Top 50 and Bottom 25 Nintendo 64 games list

[Greg2600]

Argh! Rush 2049 on the list, but no Rush 2! Major beef with that. Rush 2 was the best racing/stunt game I've ever played. Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine belongs there, and Beetle Adventure Racing is a hunk of trash. Vigilante 8 was a pile of dung also, and where is Mission Impossible, which had a better single player mode than Goldeneye?

As for the bad list, Blues Brothers I rented once, wow what a joke. WCW Backstage Assault could have been the best wrestling game on the entire system, if they had just included a wrestling RING! WCW Nitro was so bad I returned it the next day after buying it.

[Ed Oscuro]

...and where is Mission Impossible, which had a better single player mode than Goldeneye?

Well, um, it does now, really? I thought it was just your average 3rd person action adventure game with some gimmicky arcade-style stun items (like the fire extinguisher) thrown in for good measure. I remember being really excited about that game from the NP preview way back when; like it was going to be Morrowind or something. I enjoyed it greatly - who can forget the great Sloborskiya - however it's spelt - March - but it reminds me of another game (which I might have already mentioned in this very post) that tries to do everything and consequently does a lot rather blandly. Unfortunately, MI just doesn't have the longevity, overall polish, or deep gameplay to do it in an outstanding or even especially competent fashion.

It's still a highly underrated game, though, I'll give it that!

[Famidrive-16]

Vigilante 8 was a pile of dung also

I love this game, my dad and I still pull out the 64 every once in a while to blast each other to bits in it. The sequel was real bad, though.

[tom]

Goldeneye is way too high, coming second. It was alright at the time, but we had better on PC already during that period.

You can see a lot of awful titles on the 'Best' list between 20 -50, that just shows as with the Jaguar, it's very difficult to even choose the 'Best' for the N64 when making those 'Best of Top 50' lists with so many below average titles.

[Rob2600]

When I sold my N64 collection, I kept everything that was done by Rare, and a few others like OoT. They were my single greatest pleasure in being an N64 gamer. There was nothing quite like waiting for the new Rare release. Now I get to watch my 6 yr old find the same magic in them that I did.

That's great. I hope your child has fun with them. I think The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Wave Race 64, and 1080 Snowboarding are masterpieces.

41. F-1 World Grand Prix II - 8.5

This one was a Europe-only release (AFAIK), so if you're not counting imports like Sin and Punishment, then you might want to remove it from your list.

Good point. I just added Sin and Punishment to the list in the original post, which knocked Pokemon Puzzle League out of the top 50. That's too bad because it's a very fun game. Sin and Punishment is too, though.

I also made some adjustments to the way I listed sports games.

Goldeneye is way too high, coming second. It was alright at the time, but we had better on PC already during that period.

In 1997, Goldeneye 007 was great. It still is. Besides, even if there were better games on the PC back then, so what? This is a list of the best Nintendo 64 games.

You can see a lot of awful titles on the 'Best' list between 20 -50, that just shows as with the Jaguar, it's very difficult to even choose the 'Best' for the N64 when making those 'Best of Top 50' lists with so many below average titles.

I disagree. Overall, I think it's a strong list and many of the titles still hold up very well. Which of the top 50 do you think are awful?

[Zebbe]

Where are the RPGs on this list? The SNES had many RPGs so I think the 64 should have many RPGs as well. Even my Sega CD had more RPGs, and that was an addon. Maybe there are more RPGs on the 64DD addon?

[tag274]

The Army Men game was ok, I kinda liked Batman Beyond too! lol

[basetornado]

The 3 games I loved on the 64 were Goldeneye, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros which was better then some games put out now so where the hell is it.

[wiggyx]

Inspired by my Top 30 and Bottom 40 Wii games thread:


According to Gamestats.com, Metacritic.com, and Gamerankings.com, here are the overall top 50 Nintendo 64 games:


9. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - 9.2 (also highly rated: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3)
12. Rayman 2: The Great Escape - 9.1
13. International Superstar Soccer '98 - 9.1 (also highly rated: International Superstar Soccer 64 and International Superstar Soccer 2000)
14. All-Star Baseball 2000 - 9.1 (also highly rated: All-Star Baseball '99 and All-Star Baseball 2001)
15. Madden NFL 2000 - 9.1 (also highly rated: Madden Football 64, Madden NFL '99, and Madden NFL 2001)
17. NFL Blitz - 9.1 (also highly rated: NFL Blitz 2000)
23. 1080 Snowboarding - 8.9
25. WWF No Mercy - 8.8 (also highly rated: WCW/NWO Revenge and WWF Wrestlemania 2000)
31. NHL '99 - 8.6
32. FIFA '99 - 8.6 (also highly rated: FIFA Road to World Cup '98)
40. San Francisco Rush 2049 - 8.5
42. F-1 World Grand Prix II - 8.5 (Europe only) (also highly rated: F-1 World Grand Prix)
43. Wipeout 64 - 8.5
44. Extreme-G - 8.5
45. Vigilante 8 - 8.4
47. Ridge Racer 64 - 8.3
50. Pokemon Puzzle League - 8.2
51. NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant - 8.2


What do you think? Is there a good variety of genres? Is there a good balance between hard core, casual, mature, and fun games?

I don't think any of these would make it into my top 50. A sports game has to be seriously amazing to make it onto any "top" list IMO, and NONE of these are.

Rayman 2 was OK.
Wipeout was fun, but not special.
Extreme G was a mediocre Wipeout clone.
Wrastlin' games. No.
Rush 2049?! That doesn't compute.
Vigilante 8. Meh.
Ridge Racer should be reserved for PS launch titles. The only way that series caries on at all is because it's ALWAYS the 1st racing game out of the gate for Sony's machines. EVERYTHING else that comes after is about 10 times more interesting.
Really, Pokemans? Maybe if I were 5 when the N64 came out I'd have some nostalgia for it, but I wasn't.

Otherwise the list matched my opinions pretty closely.

[Manhattan Sports Club]

By the way, where the hell are the N64 Bombermans? Those games were killer.