#69. NFL Blitz: Special Edition
November 28, 2001
Point of View
Midway
Uh, it says a thousand dollars on Amazon
This is just a Blockbuster Video exclusive version of Blitz 2001 with an updated roster, so it’s the same game as that, which is found higher on the list. I’ve bumped Special Edition down several spots because frankly these Blockbuster exclusive cartridges really fucked up the whole collecting scene and are annoying to deal with while compiling this list. Kind of a whole pain in the ass, Blockbuster. Didn’t keep you in business either, did it? — M. Roebuck
#68. Mario Party
February 8, 1999
Hudson Soft
Nintendo
$69.99 on Amazon
At a time when there were only four types of games on the Nintendo 64 (3-D fighting games you’ve never heard of, racing games set in San Francisco, ports of mature PC games that shouldn’t be anywhere near the N64, and sports), this series was a radical twist on the clunky first wave 3-D gameplay that largely defined the console. Other games’ big empty worlds tended to look nice at first, but they largely turned out to be an absolute slog to play through. Enter Mario Party with its fun and digestible minigames and fast pace. Further entries polished the formula and will be found later in the list, but most of what we all love about Mario Party was there right from the jump (pun not intended, but I saw it and was like, “ooh i’ma leave it,” so whatever you call that.) It took them a while to figure out the character models, though. Everyone in this one looks like off-brand plush versions of the beloved Nintendo mascots that you’d find in a sketchy claw machine at a truck stop somewhere. Very fun. Probably a few too many games that rely on rotating the analog stick, but what can you do? — M. Roebuck
#67. Worms Armageddon
Infogrames Lyon House
Infogrames
March 30, 2000
The mark of a great party multiplayer game is that it’s easy to pick up but difficult to master. I found Worms Armageddon difficult to pick up but it rips anyway. The objective is simple—your team of worms is trying to blow up the other team of worms—but the variety of weapons and obstacles is surprisingly sophisticated. Once I managed to find a couple of weapons that I could successfully aim at my opponents greater than 50% of the time, I was vibing. I should note that I was only able to play with CPUs; I’m sure the game would be exponentially more fun with other players (preferably a few who are just as bad at the game as I am). There’s some wonkiness in the user experience—why do I have to dig into settings to create a team?—but overall, the inventiveness of the gameplay shines, especially amid the glut of fighting/racing/sports games that make up the vast majority of this console’s multiplayer experiences. My biggest note for this franchise is that they should bring in Rabbids and Minions so that all of the impish squeaky-voiced miscreants can blow each other up in one game. Hehehehehehehe! — C. Dean
#66. Chameleon Twist 2
April 14, 1999
Japan System Supply
Sunsoft
$209.99 on Amazon
After years of pleas from a desperate public, their wish was granted with Chameleon Twist 2. It’s not terribly different, but there are some nice little changes made to the game’s foundation. Namely, the levels are reigned in a little bit, and this is now a Mario Bros.-esque scramble from point A to point B. The music is really great, and worth a listen on its own if you want some N64 vibes to study and relax to. Your character is given some new abilities too, namely the one where an umbrella comes out of his ass and lets you glide in the air, which pairs well with the holdover ability from the first game that let’s you sproing yourself in the air like a pole vaulter using your tongue. Yup, it’s still weird, and it’s still kinda fun?
It’s not hard to tell what the popular games of this era were when you play CT2, for better or for worse. Sadly, the Yoshi inspired bits where you suck enemies into your mouth and spit them at other enemies are the game’s weakest point, thanks largely to the prevalent depth perception issues found in games like this. The Mario inspired 3D platforming and Zelda inspired boss fights, however, are good dumb fun. What we have here is a game with the good sense to steal from the best and inject its own distinct sensibilities into the mix. You’ll never see Link spit popcorn at a sentient box of French fries. Maybe in that weird cartoon they did, but never in a Zelda game. — M. Roebuck
#65. World Driver Championship
May 31, 1999
Boss Game Studios
Midway
$44.99 on Amazon
Everything about this World Driver Championship’s generic name and box art (and hell, even the fact that it’s the 30th Midway driving game on the system) indicate that it would be a forgettable arcade style racer, when in all actuality its a hidden gem GT style racing game that is the Nintendo 64’s best answer to Gran Turismo. I think. We’ve played so many racing games, I might be forgetting one or two here. Please be nice to me. But this one is fun, there’s a lot here. If you’re one of those sickos that likes to practice a track before they do the qualifier before they do the race itself, then great news pal, you can do all that shit. They don’t have the license to use real car names, but you know what? The knockoffs sure look like Mustangs and Porsches and whatnot to me, especially since this game has some of the system’s best graphics, having been released so late into its lifespan. How real do you need a fake car to be, exactly? — M. Roebuck
#64. Namco Museum 64
October 31, 1999
Mass Media
Namco
$34.99 on Amazon
This is just a bulletproof collection of bona fide classics. The Namco museums being released around the same time on the PlayStation had more of a museum feel, and while the sights and trivia are missing here, what the N64 collection has on those others is a better cultivation. Namco Museum, like so many collections before and after it, clearly made an effort to space out their releases and give you a few of the ones you wanted alongside a few more obscure games. This game here is that raw uncut. That good shit. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Pole Position, all the jams.
There’s an illusion of being able to modify the games, as your starting lives and bonus amounts are adjustable and visualized in the form of dipswitches. Sadly, however, they don’t have whatever switch that they’d use in real life that made every Ms. Pac-Man machine you’ve ever found run like it was stuck in fast forward. As a result, Ms. Pac-Man feels slow as shit. Is that a dipswitch thing? I think it is. You’d think I know about video games, right? Well I really don’t. Not the switches and shit.
Where do you rank a collection of a half dozen classics alongside the fuller games they helped inspire? It’s like asking if you’d rather have a couple of little Snickers bars or a grilled cheese sandwich. My point is that all of these games are delicious. — M. Roebuck
#63. Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ‘98
December 3, 1997
Software Creations
Midway
A laughably similar game to its predecessor that is nearly identical in most ways and better in one or two. Most notably, this time around the arcade porting employees of Midway (who I don’t think slept for entire years in the ‘90s) saw it fit to make you always control the puck handler while on offense, making offensive plays infinitely easier to set up when playing solo. It’s quite difficult to pull off a successful one-timer when you have to change who you’re controlling as the pass is in between players, it turns out. Both of these games had the full NHL license, but opted to only include centers and forwards for its 3-on-3 gameplay, which means I can’t play as childhood defensive favorites like Nicklas Lidstrom and Ray Borque. With all due respect to a very fun arcade style hockey game; fuck that, Wayne. — M. Roebuck
#62. Fighter Destiny 2
June 22, 2000
Opus Corp.
SouthPeak Interactive
$69.95 on Amazon
In what I have to assume was a typo that made it all the way up the flagpole, the sequel to Fighter’s Destiny is called Fighter Destiny 2. For better or for worse, they polished up every aspect of the sequel to this N64 sleeper, even the title. The missing letter ‘S’ is probably the worst thing about this game, if I’m being honest. Everything that worked in part one still works here, and it’s been expanded for the better in just about every way. Joining the ranks of my main man Pierre the Clown are standouts like Cherry the drag queen and D-Dog, who is clearly modeled after Dennis Rodman, specifically Dennis Rodman the pro wrestler, the larger than life dude that was chugging Miller Lites in front of the media outside of Bulls practice before taking off on his motorcycle to make a WCW Monday Nitro taping, and it’s amazing. What’s even more impressive is the fleshed out championship mode, a surprisingly deep single player campaign that’s like a mix of Mario Party and the board game level from Gunstar Heroes, with the added fun of learning new moves and leveling up your character along the way. The best non-Smash non-Mortal Kombat fighting game on the N64. Fingers crossed we get a Destiny of Fighting 3 one day! — M. Roebuck
#61. Army Men 2: Sarge’s Heroes 2
September 27, 2000
The 3DO Company
The 3DO Company
$44.99 on Amazon
A textbook example of a sequel that’s a little bit better than its originator. It delivers more or less exactly what I wished the first one had, more levels set in the real world. That may be more of a nitpick than valid criticism, but nevertheless this entry dwells on it more and I say it’s all the better for it. This game is filled with creativity, and fighting your way across a toy store to get a coin out of its cash register to let your buddy out of a gumball machine they’re trapped in is one of the best levels on this entire system. Oh, and the last level has you running around inside of a pinball machine, which is not only fun and wildly original, it’s also the only representation of pinball on the N64 to my knowledge. Is that interesting? Who cares, we’re three fourths of the way through this fucker! You’re doing great!! — M. Roebuck
#60. World Cup ‘98
May 19, 1998
EA Canada
EA Sports
EA made a World Cup game every four years, but being the first to co-exist with their newer FIFA series’ take on the tournament, there’s not a whole lot here to talk about. FIFA has leagues and Indoor mode and the World Cup. World Cup has the World Cup. In fact, even though this game came out later and is all World Cup, it still doesn’t have as many teams to pick from Fifa: 98’ Road to World Cup had, even though it was released a year earlier, and wasn’t even the sole focus of the game. This one is for sure the World Cuppiest though, if you’re a Cuphead (using the ’90s version of that term here). Winning a cup unlocks a ‘World Cup Classics’ mode that lets you recreate iconic moments throughout the tournament’s history, a feature none of the other soccer games have. They even recorded with the BBC commentator from the 60’s and 70’s and the older ones are broadcast in black and white! Oh, but surprising absolutely no one, those details aren’t on the 64 version. Sorry. — M. Roebuck
Next Page
