Nintendo 64: Top 30 Games Ranked

15. Yoshi’s Story

Not quite the follow up to Yoshi’s Island that players had hoped for, Yoshi’s Story is a great looking 2D platformer for the Nintendo 64. It’s so cute and adorable that it’d melt the heart of even the hardest of people.

14. Pokemon Stadium

After the original Game Boy Pokemon games were released this was the first chance for players to see their Pokemon in 3D. Using the Nintendo 64 transfer pack, you could actually plug in your Game Boy copies of Pokemon Blue, Red and Yellow to battle your specific Pokemon in 3D, play a host of mini games and even play the Game Boy games on the big screen with a neat speed enhancer to blast through the games at triple speed.

13. Donkey Kong 64

The marmite of 3D platform games. Donkey Kong 64 has the world record of a video game with the most collectibles for a player to find. Impressive considering it came out in 1999. You get to play as Donkey Kong for the first time since Donkey Kong Land, and Diddy Kong is also back. But as well as these Kongs you also get Tiny Kong, Chunky Kong and Lanky Kong, animal buddies including Rambi the Rhino and the game also features the DK Rap!

12. Banjo Tooie

Banjo Tooie is a great adventure, but it did come from the era where Rare seemed to think that bigger always meant better. With ginormous worlds and tons to collect the game saw you able to play as Banjo and Kazooie, just Banjo, just Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo or a range of transformations meaning this had tons of ways to explore levels.

11. WWF Attitude

Yup, I went there. For me this was the better wrestling game than WWF No Mercy. The graphics were more life like and you could play with either button combo based controls or grapple based controls. The game also features better entrances, commentary and a large variety of match types and along with WWF Warzone pretty much revolutionised the wrestling video game genre with the create a wrestler mode.

10. Diddy Kong Racing

Diddy Kong gets centre stage in this cartoon racer that combined Mario Kart with Super Mario 64 for an adventure game where you have to complete challenges and stages by racing in not only karts, but also in planes and hovercrafts. The game saw you control a cast of characters that includes Diddy Kong, Banjo the bear, Conker the Squirrel, drumstick the chicken and more as you look to defeat the evil Wizpig.

9. Perfect Dark

After Rare decided to follow up Goldeneye with an original IP, Perfect Dark was born. A game that needed the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pack to fully enjoy, the game featured more gadgets and stealth gameplay from Joanna Dark than you’d find in any James Bond adventure. Oh and there were alien encounters. Some would say this had the best first person shooter maps on the Nintendo 64.

8. Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Still a contender for the funniest game of all time, Conker’s Bad Fur Day started out as another Banjo Kazooie style cute platformer, but somewhere along the way ended up as a South Park like rude and adult humour based adventure platformer. You still play as the cute squirrel Conker, but with a bad hang over you must get through stages featuring the Great Mighty Poo who is an opera singing turd, Saving Private Ryan inspired bloody war levels and have to literally pee on fire demons to defeat them.

7. Mario Kart 64

Even though Super Mario Kart is well loved, this is the game where the Mario Kart series became legendary. Featuring Mario, Luigi, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, Yoshi and Wario, you race across sixteen iconic tracks including DK Jungle and Rainbow Road for gold place glory. The multiplayer game is just as fun today as it was in 1996!

6. Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

The second Legend of Zelda game on the Nintendo 64 is a classic, which although not quite as well loved as it’s predecessor is still a masterpiece of a game. Building on the time travel based gameplay of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask gives you a fantastic time loop based story where Link has just three days to prevent the Moon from crashing into the world of Termina.

5. Resident Evil 2

Fitting the two CD Resident Evil 2 game, complete with video cut scenes onto an N64 cartridge was seen as something of a miracle back in the day, and it really is an impressive feat. Not only did it have the entire adventure of Leon S Kennedy and Claire Redfield, but it also gave fans the bonus Ex Files, blood colour changer and item randomiser for extra replay value. Take on zombies, Lickers and more in the classic survival horror experience.

4. Banjo-Kazooie

Everything Nintendo did, Rare tried to do better. And this was Rare’s attempt at a Super Mario 64 beater. Some would say it’s better, but I think all can agree that this adventure featuring the famous bear and bird is as close to a Mario contender as can be found. With gorgeous cartoon graphics and loads of humour you couldn’t help but play to get every last Jiggy and music note in your quest to beat Gruntilda.

3. Goldeneye 007

The first truly great video game movie adaptation ever. Goldeneye 007 from Rareware not only was a great first person shooter, but it filled it with gadgets and stealth based gameplay which made you really feel like James Bond. Add to this the most incredible four player multiplayer deathmatch mode and this was an essential purchase for N64 owners.

2. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is a game that helped shape 3D adventure games for decades to come. It introduced Z-targeting which allowed accurate combat in a 3D game, and had the at the time huge Hyrule Field to explore. Beyond that it gave Link the Ocarina which was a musical instrument which you could actually play a huge amount of songs on. Oh and then it had time travel! So much goodness, and still a beloved game to this day.

1. Super Mario 64

Probably the greatest launch game of all time. Super Mario 64 didn’t quite invent the 3D platformer, but it set the template for all 3D platform games that followed. Collect 120 power stars over 15 courses and save Princess Peach from Bowser in the first of Mario’s 3D outings.

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