Aside from the big titles, what game in particular did you love?

TeHDruiD

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For me, and this is going to be different thinking than a lot of people, it was Ken Griffey Jr Baseball.

This is the first baseball game that offered really good graphics, a true feel simulation and a franchise mode.

The extra aspect that hit this game was the hitting circle. If you had a power hitter who was known for home runs, but struck out a lot, his hitting circle would be small, and it would take quite a bit of practice to master. If the player was a contact hitter, he'd have a much bigger hitting circle and it was easier to hit the ball

With games being so watered down to help every player, it was a breath of fresh air knowing the players who put the time in would be the best hitters.
 
I liked all the "2.5D" games on the N64. Yoshi's Story, Kirby 64, Goemon, and a few others that did not sell a ton of copies but had original graphic styles and were fun to play.
 
"smaller" N64 games, huh... hmm.. Let's see here. I guess that means we can not count the bigger games. Like, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, Wave Race 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Donkey Kong 64, Blast Corps, Resident Evil 2, WWF No Mercy, Star Fox 64, Excitebike 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Turok 2, Seeds of Evil, F-Zero X, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, Mario Kart 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Party, Mystical Ninja starring Goemon, Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Calibur, Pilotwings 64, etc.etc....

Well, with all of the "bigger" titles out, let's see here... Here are some "guilty pleasures", as it were..

Mega Man 64 - It was the N64 version of the Playstation game, Mega Man Legends. For what it was, I liked it. The Playstation got Mega Mega Legends, plus a sequel, Mega Legends 2, and, a prequel, The MisAdventures of Tron Bonne. The N64 didn't get all 3 games. It only got the first Mega Man Legends game, which it renamed to Mega Man 64. I ended up playing the Playstation version more, simply because I could switch back and forth between all 3 games. However, I still enjoyed my time with Mega Man 64. I find that the reviewers were pretty critical of the game, however, a lot of the actual players liked it. Not all, but definitely more than those who didn't like it. I was definitely in the group that enjoyed the game.

South Park: Chef's Luv Shack - I have fond memories of this game mostly because I would play it with my brother and cousins. It was basically a "You Don't Know Jack" style trivia game, with minigames. We had fun with the game and joking around with it, and making fun of it. And, to be honest, of the 3 South Park games, this one was the best. It was the most 'fun' of the bunch. Much better than the FPS and racing games. Granted, some of the questions and minigames were competitive and over used. But when playing with the full 4 players, the game was half decent. Playing it by yourself wasn't as fun. But when playing with a room full of people, it helped pass the time. Of course, once you've played it enough, you'll know all of the answers to the trivia questions, leaving the minigames to be the heart and soul of the game. But luckily, they, for the most part, seemed entertaining with a group of people. Short, but entertaining. Tho it doesn't have a lasting appeal once you've memorized all of the questions.

Nuclear Strike 64 - To be fair, I don't remember a whole lot from this game. My friend had it. I never owned it. However, I remember having fun with it. I also remember wantint ot pick it up, but either it wasn't there when I went to go get it, or, it was "out of sight, of out mind", and I never remembered to look for it while I was out shopping. However, I do remember having fun flying around as a helicopter, and destroying objects on the ground, as well as picking up items off of the ground with that cable wire. Fairly easy game. I'm sure if I owned it, or got to put some decent time into it, I could of beaten it. I never did tho. But I do remember having fun with this title.

S.C.A.R.S. - Stands for "Super Computer Animal Racing Simulator". It's basically a Mario Kart game, with different looking "karts" and different weapons and track layouts. Because of that, this game was often over-looked. But it was a fairly decent "combat racing" game, in the vain of Mario Kart. I never owned this game either, but a friend of mine had it, and I remember playing it there a lot. It was up to 4 players, so our friends go to join in on the action too. Fun times.

Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers - This game was a decent "FPS-RPG". I never beat it, but that was because I never was able to it down with it long enough to try to beat it. This is another game that I didn't own, and only got to play at a friend's house. Because it's an RPG, I never had time to sit and play it. Especially at my friend's house, who loved actually playing games as opposed to watching people play. And with so many other titles, that happened to be multiplayer. We ended up playing those instead. So my time with this game is limited. But I remember it being a decent game, from what I played of it. I didn't get too far, so I can't speak for the rest of the game. But I image that it gets better.

Road Rash 64 - My friend loved this game. Especially multiplayer. This was definitely one his of most under-rated N64 games. Sure, graphically, it could of been better, as that's it's most lacking feature. But the music is there in full, and the gameplay is fun. If you care more about the gameplay and less about the graphics, then this game will be up your alley.

Re-Volt - This was a fun little "RC" racer. Another Mario Kart type game. However, since you're RC cars, it feels more like a Micro-Machines racer. Still, overall, it's fun.

Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo - I liked this game. There were several different vehicles that you could use throughout the game. City battles. Open field battles. Space battles. Flying playable vehicles. Ground based playable vehicles. Similar to Rogue Squadron. This game felt like an underrated game. Some of the settings, and level designs could of been better. But, given the subject matter, the game runs smoothly, and the gameplay is fun. Star Wars music and sound effects are present, as to be expected. And, it is a Factor 5 game. So there's that.

Tetrisphere - As the title suggests, this is a Tetris game, only, instead of being limited to a sideways "rectangular box", as it were, you place the pieces onto a sphere instead. Or a "globe", if that helps you understand it better. Or a "ball", basically. So it was a nice twist, and break of pace, of a more traditional Tetris game. Part of the game had you placing pieces down onto the sphere, while the other part of the game had you moving pieces that are already on the sphere, around. Also, instead of just creating "lines", like the original Tetris game, you are combing 'like' pieces together. Similar to games like BeJeweled or games like there. Where you try and move the same "pieces" next to each other, in order to "pop" them off of the screen. Same basic idea here. Only there, you start with a sphere, and have to beat it down, 'smaller and smaller', until you can get an opening to the center of the sphere, where you have to rescue a sphere with eyes. And there is a timer as well. For "puzzle" fanatics, this was another under-rated title too.

The World is Not Enough - This was a decent N64 title as well. The N64 version even got much better reviews than the Playstation version. Now, this game is no Goldeneye. However, it is decent enough. And, there's voice acting too. It also took advantage of the N64 Expansion Pak. But it is an N64 Bond game, so it does have a lot of "familiarity" to it, in terms of gameplay, graphics, and controls. Of course, it's based on an entirely different movie, so the "story" and levels, are all different. But again, it does have that 'familiarity" factor to it. Oh, and full voice acting during the cutscenes throughout the entire game. Something that most cartridge based games don't have. So that's something going for it right there.

WinBack: Cover Operations - I have good memories of this game. I never beat it, but I didn't put my full time and effort into beating it. I did own it, however, I only played this in bursts, as either I was playing games with friends, or I was focusing on bigger titles that I was trying to beat. Also, at this time, i was known for buying a lot of games, and never beating them. So I had a ton of games that I just never got around to beating. Too many games to go through. Especially when it came to PS and PS2 games. Way, way, way too many of those games for me to beat them all. I had a ton. Anyways, this game was fun. It was a 3rd person shooter, with some puzzle solving. Kind of like a "poor man's Metal Gear", sort of. Decent game tho. I had fun with it. It's worth checking out. It was one of the early games to use the "duck behind objects for cover" feature, which is common now a days, but relatively new back when this first came out.

Wetrix - This game had a small following, from what I remember. It's basically play on Tetris. Only, instead of trying to create lines while in a sideways rectangular box, you now have a 3D floor, and you have to use the falling pieces to create craters. The shapes that fall are random, and of different shapes, which are mostly Tetris-like shaped pieces. Not exactly like the classic Tetris shapes, but close to know that they were definitely inspired by them. Even the name of the game shows that it was inspired by Tetris. Anyways, some shapes have an up-arrow, while some have a down-arrow. The up arrow pieces raise the land up a level in the exact shape of the piece. While the down arrow pieces lower the land down a level in the exact same shape of the piece. So, you have to try and create different craters to hold as much water as you can. And the water will "fall" just like the "tetris-like" pieces. But you have to try and save as much of it as you can. So you have to create these craters to hold the water. However, because the up and down arrow pieces are random, and of different shapes and sizes, you have to be careful where you place your pieces, as you don't know what's coming next. And the water drops are at random intervals too. Interesting twist on the Tetris Concept. It's farther away from Tetris than Tetrisphere is. But still, a decent game in it's own right.

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That's about it for now. I may think of some more later. But that should be good enough for now. Hope you enjoyed.
 
All the games that Treasure released on the N64 were amazing. The very best is Sin & Punishment that came out late in the system's life and was a Japan-only release. Many folks missed out on this one, which is a shame. The carrier stage in particular is the stuff that legends are made of, pushing the N64 hardware to it's limits.


Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh is another Treasure game that never got a western release. Though the Dreamcast follow up did. Excellent little shooter that I'm glad I picked up early on. Then there's Mischief Makers (Yuke Yuke Troublemakers) which was the only N64 Treasure game to come out in the west. It's a quirky 2D platformer that's a lot of fun to play, has some resemblances to Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy.
 
Army Men Sarge's Heroes was one for me.
 
Mega Man 64 went hard back in the day. I remember renting it from Blockbuster and wanting to keep it until I finally convinced my parents to buy me a copy.
 
Harvest Moon! I bought my N64 specifically for this game and still actively play it to this day. :D
 
I think I liked that kids snowboarding game. We owned the console but only rented the games, so I never had a chance to get attached to any.
 
The one game that really jumps to my mind is Star Fox. I am trying to remember if it would be considered a big title. I think that it is more of a big title than some of the other ones mentioned above, but it is certainly not up there with the really big ones. Either way, though, it was a really good game and I spent a lot of time on it with my friends. I have some distinct memories of the room that we used to play it in...those were some good times.
 
I've seen Road Rash and Mega Man named a few times on the thread, and I would have thought that even though they aren't massive titles in the history of gaming, I wouldn't say they are small games either though and I would have certainly thought they couldn't be classed as 'lesser titles' and especially by N64 standards. It seemed to me that the N64 had quite a lot of what I guess you'd call niche games available and just because they might not have been made by the big software houses, didn't mean to say that they weren't worth playing.
 

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