Most "definitive" N64 game ever?
- D2K Prime
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
This is a HARD question. I saw this question asked on a Facebook group and it got the gears turning in my head. The four selection they chose were as follows. Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64 The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time GoldenEye007
Each of these games not only redefined their own IP, but either defined or redefined the entire genres they were a part of. Let's go in order here.
This game was a monumental graphical leap over Super Mario World. While Super Mario RPG did kind of bridge the gap a little bit in terms of visuals, there is a big difference between 2D sprites and 3D models.
The first time I saw Super Mario 64 I was blown away. The level of freedom was something that we had never really experience before. While the previous Mario entries certainly had a lot to explore and tons of secrets, in those games everything still felt "linear." Like, even though it was supposed to be a "secret," it still felt like you were supposed to go there rather than something you discovered in happenstance.
You also had a timer that was forcing you to keep it moving leaving you little time to explore. Super Mario 64 was the first platformer that you truly felt that you could go wherever you wanted to go and explore whatever you wanted to explore at you own leisure. The levels were not dense with design or assets mind you, but there was enough material and areas to give you that, " I wonder what's over here?" feeling. The foundation of what a 3D platformer can be, started with this.
Super Mario Kart definitely was the start of this franchise, but in many ways that I will not go into here because that is a blog onto itself, I feel that Mario Kart 64 is a totally different game than Super Mario Kart was, and this game is what created the foundation of what Mario Kart games would be up until the present day. Pretty much every single go-kart racer to date has been modeled after this concept.
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time was a masterpiece from every conceivable angle. I myself was never even interested in Zelda games and had never played one for more than a few minutes at the most up until I bought this game. I'm not sure what genre Zelda games are supposed to be categorized in. I just say Action/RPG. That is what makes the most sense to me, but this game feels like a cornucopia of genres.
There are platforming elements, RPG elements, action-adventure elements, dungeon-crawling elements, and many others as well. This game feels like it takes the best elements from many different genres and rolls them up into its own thing. In that vein, while the Zelda series was redefined with Ocarina Of Time and many games certainly are inspired by it, I don't think it really redefined the Action/RPG genre so to speak because it is too much of it's own thing and no one does it like Zelda.
GoldenEye007 most assuredly redefined the first-person shooter genre. That's not even arguable as far as I'm concerned. While first-person shooters certain existed before GoldenEye007, the concept of FPS games and multiplayer was not really a thing yet. Up until this point, FPS games like Wolfenstein and DOOM were predominately on PC, and multiplayer was considered a luxury rather than the foundation.
The N64 having 4 controller ports built into the console made things a lot easier. This, in my humble opinion, is where "competitive" FPS gameplay started. This game ignited a fire in many people to seek more FPS games in the competitive FPS space like Quake, Unreal, Half-Life, etc. and people were willing to build major PC gaming-rigs in order to get the same experience that they had on the N64. These games walked so that franchises like Halo, Battlefield, and Call Of Duty could run. It all started with GoldenEye007.
So, the question is out there. Which of these 4 games was THE more definitive N64 game? Or, is there another game out there that defined the N64?
To be totally transparent here, I honestly do NOT know. I can make strong arguments for every single one of them and a few others not listed here. I'll will say this. When it comes to gaming as we know it today, it is not unreasonable to suggest that perhaps............the N64 itself might have been the "definitive" console in the past 30 years.
Most "definitive" N64 Title
0%Super Mario 64
0%Mario Kart 64
0%Ocarina Of Time
0%GoldenEye007
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