And Nintendo 64 is the only way I can fulfill what is wanted. It sure does a good job, let me tell you. The Mario Party games are definitely the multiplayer kings for N64, but there are plenty of formidable multiplayer games as well.

Graphics - Sure, they're not as good as the PlayStation's (at least not all of the time), which at the time of release was Nintendo 64's biggest contender. But the graphics are still great. Just take a look at Excitebike 64, for example. The graphics are enough to tell you what the N64 can pull off. There is an accessory available called the Expansion Pak which doesn't work with all games but it sure helps to improve the graphics in them!

Sound - I don't have a stereo TV (darn!), but the sound is pretty good anyway. There are some games out there that have excellently composed music, and there are fewer where the music and sound effects are basically bad. Rush 2049 uses what is known as MusyX (pronounced ''musics'', I guess), and I'm not sure if it's being used on Gamecube or not but it really paid off anyway with extremely good music.

Controller - It fits any hand, and that's the great thing. And that's what PlayStation does not do. I played with a PSX controller once and it was so darn awkward. Now keep in mind that I've got pretty big hands. Nintendo 64 just fits right in and gives you three ways to hold it with both hands. Some games like Cruis'n USA let you control with only one hand (Z button and control stick). And that's where the Z button comes in. Ready, aim, fire - the Z button has an excellent use for shooters like GoldenEye to fire your weapon.

Quality - Like I said earlier, there's a lot of quality in Nintendo 64 games. There are very few of them out there that are bad. And another thought for you: look at Ridge Racer 64. It actually came to Nintendo 64 out of a PSX-saturated lineup. And here's the big freakout: I thought it was better than Ridge Racer Type 4 for PSX! (Don't ask me if it's better than RR or RRR, I don't know.)

Overall scores

System pitch - N64 did well in falling behind, but it did even better in rising back to the top. It's even better that it has so many high-quality games when you only have up to 64MB to work with. 9.0
Graphics - Sometimes, they're even better than PlayStation's. At least there aren't jagged polygons in every game. 9.0
Sound - Amazing what they can do. 8.0
Controller - Extremely versatile and will fit any hand. And that's what you want. 10.0
Quality - A high percentage of N64 games have ended up doing well. 9.0

Total score - 43.0/50.0
Average score - 8.6/10.0

Opinion score - 9.5/10.0

FINAL SCORE - 9.1/10.0
= 9 on the GameFAQs rating scale

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/01, Updated 02/01/01