Nintendo 64’s five best games –

5. Golf Race 64

Every time I think of this great racing game for this great console, two things immediately come to mind. First, I remember all that white plastic dust that accumulated in the base around the analog stick on the N64 after a few weeks of playing Wave Race 64, and second, I remember a letter in my old Missile magazine about this iconic game. Someone wrote asking if a sequel to Wave Race 64 was imminent, to which we at the editor replied : “Aren’t the 63 predecessors enough?”. Haha. Incredibly childish. That aside, it’s arguable that the water physics and driving feel of this game still hasn’t been surpassed, that’s how far ahead of its time it was.

4. Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 8 is remarkable, there is no doubt about that. It’s a great racing game, but no title in this hyper-popular series even comes close to the magic that the 64 version offered, not if you ask me. Split-screen for four players, the Fort -level in “Battle” and full four-player action in which friends chase each other remains one of the best multiplayer experiences of all time.

3. Golden Eye 007

Rareware originally intended to put together an adventure action game from a third-person perspective, with a focus on stealth and lots of cool 007 gadgets. But as we all know, that didn’t happen. Instead, they looked once and twice at iD Software’s PC icons, created the first working FPS game for console and rewrote the entire rulebook for the licensed game genre.

2. Super Mario 64

Where would we be, where would the gaming world be, if it were not for the ground breaking Super Mario ‘s Nintendo 64 debut? It’s hard to say, of course, but there’s no doubt that this game redefined what video games in general and the platform genre in particular could be. So much charm, so much character, imagination, color, ingenious game mechanics and ideas.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Choosing between Super Mario or Link ‘s adventure here, in the first place, is a bit like choosing a favorite between your two children. Impossible… almost. But when the knife is at the throat and one of the games really has to win, it has to be the Hyrulian’s magical N64 adventure that takes the crown. From the first steps of the Kokiri ladder to the boss fight in the water temple, to riding Epona across the bright green polygonal meadows, these were and remain some of the best game moments ever.