"It had it's problems, but overall it was an awesome system that I'll miss."

First off. The nice score. Sure, some people hate the system. I mean, I'll admit, Killer Instinct Gold and some Mortal Kombat games plus some crap sure didn't fill the fighting catagory. Sure, we didn't have hardly any good platformers, excluding key name ones like Mario 64. Near all the off brand ones were pretty sloppy one way or another. Sure we didn't have hardly any good RPGs. Just 4 real true ones. Quest 64 (it doesn't really deserve to be titled an RPG, but it is. Sadly.), Orge Battle 64, and upcoming Paper Mario and Adlyn Chronicles or whatever that one is. Sure that isn't much for those. But what we got, even if we didn't get many excellent games, those that came out were darn good. I mean, the fun of Mario 64. Heck, I still haven't gotten every coin in that game. Donkey Kong 64, that game took me forever to beat, and I'm missing quite a few normal bananas. Mario Kart 64, heck, I've played that game to death with my Dad and still love it. Some games on this system are just the kind that seem like instant classics. I'll admit, it's sad to see how little we got on some categories of games and how the floodgates were opened with others, but we got a nice portion for most everything. Maybe skimping on RPGs and Fighting, sometimes puzzle, but excellent normally. I've got to say, the N64 has provided so much fun for me. From killing clones in Hybrid Heaven, to racing in go-karts in Mario Kart, to flying and shooting down enemy invaders in Starfox 64, this has given me so much fun. Now, some argue that ''Oh look. That game has a cute looking box. I won't try it.'' That happened with a friend and Mischief Makers. After playing mine, he has fallen in love with it and usually pesters me to do that. All because it looked too cute. Who cares how they look? It's how they play. So, ignore how the characters look. I mean, Conker's Bad Fur Day sure isn't gonna be for kids and it has a cute looking squirrel for the main character. Ignore how the characters look. The games on this system are very good more often than not.

Graphics: 6-9
The graphics on the system usually are good for most games, but some are total slop. An excellent example would be Paperboy. Horridly blocky. But, but, some are very nice looking. Try Banjo Tooie for example. It's beautiful with it's lighting and graphics. In one room in the game, there are 3 different colored lights. Red, green, and blue. Walk in them, and your color tenting changes. It is truly beautiful. Some games you can tell they spent countless months working on. Others you can tell they put together in about 3 days. But most games have great graphics. Other systems such as playstation have good, sometimes better graphics, but some things you have to wait unbearably for it to load. Like in Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2 on Playstation, you have people in the stands. Also more characters. But on N64, you don't have all those characters. No one in the stands if I remember correctly. Also on the PSX version you have a beautiful intro. N64: None. But, PSX has awful loading times on R2RBR2. N64 doesn't have loading times. Maybe sputtering on some games, but not too often. Overall pretty good on the majority.

Sound: 7-8
Usually the music was sharp, clear, and detailed. I mean, try Super Mario 64. It was the first N64 game. And it still is better than a major amount of N64 games. I mean, Hybrid Heaven will never compare to SM64 in music. SM64 was just plain great. I love that game so much. Heh. But most music is nice. Most games that are big name series or done by Nintendo or Rare have excelent music. But some just is plain horrid. I mean, take Buck Bumble for example. The title screen music rules, but rest is pure junk. I mean, I can hardly remember spit from any music but the title screen. Really. But most games on the system have good music.

Fun: 6-10
Some games are pretty boring and dull, but most games are fun for more than the first 4 hours. Heh, I can still play Mario 64 for hours on end. I love doing that game. Others, on the other hand are going to be torture to do again. Hence ''Quest 64''. If you play that again after beating it, I'll be surprised. Some games are very fun. Some are boring. Some like Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2 are fun for a nice long while. If you can assume an hour being a long while. Others I can play for the 7,936th time and still love. Like Starfox 64. Incredably fun, enjoyable, and different. Super Smash Bros I played for 3-4 months without getting tired of it or renting or playing anything else. Nothing else. Very fun game.

Selection: 6
The low amount of fighting games and RPGs are what bring this down so low. Hate those types of games? Well this is perfect. You are overwhelmed with platformers, you could say there are too many sports games, a decent amount of puzzles, and interesting varieties of other games. I'm not quite sure about how many quiz games there are. I know that there is South Park: Chef's Luv Shack, but South Park is far too extreme for me. In my opinion, if you want quiz, get a You Don't Know Jack game on PC. As for other interesting games, take Mario Party 1-3 for example. That is a incredibly fun game that isn't like most. That's for sure. Except for the (semi-fun) blatant ripoffs of them, ''Crash Bash'' and ''Sonic Shuffle''. I don't have anything against them, but let's face it. Sony and Sega just wanted to cash in on a idea of a game made by someone else.

Overall: 8
This system is excelent for multiplayer, with Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros, Mario Party 1-3, Mario Tennis, Jet Force Gemini, and many others. This system is excellent. It is pretty cheap now, so if you want another system, this or a Dreamcast would make great contendors. If you want a wide variety of games except for Fighting and RPG, this is what is for you. Go ahead. Say it. |||-|-e||)0 0wnzerz J00! Okay, enough of that...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/01, Updated 10/21/01