#121. Roadsters
December 14, 1999
Titus Interactive
Titus Interactive
$44.99 on Amazon
With its oddly soothing menu screens, Roadsters did not strike me as a typical racing game of its era. The distinct lack of badly-compressed guitars lures the player into a false sense of security, complete with rippling, colorful water effects and a dreamy percussion track reminiscent of a spa waiting room. That security is shattered as soon as you choose a character, at which point a terrifying, crunchy voice clip plays. Angelica for example, our token blonde, shouts “Bitchin’!” if you choose her. But nothing compares to the placid, silver-clad Mr. Slim lisping an unsettling “Nothing but the besssht.” Upon selecting him, I was compelled to keep playing, lest a curse be laid upon my family.
But the curses never came — as it turns out, this game has both a richly colorful aesthetic and a generally smooth, grippy feel to its controls. It’s a relaxing, Sunday drive of a game with a decent handling model that, despite its simplified physics, makes for an enjoyable, streamlined arcade racer experience.
While not quite as light and tailwind-propulsive as one of my personal N64 favorites, Cruis’n: Exotica, Roadsters does have its own endearingly tacky lineup of drivers and scenic tracks. From chromium-dirt Area 51 and the rosy Chateau, the game is at least pleasant to look at
The one strictly negative thing I could say about Roadsters is that it doesn’t let you send a cop patrol car flying 30 feet into the air. But hey, not every game can be Cruis’n.— L. Fisher
#120. Jet Force Gemini
October 14, 1999
Rare
Rare
Kingmaker and developer Rare could not stop putting out hit after hit on the Nintendo 64, and were insistent on upping their ante over and over. This game came out a month before Donkey Kong 64, and it’s clear to see where Rare’s heads were at during this time: ‘Big = Good.’ At this point however, several years into the Nintendo 64’s life cycle, we would see Rare release games that felt almost a little too ambitious, to the point where bigger and better started to just mean bloated. Who knew video games could give you indigestion?
Jet Force Gemini is probably one of the best looking and most cinematic games on the system. It took clear inspiration from some of the goofier elements of Star Wars, and is an interesting mix of cartoony and realistic, yet is surprisingly gory – careful not to accidentally shoot a Tribal, it’ll ruin your day. It does a good job at clearly communicating objectives, but pulling them off can be another story entirely. The game will occasionally switch from the standard jumping, platforming, and shooting, to a different third-person over-the-shoulder perspective once combat is initiated, to the point where at first I thought I did something wrong. Manual aiming to shoot at targets not directly in front of you can also be a bit frustrating to pull off. At the end of the day though, it’s another collect-a-thon, except you can accidentally kill the Jinjos. — K. Podas
#119. Hybrid Heaven
August 31, 1999
Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka
Konami
$59.99 on Amazon
I went into this game completely blind, and boy was I in for a ride. Hybrid Heaven was developed in tandem over at Konami with the PlayStation’s Metal Gear Solid. Allegedly it was supposed to be a Metal Gear game from the beginning, but they later changed course to avoid confusion. From the get-go, you can already see some of that DNA still here: evil clones, political mumbo jumbo, and highly cinematic cutscenes are instantly familiar in tone, but the gameplay itself is something truly unique. It’s an action game (at least partially), featuring platforming, shooting, climbing, and more. However, imagine my whiplash when I entered my first “battle”. Holy shit, this is also a… turn-based, RPG… wrestling game? Now THAT’S a hybrid if I’ve ever seen one. And you know what? Props to them. Regardless of how I may feel about this game overall, that is an extremely ballsy move. The N64 was basically a dead zone for RPGs anyway, so if you wanna sneak one in my action game, I won’t mind.
The gameplay otherwise can be pretty hit or miss. Controlling your character can be a bit stiff, the camera seems to have a mind of its own at times, and don’t even get me started on the manual aiming. It’s also easy to get lost. I would commonly find myself retreading the same areas thanks to my useless minimap. But hey, if I can suplex a giant alien bug thing every once in a while, it’s all groovy. — K. Podas
#118. Goemon’s Great Adventure
September 15, 1999
Konami
Konami
$203.49 on Amazon
Oh, you like Japanese games, do you? Then how about you try out the most Japanese game of them all! This rare English release of a game in Konami’s long running Ganbare Goemon series features a chibi version of the Japanese folklore hero Goemon hopping and bopping around medieval Japan, albeit one that has a bunch of aliens and robots in it. It’s very cute, and it’s respectable that Konami did very little to adjust this game to American kids tastes at the time. No delicious jelly donuts here! It’s rare to see a well-done 2D platformer on this console, and the game does a great job combining it with some light RPG elements with towns full of people to talk to and side quests to complete. But please, Konami, can’t you give lil’ Goemon some more health? — S. Finkelstein
#117. Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition
April 30, 1998
Taito
Taito
$39.99 on Amazon
Here we are with another arcade port. Don’t get it twisted, This is an ARCADE EDITION. The title screen has a credit counter! What do they want you to do, put some quarters in the Expansion Pak slot? We tried, and we ended up having to call that number on the back of the instruction book next to Mario with a little screwdriver. And they won’t even fix the damn thing because the console is “20 years old.” Whatever. This is a great little puzzle game. You shoot colored balls at the top of the screen. If you match three, they disappear, and any balls that were attached get removed too. There’s some nice little anime-style cutscenes between the levels, and a puzzle mode where you need to clear the screen in a certain number of moves. But you know what this game actually is? It’s just Snood. That game is free AND replaces the balls with a bunch of weird lil guys. Just go ask your mom if you can go on American Online and play Snood. — S. Finkelstein
#116. Tarzan
February 14, 2000
Eurocom Entertainment Software
Activision
$49.87 on Amazon
Holy shit, it’s a Donkey Kong Country clone! This video game adaption of the 1999 Disney film is a 2.5D platformer, which feels novel in a game library focused on trying to be the next Mario 64. You bop around in jungle themed levels, collect letters that spell ‘Tarzan,’ and find sketches that give you access to bonus stages. The game looks fantastic, with expressive 3D models and locations that evoke the art style of the film. It’s just that the game itself isn’t really that fun to play. Your primary mode of defeating enemies is throwing fruit. You can’t even jump on their heads! It never feels fair when you lose health and it’s unclear what animals will hurt you and which are just decorative. One thing’s for certain, though. You can’t beat that MIDI Phil Collins music. — S. Finkelstein
#115. Banjo-Tooie
November 20, 2000
Rare
Nintendo
$64.95 on Amazon
This is the best sequel title ever, right? It’s cheeky, it’s fun to say, it tells you exactly what this game is: more Banjo-Kazooie. But this game doesn’t quite recapture the magic of the Bear and Bird’s first adventure. Continuing the trend from Donkey Kong 64, this game is massive. The first level from the first game could fit entirely within the bounds of the first area in this game’s opening level. It almost feels like Rare was trying to see if they could put Banjo and Kazooie into a more Zelda-like game. There’s a heavier focus on backtracking and environmental puzzles as opposed to platforming challenges. It’s still charming and a lot of the dialogue still elicits chuckles (it’s really funny that your friend Bottles dies at the beginning and within 10 minutes you’re at his house pretending everything is fine). But walking around these massive levels is a slog. I should be moving as fast as the Talon Trot at all times if you’re gonna make me walk all the way to Mumbo’s house this much. — S. Finkelstein
#114. WWF Attitude
August 31, 1999
Acclaim
Acclaim
$21.08 on Amazon
This game added a lot of impressive features to the already –other-word-for-impressive– War Zone. Voice taunts, expanded entrances, faces that were starting to look sort of normal on the heads, this game really delivered a lot. It’s all impressive on paper (you printed this out to read it, right?), but Attitude is still nowhere near as fun as the THQ wrestling games that were still to come. In addition to one of the most iconic rosters in the history of professional wrestling, the game is complete with commentary from legendary duo Jerry Lawler and, uh, Shane McMahon?! Oh, to be the boss’ kid.
Fun Fact: There are four (!) playable wrestlers in this game released 23 (!!) years ago that are still active and doing great work today (Christian, Edge, Billy Gunn, and Dustin Rhodes, wrestling here as Goldust). — M. Roebuck
#113. Nightmare Creatures
Kalisto Entertainment
Activision
November, 1998
$34.99 on Amazon
Nightmare Creatures is the Bloodborne of the N64. No, seriously. It’s an extremely difficult, gothic horror action game where you fight with werewolves and other gruesome creatures with a melee weapon and a gun. The game even forces you to fight with an adrenaline meter that damages you if you don’t keep killing monsters, which is reminiscent of the aggressive, heal-on-hit playstyle Bloodborne encourages. I would be genuinely surprised if FromSoft didn’t boot up Nightmare Creatures at some point of their preproduction process.
This is all to say that Nightmare Creatures is fucking awesome. It’s dark, grody, and monstrous in just the way you like. This rated R aesthetic is especially stand-out on the Nintendo 64, a console more known for Mario’s Wittle Baby World than heavy metal violence.
Then why isn’t this game ranked higher? The controls are absolute dogshit. Your character uses tank controls in an action game and it does NOT work. When a monster attacks you, you need to choose between slowly rotating your character to limp out of the way, or using the jump-dodge that shoots you out of the stratosphere. The enemies compound this problem by having minimal recovery on their moves, which means you are one rogue AI’s decision away from being comboed to death. This means the game’s infamous difficulty comes less from game design and more from your main character’s two left feet. Nightmare Creatures is a movement control mod away from being a diamond in the rough, but as-is I would recommend you watch your friend play while you hog all the snacks. — R. Fleishman
#112. Space Invaders
November 30, 1999
Z-Axis
Activision
$59.99 on Amazon
There’s a limit to how good an enhanced port of an old arcade game can be, but Space Invaders might just hit that limit. The graphical updates, atmospheric music, variety of spaceship types, power-ups, and bosses make this one of the rare arcade remakes that I genuinely think I prefer playing over the original. I don’t really have a whole lot more to say on this one, so I figure now is a good time in the list to check in. Reader, how are you doing? Did you actually read this whole list or have you been picking-and-choosing titles you find interesting? Do you think Hard Drive should do more stuff like this? I think we might genuinely be the first site on the internet to attempt an N64 ranking at this scale. The whole project sort of makes me nostalgic for an earlier era in gaming journalism, when you’d go and hang out on a bunch of discrete websites and develop parasocial relationships with the elite handful of people who figured out a way to make a living riffing on games. A time when knowing or reading anything about video games felt somehow subversive—before they achieved the cultural ubiquity they enjoy today. I know that overall, things are better now that it isn’t just Matt Casamassina writing about video games (with respect to the OG). But I still look back fondly on the era where gaming culture felt like a secret little club. Anyway, if you’re bored, you could do a whole lot worse than playing Space Invaders. — C. Dean
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