Why I got a nintendo 64 back in the day

[DoctaMario]

I bought the N64 for the Castlevania games (which I STILL love and think were better than Symphony Of The Night [though SoTN is no slouch]) and because my brother wanted Goldeneye.

It was a great system but it started a couple trends for the worst. The first being, a Nintendo system that was difficult for a lot of 3rd party companies to program for well. Most of the games people agree are the best are made BY Nintendo because the system has a really awful camera system as well as only being able to handle tile samples that are the size of one's thumbnail.

It also started a trend for me personally of being a Nintendo system where I only liked a handful of the games. But the games I liked, I LOVED and played quite a lot, including:

Castlevania 64
Castlevania Legacy Of Darkness
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
WCW vs.NWO Revenge
Fighter Destiny 2 (best fighter on the 64 IMO)
WWF Warzone (never had No Mercy cuz it was always too expensive. :P)
SSB
Gauntlet Legends
Mario Kart 64

I loved the system and played it quite a lot back in the day and I can see how some people would dislike it, but the good stuff about it was REALLY good.

 

[TheBattler]

WWF Warzone (never had No Mercy cuz it was always too expensive. :P)

Man, I feel sorry for you. You didn't ever have No Mercy, and your only wrestling game was War Zone, the crappiest one on the console (and one of the crappiest wrestling games in general).

Dude, you should have gotten WCW vs nWA: Revenge, at the very least.

 

[Tanegashima]

To me the failure was the GameCube. The controller looked awful and I never got the decision going with mini DVDs unless you're deeply afraid of bootleggers. Also there weren't any games that warranted me going out and purchasing a console that wasn't selling. The only game I wanted to play was RE4, but it wasn't worth me going out and purchasing a GameCube just to play it.

I don't consider the N64 a failure. It was innovative. The console was the first with an analog stick along with a d-pad, a trigger, rumble support, and standard multiplayer without having to buy an additional peripheral. Plus the games offered a shitload of fun which alot of today's games are seriously lacking. What hurt it was going with cartridges instead of CDs, but going that route would have probably made the console itself more expensive. But the good thing about cartridges is that they last.

Quoted for great justice.

 

[Jaxel]

The N64 didn't actually have an "analog" stick. If you open the controller up and look at the circuit board, it was actually a matrix of digital inputs. Basically a d-pad with 16 directions, instead of only 4.

And the games for the N64 were trash... most people can't even name 10 good games for the console. Sure, the good games for the console were golden gems; the majority of it was trash. The N64 was when Nintendo STOPPED doing their "Seal of Approval". Before the N64, in order for a game to be released on a Nintendo console, it had to get the "Seal of Approval" by Nintendo. With the N64, they stopped doing quality testing, and that is why there are so many SHIT games on Nintendo consoles now.
_________________________________________
====== DOUBLE POST AUTO-MERGE ======

The mini-DVDs was a stroke of genius on Nintendo's part. I wish that they would use mini-DVDs for the Wii. Also, the GameCube was an amazing piece of hardware, except for the fact that it did not play DVDs like the PS2 or XBOX (which is what turned off alot of people to buying the GCN).

The mini-DVDs didn't just ward off bootleggers; it also allowed for faster load times. They were smaller, yeah, but if you think about it, they could just be double layered or games could just have multiple disks. As far as regular, plain old DVDs go, the mini-DVDs were the superior medium. I really wish Nintendo used mini-DVDs for the Wii, since they're not taking the next step up, anyway.

And, I'm sorry, but the GameCube controller is one of the best controllers ever made. I don't want to sound like a Nintendo fanboy for shouting out the praises of the GameCube, but really, do aesthetics on a controller count THAT much? If you're good at a game, you're probably not going to look down on your controller, thus you won't see the crappy-looking, yet very comfortable GameCube controller. So, who cares? It's fantastic that the new controllers for each console are easy to mod, but it's not as if they really matter.

Wrong... the mini-DVDs were a huge mistake... the Mini-DVDs basically solidified Sony as the RPG console in Japan. With only 1.3gigs of space on a disc, they didn't have space for FMVs, so most RPG companies went with Sony, that could support up to 9gigs per disc. There were really no good RPGs on the GC... its the reason why people think Tales of Symphonia was a good game; one of the worst games in the series, but people like it because it was simply the best RPG on the GC (of which there were only THREE).

Which is a real shame, because I agree with you on some aspects about the GC controller. The GC controller is BY FAR the BEST controller ever made for RPGs (it sucks for FPS games and fighting games). Its as if they designed the controller to be an RPG controller... but their decisions for everything else on the console killed that oppurtunity.

As for faster load times, that is true, compared to the PS2, but not the Xbox. Microsoft did some genious when they designed their DVD reader, instead of reading data from the inside of a disc, it read data from the outside of a disc. By nature, the outside of the disc travels further in a shorter amount of time than the inside portion of the disc. Nintendo could have done this; but they have never been a company that you would call "advanced" in the technology department. The broadway chip in the Wii was designed in 2001 for gods sake!

 

[Astaroth136]

I loved my N64.

Best games to me were....

1. Banjo Tooie (screw Mario this game was so much better)
2. Kirby 64 The Crystal Shardes
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day
4. Super Smash Brothers
5. Stars Wars Podracing (I'm like the only person who loved this)
6. Perfect Dark
7. Zelda Ocarina of Time
8. Banjo Kazooie
9. Jet Force Gemini
10. Golden Eye

I think it is safe to say that Nintendo fucked up by losing Rare

While reading though this topic, I instantly thought of that Kirby game. Being able to combine powers was awesome. Multiplayer wasn't bad either. I thought Kirby 64 really raised the bar for Kirby games, even with Kirby Super Star on SNES. Has anyone played Kirby's Air Ride for the GC? Also crazy fun...

SSB was really fun. Not much to say, other than with or without others, this game was entertaining.

I was really into Pokemon back then too, so being able to fight them in 3D in Pokemon Stadium was really neat.