Why I got a nintendo 64 back in the day

whitey

[09] Warrior
After many discussions amongst friends it seems that there is much hate towards the n64 almost 13 years after its launch. Which is understandable, it was the beginning of the end for Nintendo and it didn't have half the games that the PS had

But I was digging through my collection to remind myself what the hell possessed me to ask for a Nintendo 64 over a Playstation back on my 11th birthday (1997) and this is what I came up with. (I actually wanted a Saturn but it was too expensive. I was a sega fanboy what do you want?)

1)Sony was new to the console business.
Other new comers to the industry where companies like Phillips, 3DO, and Apple. And each one of them was a massive failure. Many people thought that once Nintendo got the momentum they would crush Sony.

2) Hardware issues.
All my friends that owned a Playstation anytime between 1995-1997 had to send it away for repairs at least once. Meanwhile I've yet to meet someone in person that had a problem with the n64.

3) memory cards.
they were expensive for a kid my age at the time. having to pay money to be able to save a game seemed retarded at the time to me. Yes the 64 had memory cards, but few games supported them.

4)the controllers.
Up until the dualshock came out, all the playstation controller was was a snes controller with extra shoulder buttons. It didn't have an analog stick or buttons dedicated for camera control. meanwhile the n64 had that right out of the box. As well as the rumble pack. At the time the nintendo 64 seemed better prepared for 3d games than Sony. And before anyone corrects me I'm fully aware that the n64's stick wasn't true analog. But it created the illusion.

5)load times.
Okay, it was retarded for Nintendo to stick with cartridges. But keep in mind, things like the FX chip put the SNES over the edge. You can't do an add on like that with CDs. Anywhoo the other big advantage with cartridges was no load times. Many early Playstation games had retarded load times. Games like ridge racer would take a few minutes to start up. Yes this problem was fixed later on in the Playstation's life but I'm talking about 1996-1997 Playstation, and load times sucked ass! Especially if you were in impatient tween like me.

6)Ground breaking games.
Mario 64, LoZ ocarina of time and Goldeneye. Mario 64 was the first good 3d platformer. Ocarina of time was the first 3d action adventure game to get it right. And Goldeneye was the first FPS on console that was better than most PC FPSs. And all of these games were in glorious full 3d, unlike most PS games which used 3d rendered characters on static backgrounds. (Resident evil, FF7-9, metal gear solid etc...)

Basically all i'm trying to say is that if you bought a n64 before 1998 you were not retarded for thinking it would win the 32/64 bit war.

and here is a list of 10 great games for the console that have aged well. people keep telling me its impossible.

Starfox 64
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Mario Kart 64
Mario 64
WWF wrestlemania 2000
F-Zero X
1080 snowboarding
Winback
jet Force Gemini
Paper Mario
 
an easier way of saying it... is that the N64 was the best system that was out at the time with the best games and the PS hadn't had a chance to catch up or start throwing out T and M rated games (something that was a rarity on the N64). Those ground breaking games were also ...backed up simply by saying there were great developers working with nintendo...Rare back before they ....stopped doing anything...lol. Banjo Tooie I have to say still remains one of the best platformers of all time, and Mario 64 is a total classic and a great game. MArio Kart is one of the best racing games of all time and launched all the decent to good mario sports games you now see. Star fox was a great game for its time... although slippy always had that weird mental correlation to your avatar. After goldeneye, which is the classic, there came a very good Perfect Dark game that belonged in ANYBODYS collection...VERY fun FPS. And how could you not have mentioned the ground breaking Smash Brothers...hate it all you want but that shit was MONSTER fun when it came out. I never personally owned it but it was so fun at parties that I'd rent it on my birthday just to be able to play it with people. Seriously, the system was a monster. It was the GAMECUBE where Nintendo started to slip...not with the N64. And even then I don't think the gamecube was as bad as some say... hell... I thought I liked the newest zelda game better on my gamecube than playing on a friends wii... ... (do I have to say no homo to that... cuz the whole "ohh..you said WII that like a a PEEENIS...hehehehe" really has gotten old by now hasn't it??).

Think of it like this. List the Top 10 Non-rpg games of all time and then decide if the system was really all that bad :)

And like you said...they system just didn't break. FUCK dude.. I beat my brother so bad in a game once that he threw it at me and it hit a wall and it WORK FINE. (note: gamecubes hurt more when thrown because of the corners..lol). Only issue I've really heard was it was wa bitch to get near wires for the power source (my ex-gf even had a rabbit bite through her cords... go figure).
 
OoT is still in my top 5 games of all time. I loved the hell out of that. Getting the GC version was the only good thing that came from Windwaker.
 
Interesting, didn't realize that there's so much hate for the 64... While it's easy to see that Nintendo made a lot of shortsighted choices that would come back to bite them in the ass, almost all of my gaming friends love the console and a surprising percentage of non-gamers from my generation still look at it fondly (around my school, you're able to run into a random Mario Kart 64 race just as easily as some Halo LAN). It really was the multiplayer system of choice, so I never felt like I missed out too badly by waiting to pick up a PS1 much later.

I guess I just wasn't very cognizant about the "console war" back then or I simply didn't care. But yeah, the N64... it was a great console with some timeless classics, regardless of how it came up as far as the sales numbers go. Nothing to be ashamed of. :)

Speaking of the 64, Ogre Battle 64 needs to be ported to the DS or have a sequel made.
 
Hmm, I don't think anyone really dislikes the N64, but its just overshadowed by the far more nostalgic SNES.
 
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