#131. Duke Nukem Zer:0 H:0ur
September 1, 1999
Eurocom
GT Interactive
$64.75 on Amazon
Released just two months after inciting the crowd to violence at the disastrous Woodstock ‘99 festival, this entry finds our lovable hero Duke (who fucks, okay?) fighting aliens across time. If you thought the Army Men games were a little too grown up and are incapable of hearing the word ‘beaver’ without giggling and getting an erection, then this is the third person shooter for you. Levels are jam packed with legitimately fun Easter eggs, secrets, and pop culture references, which is good, because you spend a lot of time backtracking through them. And not in a fun Metroid-y way, more like walking from point A to point B, and then getting a new objective that says, “Go back to point A, asshole,” kind of way. A just-fine shooter that is a perfect snapshot of that weirdly horny and angry moment in pop culture where everyone would talk incessantly about how hot the Spice Girls and Britney Spears were but also how they wished they were dead. The voice samples are nice, but Duke’s performance is lifeless, effortlessly saying things like “Hail to the king, baby,” and “Come get some,” like he’s contractually obligated at this point, his heart and dick clearly not into it anymore. — M. Roebuck
#130. Pokémon Stadium
February 29, 2000
Nintendo EAD
HAL Laboratory
$79.99 on Amazon
Borrowing from the confusing Final Fantasy numbering system, Pokémon Stadium in North America is actually known as Pokémon Stadium 2 in Japan, because the “original” Pokémon Stadium only had 40 Pokémon in it, which is… sort of embarrassing. But thankfully this one had ‘em all- at least, for the time. I was so excited for this game to come out. A Pokémon game in full 3D? My imagination ran wild.
Anyway, it’s just the battling portion of the Game Boy games, with an announcer voice ferociously shouting over every action. His performance is pretty great, at least. Also, the minigames are fun. One of my favorite gaming memories is playing this game at my 21st birthday party (because what college dorm room is complete without an N64?). My friends and I got a little overly competitive during drunken rounds of “Magikarp’s Splash”, and someone threw a controller at someone else’s head. — K. Podas
#129. Pilotwings 64
September 29, 1996
Nintendo EAD
Nintendo R&D3
Paradigm Simulation
$29.99 on Amazon
Pilotwings 64 was the game you played at launch when you got tired of Super Mario 64. Or it might have been the game you got for Christmas if your parents could not get a copy of Super Mario 64, since only two games were available as the system debuted. Pilotwings 64 had a lot riding on it. Controlling the characters as they glided around a fully 3D rendered island was impressive for the time, and looking back on it, it’s hard not to be nostalgic for that time period when games could simply rely on “Wow, look… 3D!” Otherwise it’s a pretty standard game. Though you could at least shoot your character out of a cannon at a large stone structure of Mario’s face on Mt. Rushmore- turning him into Wario! That’s fun. Oh yeah, and it also stars Nester from Nester’s Funky Bowling on the Virtual Boy, a game that absolutely nobody knows now, and didn’t know back then. — K. Podas
#128. Bust A Move ‘99
April 30, 1999
Taito
Taito
$84.99 on Amazon
A solid Bust A Move experience that isn’t quite as good as the other entry on the system, Bust A Move 2: Arcade Edition. It’s still really good, just a bit less fun around the edges. The controls are a little sluggish too, like a wet sponge, making it harder for me to line up shots with precision on this cart. But again, if for some reason you’ve taken a vow or blood oath to never play Bust A Move 2: Arcade Edition (none of my business really), then yeah, Bust A Move ‘99 is tight. It’s actually a really good thing it has the year in the title, otherwise future generations might be very confused by the level with a photo of the World Trade Center as its background. — M. Roebuck
#127. Vigilante 8
March 17, 1999
Luxoflux
Activision
$74.99 on Amazon
Somewhere between Swing music and Y2K hysteria, vehicular combat games were all the rage for a few years in the late 90s. Twisted Metal was the unquestioned king of the genre, and a few games fought for its scraps, with Vigilante 8 being assuredly not the worst among them. The sequel’s lineup would remedy the same-y cars of the first, but both games feature great levels and ‘70s vibes, a very inspired choice to set this game apart from the Rogue Trip‘s and Carmageddon‘s of the world. Know what else sets it apart? Each car has special moves with fighting game-like inputs unique to them. It adds a pretty cool depth to the game, or at least gives you a pretty cool YouTube video to search for if you’re like me. — M. Roebuck
#126. Polaris SnoCross
December 27, 2000
Vicarious Visions
Vatical Entertainment
This snowmobile racer has the luxury of blizzardy winter atmospheres keeping the foregrounds unclear until they’re in immediate view. What’s your excuse, other 48 racing games on the Nintendo 64?! On one hand, this is kind of a ho-hum racer that won’t take long to feel like you’ve seen everything it has to offer. On the other hand, riding through snowed over city streets by light of your Polaris’ headlights comes across pretty well, and again, is a more unique experience than a lot of other racers of the time can offer. How into Polaris snowmobiles are you, dude? That is a big factor in determining your enjoyment of this particular game. I’m like a medium on them so this goes in the middle of the pack, but it’s flexible. — M. Roebuck
#125. Fighter’s Destiny
January 26, 1998
Opus Corp.
Ocean
$39.99 on Amazon
When I was a kid I think I knew on some level that Virtua Fighter was a good fighting game that I should play, but I was too young for its realistic fighting simulation and needed some goofiness in my fighting games, a mutant creature or a guy that could punch you in the dick, some kind of an X-factor. If I’d known about Fighter’s Destiny when I was young, it would’ve been right up my alley. This 3-D fighter is methodical like the VF games, and even dials up the realism with a karate-esque point system to determine the winner. Sounds pretty stuffy, eh? This maturity and innovation is camouflaged by some silly shit like characters that include Pierre the clown and Tomahawk the pro wrestler, and there’s a mode called Rodeo where you fight a fucking cow. It all adds up to a very unpredictable fighting game that can culminate in anything from someone hanging on the side of the edge for dear life pulling off a perfectly timed reversal and throwing their enemy out to score a crucial point, or again, beating up a fucking cow. — M. Roebuck
#124. Dr. Mario 64
April 8, 2001
Nintendo
Nintendo
$55.99 on Amazon
For a console sold on its incredible 3D visuals, there sure are a lot of puzzle games on the N64, eh? I’m gonna lay it all out here: I don’t like Dr. Mario. The game, that is. Dr. Mario, the character? Great guy. Takes my insurance. Sure, all of his treatments are “Take 2 red-blue Megavitamins and call me in the morning,” and I think he’s getting kickbacks from Big Pharma, but that’s just healthcare and there’s nothing we can do to change that here in America, no siree. Anyway, Dr. Mario as a game frustrates me. I appreciate that it’s trying to do more than just clearing blocks, and it is really satisfying to whittle down the number of viruses on the board. But if you fuck up and put a pill where it shouldn’t go, it’s gonna take you forever to claw back to having an advantage. It’s cool that there’s multiple modes here, including a story mode where you can play as Dr. Mario or Wario, but I don’t know why you’d pick this up when Pokémon Puzzle League or Magical Tetris Challenge are sitting right there. — S. Finkelstein
#123. Cruis’n Exotica
October 16, 2000
Gratuitous Games
Midway
$79.99 on Amazon
The arcade hit…at home??? That’s right, it’s Cruis’n Exotica. You’re gonna drive on tracks inspired by real world locations both real and fictional. When you pick a track, a woman’s voice comes on and says stuff like “Las Vegas is cool,” or “I love Atlantis.” And then you just drive, you hold down the button to go and you just do it. It’s not difficult. There’s no mechanics. Press the gas twice to do a boost. Who cares, man. You’re cruis’n. All the tracks and cars are unlocked from the start, and the backgrounds are pretty good. This is not a game you’re going to get a lot out of. But pop it in and just vibe for a minute. No rush. Just cruise. — S. Finkelstein
#122. Fighting Force 64
June 1999
Core Design
Crave Entertainment
Fighting Force 64 is your classic beat em’ up that lets you live out your cathartic dreams of roundhouse kicking a janitor named after your dad.
Being able to grab random shit off of the walls and whack people with it is such a cool mechanic. My favorite moment was in the first level when a bunch of dicks ran me over with their bad guy van. I ignored them, punched the shit out of their ride, then proceeded to one shot each of them with a tire to the face. The memories of the Top Gear N64 franchise will fade, but I’m going to remember this rad car shit for a while.
As much as I’m praising it, Fighting Force definitely has its issues. The controls are a little janky and poorly mapped, the soundtrack is lame and the game ultimately boils down to fighting the same goons over and over.
Out of all of the miserably dated N64 games I’ve played recently, this is the only one I actually see myself going back to. Also holy shit it’s a Nintendo 64 game with a decent camera. — N. Krause
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