I’ve had every single Nintendo console including handhelds other than the Virtual Boy. The only reason I don’t have a Virtual Boy is because my parents refused to buy me it as a child. I guess I could be considered a Nintendo fan. I’ve mostly pleasant memories with the Nintendo brand. But, there is one system that’s my least favorite and that’s the Nintendo 64. It would’ve thought the Virtual Boy would’ve taken that title, but I don’t have enough experience with to form a valid opinion. So for now it’s the Nintendo 64 that is in my opinion the worst Nintendo console I’ve ever owned.
Nintendo 64 games did not age well. PlayStation games look better than Nintendo 64 games. It looks like the developers for the PS1 had to focus more on artistic quality since they were really milking the agiing hardware for all that it can while competing with the Nintendo 64. Sony couldn’t compete with the N64’s graphic fidelity so a lot of the developers had to compete artistically. Of the few games I enjoyed Super Mario 64 was one of them. But, I think Final Fantasy IX and VIII look much better aesthetically. For what Square Soft could do within its limits with the Final Fantasy games, they did a great job and made smart use of the hardware. Super Mario 64 looks so bland with its too clean of a look. Peach’s castle looks too sterile and polygonal.
I enjoyed the Nintendo 64 with some great games like Goldeneye 007, Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But, that’s really it. I’ve never been a huge fan of Smash Bros. The series has never really clicked with me. I always buy the games for the soundtrack, and maybe just to experience some of the cool stages, but I’ve never enjoyed it as much as a fighter like Street Fighter or King of Fighters. I tried hard to find games I liked for that system. I had Bomberman 64 which I did manage to get through out of sheer desperation of finding something on the system. The bosses were so lame, and the music was awful too. I was really hyped for the Turok games, but the game felt like I walking in a fog simulator. Every now and then a dinosaur or alien would pop out and I’d be excited for a few seconds before I killed, and then proceeded to travel through the desolate fog hoping to find some excitement again. I had a slight interest in Castlevania 64, but the game put me off because of how ugly it was. I remember wasting a rental to play Quest 64, and was very disappointed by the slow paced combat. The game had redeemable decent battle music, though.
The controller was awful. I remember first holding it in my hands on the day I got it for Christmas, and I was a little worried I wasn’t going to be able to get used to it. I eventually did because I had to play the latest Nintendo 1st party titles. I’d play with a controller with spikes on it to do so. If I remember correctly, Nintendo was trying make their controller unique in order to not get sued by other companies. There were commercials of celebrities holding the controller awkwardly in advertisements. It was obvious that the Nintendo 64 controller was a horrible design when casuals can’t figure out how to use it.
Probably the worst part of the Nintendo 64 was how expensive the games were compared to the competition like Sony. Sony was using discs for their console. At the time I was somewhat of Nintendo fanboy and preferred the cartridges because discs looked cheap and could scratch easily. As I’ve matured, and gotten older I realize Nintendo made a bad business decision for having their games on cartridges. They probably could’ve made a lot more sales had their games been on par price wise with PlayStation games. Switch games are selling really well now, but they should be cheaper or could if the games were on discs.
I’ve been considering signing up for Nintendo online just to get the Nintendo 64 controller for the Switch. As much I don’t have a desire to ever play a Nintendo 64 game again, I do have nostalgia for it in some ways and would like it in my collection. But, I do not want to collect any Nintendo 64 games or N64 console ever again. The system has some of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen from that era, and that’s not hyperbole. I truly believe that. The N64 is nearly on par with the quality of Wii games. But, what makes the Wii better than the N64 is the expansive library which has a lot of shovelware, but also a lot of unique quality games that were allowed on the system because of how cheap it was develop games for. Nintendo 64 has many mediocre games and a few good ones. There weren’t a lot of games because developers were afraid to makes games for that system due to costs, and probably low install base. Let’s face it, the Nintendo 64 wasn’t great.