Top 11 N64 Games, Ever

1. 11- The World Is Not Enough (2000, EA Games) : Eurocom developed a pretty damn good resemblance to Rare's GoldenEye, but it doesn't surpass it. The design is tight, the weapons and gadgets are there and the multiplayer isn't too bad. This version of TWINE is in my opinion, the 2nd best Bond game released, the first being GoldenEye, of course. Even though we were thinking of the Dreamcast, and the PS2 in 2000, the N64 still had a few tricks up it's sleeve. The biggest drag is that it didn't include the theme to the movie (or the Bond theme in general).

2. 10- San Francisco Rush 2049 (2000, Midway) : Although the Dreamcast version is near arcade-perfect and visually superior, the N64 is no slouch. It faithfully reproduces the arcade game, and tries to pull off as much as possible by including the expansion pak support. It pretty much included all the options the DC version had, but the visuals (and sound) were obviously downgraded. Still, it's one of the best racers the N64 had to offer.

3. 9- Blast Corps (1997, Nintendo-Rare) : This game is still pretty innovative today, since no other company has tried to produce a game like it. The object is to clear a path for a runaway truck carrying nuclear missiles, but miss just one small piece of a building or structure, or not fill a hole in it's path and BOOM! But it just wasn't limited to clearing paths. There were also a ton of mini-game stages that ranged from simple races to some of the most challenging things to ever be delivered in gaming history. And just when you think everything has been done, the Platinum challenges await, with absurd record times.

4. 8- San Francisco Rush (1997, Midway) : The first time I played this game, I wasn't really impressed by the arcade gameplay. I was more used to the relaxed style of Cruisn USA, Mario Kart and the different style of Waverace 64. But then when I played it again a few months later, I was pretty hooked, and then ended up owning the game. It's more than just circuit racing. There are keys that need to be found to unlock hidden items in the game, and it's pretty fun to go after that one key that you just can't get. Plus, there's a lot of shortcuts to be found that increases replyabillity. Plus, aside from the resolution, this version is arcade perfect.

5. 7- F-Zero X (1998, Nintendo) : After 7 long years, a sequel to F-Zero was finally made. While the look is rather simple (almost as simple as the SNES classic), the courses were insane. The very first course had you go through a gigantic loop, but that's just for starters. The later courses yielded corkscrews, inverted loops, high jumps, boomerang loops, normal loops and so much more. It was pretty much like a Six-Flags theme park in your N64. While it sucks that the F-Zero X Construction kit was Japan only, which let you create your own courses, what you get here is still pretty good.

6. 6- Ridge Racer 64 (2000, Nintendo) : You wan't to hear something crazy? This Ridge Racer was not developed or even published by Namco. It was the first game to be developed by Nintendo's U.S. development studio (later did Wave Race Blue Storm for the GCN). Nintendo's recreation of the Ridge Racer series is very faithful, if not more improved. The game looks a lot better and faster than it did on the PS1, and handles a lot more tighter. Here, you get the courses from Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution, plus one new course called Renegade. While I would have liked to have seen the Rage Racer courses in here, Nintendo still did a pretty good job, which deserves some respect from Namco.

7. 5- Tetrisphere (1997, Nintendo) : Probably one of the last greatest puzzle games to ever be released to this day. While Tetrisphere really has nothing to do with the Tetris gameplay, it's still really addictive and really fun to play. The 5-minute time trial alone will have you playing for hours at a time, and not even realize it.

8. 4- Wave Race 64 (1996, Nintendo) : Two of the best N64 games came out in 1996, and one of them is Wave Race 64. Even though Blue Storm is visually better and a little bigger than WR64, WR64 is still one of the greater racing games to be released. Many developers will have a hard time to create a jet-ski racer better than this. It's still better than Splashdown (PS2). Everything from the wave effects to the highly addictive stunt mode and the challenging design is done very well. It's still playable to this day, with just a slightly lower framerate than Blue Storm.

9. 3- The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (1998, Nintendo) : Considered by many as one of the greatest games of all time, LOZ:OOT does deliver what many had been waiting for for so long, a real exlporative adventure-RPG. While the graphics aren't so hot today (actually, it's just the resolution and dithering that bothers me), the gameplay still is. It's still so good, Nintendo re-released this game slightly enhanced as a pre-order bonus for the GCN. It is a really good adventure, but I did find the design still too close to the other games in the series. But STILL, you know...

10. 2- Super Mario 64 (1996, Nintendo) : So much time was lost on this game, but I won't complain. Hour for hour, this is one of the best games ever made. Mario's first forray into the world of 3-D was also one of his better adventures (of course the story was a bit lacking). While this was Nintendo's first 3-D platformer, it was also one of the first to be executed so well. Many platformers want to be Mario 64, but can never get near it's design. There was so much freedom in this game, you could be lost in this world for hours.

11. 1- GoldenEye 007 (1997, Nintendo-Rare) : Like it's a suprise. GoldenEye 007 is one of the best constructed first-person shooters ever made, with a highly addictive multiplayer mode to boot. The controls were mapped perfectly, the gameplay was tight to get in and out of sticky situations, the mission objectives were highly challenging and the stages were designed very well. Combine that with a great selection of weapons, the music that matched the action perfectly and it was one complete package. And this is also one of the bigger FPS games available, with 20 stages. Ever since EA took over the license, the most I've seeen was 12 stages, and some go by kind of quickly. But there was a lot here to keep you busy for months. Games today have a hard time keeping your attention for more than a few hours.

    
    
    

    Honorable Mentions: 1080 Snowboarding (if it had more than 6 courses, it would have made the list), Star Fox 64 (it was too easy for me), Mario Kart 64 (again, pretty easy), Pilotwings 64, Turok 2, Extreme-G, Wipeout 64