"The system that everybody loves to hate, yet hates not to own."

Back in the year 1996, Nintendo unleashed to the world its powerhouse: the Nintendo 64. Everyone I knew was flocking' to the local Walmart just to play the 15 minute demo of Super Mario 64 that year, as well as the years to come until it was packed up and kicked out of the electronics section. Everyone and their dog at this point wanted the system, despite the Sony Playstation being out already, as well as the Sega Saturn.

However, the years went by, and people were starting to complain that the only good game for the N64 was the classic Super Mario 64. And after being treated to the five hour long summons of Final Fantasy VII, Nintendo was thrown into the gutter the same way a barkeeper would throw out a drunk. So was leaving the N64 in the gutter a wise choice? Yeah right!

Hardware
The hardware design was quite good actually, and was actually better than the Playstation and Saturn. The system offered something very new to the console world: FOUR CONTROLLER PORTS BUILT RIGHT IN! Just seeing that without a multi tap hooked up to slot 1 and 2 just blew my mind right then and there when I laid my eyes upon this wonder for the very first time. As well as having the four ports, the system had on its topside a slot to insert the cartridges, a power switch that slides upwards to turn on (much like the SNES, only smaller), an expansion slot in the middle towards the front which came into play much later in the systems lifespan, and a reset button.

On the backside of this system, there were only two slots: one to put in your AV cables, and one to put in your system power box. Instead of drawing the power from the wall like the NES and SNES before it, the N64 made it so that all the power would be placed directly at the back of the system, which allowed the main plug to be the size of a standard TV set/alarm clock. This was actually a handy feature, seeing how now you wouldn't block every plug outlet on your wall when you plug in the console, and you could put in something else at the same time. The main difference between the original NES and SNES to the N64 was the removal of the RF switch slot to screw into cable TVs. This was the only problem with this and more up to date systems, seeing how older TV's didn't have the AV cables. But with a simple purchase of an RF Modulator that Nintendo sells at their online store, or a Pelican AV Adapter, you could easily hook the N64 up to your out dated TV with no problems....besides the sound.

The Controller
This is where people started to complain a bit. Since controllers back in the day were nothing more than a control pad on the left, main buttons on the right, and L and R buttons on the top (with the exception of the Sega Saturn and Genesis), the N64 was something that was unexpected. The controller was split up into three sections, which made it so that the programmers could have three ways to play their games. Too bad no one bought into the gimmick, and the entire left side of the controller was hardly ever used.

On the left side of the controller, the standard D-pad was there, with classic up-down-left-right buttons. On the top of the left side was the now standard L button. The right side of the controller had the Nintendo standard A and B buttons, as well as the new C buttons, which were used to control the camera in early N64 games. The R button also rested within reach on the topside of the right side. Now the middle part is where the action and complaints came from. The start button rests right in the middle of the controller, and the Select button is nowhere to be found. The SNES before proved to the world that the Select button has become obsolete, and thus was removed from the N64 permanently.

Right under the Start button was the revolutionary control stick. The N64 was the FIRST controller ever to use one of these bad boys. By simply moving the stick with your thumb, you could control the movements of your character on the screen and cause him/her to move with ease, depending on how hard you held the stick. If you held the stick forward only slightly, your character would walk slow as hell. If you mashed that stick to full throttle, the character would run at max speed. With this new innovation, you no longer had to hold down the B button to make Mario run around. Talk about great stuff. And that's not all that Nintendo brought to the table. On the backside of the controller were another couple of unique features. The hidden Z button was hidden on the backside, which allowed for quick access to menus and whatnot on status screens. Heck, I think that the Z button actually replaced the L button in just about every N64 game ever made come to think of it. What's more is that there was a small slot that looked like it could hold another Nintendo cartridge in it. And this was true to an extent.

System Upgrades and whatnot
Mentioned before, the slot in the N64 controller was actually a port for some of Nintendo's more innovative creations. Copying the idea from the Playstation, Nintendo created a memory pak, which could be used to save game data and records without putting a strain on the game cartridge. Too bad these things were hardly, if ever, used. Bummer. But that's not all this nice little slot did. Down the road a few years into the systems life, Nintendo made all sorts of neat stuff for their controller.

Among the items created were the Rumble Pack, which is now a standard in controllers everywhere (heck, just a month or two later after the creation, Sony created their now famous Dual Shock controllers, which had two control sticks and a rumble feature built in. Suck ups.) that allowed the player to actually feel some vibrations whenever an explosion or something happened on the screen. This actually came into play more to uncover secrets in an action-rpg game, or to feel the bullets come out of your gun. Cool stuff.

Some other creations that didn't go so far were the Transfer Paks, which allowed you to transfer Gameboy data to your N64 games. About the only games that even used this feature were the famous Pokemon games and I think Perfect Dark used it as well. Another gimmicky item was the famous Microphone set for that game "Hey You! Pikachu!", so that you could actually talk to the annoying rat on the screen. Other than that, not much was created for the slot, and the only real useful feature was the rumble pak.

As for the system itself, the N64's expansion pak was released a few years into the systems life. This little gem allowed the system to be able to show sharper graphics, hold more polygons and other technical terms, and basically allow more data to be processed. Heck, a few games late into the systems life actually REQUIRED you to have this doohickey, otherwise you couldn't play the game. Perfect Dark comes to mind.

So with all these inventions, innovations, and garbage, you would think that the N64 would have done way better than it did. Sadly, that wasn't the case, seeing how its the GAMES that make the system. And since its now a true fact that discs are actually easier to make games on than a cartridge, Nintendo suffered a huge fallback by staying to the tired and true road.

The Games
Seeing how the cartridge bases really hurt the system in the long run, the N64 didn't get a whole bunch of great titles. However, all of the titles that the N64 made became legendary gems that everyone can't stop talking about.

Action
In the action category, there was a HUGE number of games. Probably not as big as the Playstation, but quite possibly larger than the Sega Saturn. With games like Super Mario 64, Jet Force Gemini, Starfox 64, and Superman 64, the action block really hit it off big time.

RPG
Yeah right! After the end of the SNES, RPGs really didn't exist anymore. They were transformed into big cinematic movie-esq games that took out five hours of your life to summon a friggin' bird. I'm lookin' at you Final Fantasy VII! And seeing how all the RPG creators both went over to Sony, Nintendo was left in the dust with only a few lack luster titles. Heck, the only one I can think of is Paper Mario and Starcraft 64 (if you consider that an RPG strategy), and that didn't even come out until the last year of the N64's life span. Darn shame too, seeing that the N64 could have easily supported some nice looking games.

Puzzle
This genre seemed to have picked up slightly during the span of the N64's life. The titles in this category range from Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, Wetrix (some weird form of Tetris, only in a sphere or something), and Dr. Mario 64.

First Person Shooter
THIS is the category that made the N64 so friggin' popular. Starting off with the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the N64 displayed that it was meant to be the next home for 1st Person Shooters. And once the legendary Goldeneye 007 came onto the scene, EVERYBODY wanted to make a 1st Person Shooter for the N64 just to capture the gold that Goldeneye had received. Infact, the N64 controller seemed to be MADE for the sole purpose of playing these games. Some awesome titles in this genre are Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, and The World is Not Enough. Sadly though, bunches of companies tried too hard to make a great 1st person shooter, and we were left in the dust with tons of crap too. Games like South Park 64, the crappy controls of Turok, and a bunch of other games that I can't even remember plagued the shelves for months, causing even more people to get a Playstation.

Adventure
This category really didn't take off until the year 1998, when the overrated game Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came onto the scene. Before that, we only had a few games in this genre, and infact, still only have a few. Some eye catching titles in this category are Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majoria's Mask, Donkey Kong 64, and Megaman 64.

Racing
Still being a relatively weak category in my book, the racing genre really did take off on this system. With all the NASCAR games and whatever you can shake a stick at, the N64 had a bunch of them. More noteworthy racing games are Crusin' USA, Mario Kart 64, and Diddy Kong Racing.

Misc Multiplayer
This is probably the category that gets the most respect out of this system. With cult classic Super Smash Bros. leading the scene, other games soon followed the multiplayer mayhem that had started. Games like Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium, Smash Bros, and other games really caught the eye of the people, and made use of the systems four controller ports.

The Crap Pile
THIS is the main reason why the N64 gets very little respect. Despite having an AWESOME list of games mentioned above, the crap just totally covers it up. Games like Hey You Pikachu, Carmaggedon, Pokemon Snap (these are also the reason why Pokemon gets little respect as well), games with crappy controls like Earthworm Jim 3D, and other games that were rushed by the companies, or ported from Playstation games that were released a year or two before, you'll see why the N64 never really had what it took to stay alive.

Da music and whatever else there is
Since the N64 supported stereo (and sometimes surround sound), the music for its games all sounded as good as the composers wanted them to sound. Tunes can be really memorable (Mario 64, Goldeneye), while others you may want to forget forever (Pokemon Snap if it even had music). Of course, with limited memory space, the music was pretty much toned down, and could not live up to the expectations that people who have experienced CD sound on the Saturn and Playstation have. Total shame.

So should I spend cash on this system?
Of course you should! Stereotypes that say this system sucks have actually helped the general public, seeing how an N64 with a controller, AV cables, and power supply only costs TWENTY BUCKS. And seeing how the games range anywhere from 5 bucks to 50, there's no chance you can lose! Even the popular games like Goldeneye are fairly cheap, so its a win-win situation! Go buy one today, get a few more controllers, and call up your homeboys and kick their ass in Goldeneye tonight!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/05