N64 deserves more credit than it gets...

[Daneel]

Ah, the N64... the last video game console I ever owned. I enjoyed it, although not as much as I enjoyed my Super NES. I loved Super Mario 64, and I also had fun with Shadows of the Empire and Mario Kart 64, among a few others. I thought I'd have a problem with the analog stick, but I got used to it very quickly, and to my surprise eventually considered it a smart addition.

When my parents got a DVD player, I had to unplug the N64, and there was nowhere else in the house where I could hook it up, so I just boxed it up, and now, years later, it's still in that box somewhere (probably in my closet). I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to hook it up again in the future... that'd be kind of cool, even if it is very outdated now. I'm sure it'd still be good fun.

 

[FordSVT]

Yeah, third party controllers are pretty much shit for any system. It's always worth paying extra for the official ones.

Unfortunately, I think the official N64 controllers might be some of the worst ever made in the entire history of video games. They are flimsy, they feel cheap, and they are ergonomic nightmares. I mean come on, if you're using the analog stick you actually have to remove your hand from the controller and replace it in order to use the d-pad or L-trigger. And whoever designed that analog stick should be shot, even the Saturn's analog controller was superior (basically the same as the Dreamcast's).

I think the Atari 5200 controllers may be the wrose, I mean atleast the N64 controller analog stick would go back to the center after being released. Didn't care much for the 7800 controllers either for that matter.

But I never had much of a problem with the N64 controllers, I did think they were way too bulky though - but at that time I was a PC gamer to the core, so I had issues with a lot of controllers from that era, especially with FPSers because I preferred (and still do) the keyboard and mouse.

I was thinking of the modern era really, there were plenty of god-awful controllers in the early 80s and late 70s.

Very few games required you to use the D-pad and the analog stick. The point was for you to choose one or the other (the d-pad left things flexible for any 2-D games that might come onto the scene).

No, the point was that a well-designed controller would have allowed you to use both easily, which would have allowed developers to utilize the controller fully. And plenty of games used the d-pad as buttons, very often for some of the same thing that games use it for today: menus, weapon selection, camera control, etc.

You're really going to tell me that they purposefully limited the design of the controller so developers would be pigeon-holed into certain control schemes? Nah.... Nintendo was just too focused on making a controller that was "different" from the other 3D controllers on the market. Face it: from start to finish, Nintendo made lousy hardware choices when they designed the N64.

Except for the built in 4-player ports, multi-player was the only area outside of Nintendo/Rare that shined on that console.

 

[Starbreaker]

My complete revised list of awesome games:

1080 Snowboarding
Banjo-Kazooie
Bomberman 64
Clayfighter 63 1/3
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
Goldeneye 64
Mario Kart 64
Mario Tennis
Mission Impossible
Pokemon Puzzle League
Starfox 64
Star Wars: Episode I Racer
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Super Mario 64

 

[General_Phoenix]

My complete revised list of awesome games:

1080 Snowboarding
Banjo-Kazooie
Bomberman 64
Clayfighter 63 1/3
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
Goldeneye 64
Mario Kart 64
Mario Tennis
Mission Impossible
Pokemon Puzzle League
Starfox 64
Star Wars: Episode I Racer
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Super Mario 64

Yup, pretty much what my list would be. I should get my N64 out of storage and play some of those games again.

 

[Aragorn]

The N64 was big for us for multiplayer -- GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64, WCW/NWO Revenge, Perfect Dark, Mario Tennis, Dr. Mario 64, Super Smash Bros. I got Bomberman 64 because of how awesome the previous Bomberman was. Big mistake. South Park was also fun... for about a day.

 

[Starbreaker]

I have Rugrats Scavenger Hunt. It's kinda fun...

 

[Sephiroth]

Mischief Makers
Goldeneye 64
Vigilante 8
Starfox 64
DK64
Banjo Kazooie
Banjo Tooie
Wave Race 64
Final Fantasy VII....uhhhh....wait...huh?

 

[Kelthaz]

The lack of love for Body Harvest is depressing me. Ocarina of Time would kill to be as good.

 

[bigdaddy]

The lack of love for Body Harvest is depressing me.

I bought that game for $10 new and for the life of me I couldn't ever figure out how to beat the second level.

 

[Aragorn]

Diddy Kong Racing got great reviews, but we just couldn't get into it after Mario Kart.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

I still play my gold cartrige Zelda OOT game on my 64.

 

[darthraidr]

Very few games required you to use the D-pad and the analog stick. The point was for you to choose one or the other (the d-pad left things flexible for any 2-D games that might come onto the scene).

No, the point was that a well-designed controller would have allowed you to use both easily, which would have allowed developers to utilize the controller fully. And plenty of games used the d-pad as buttons, very often for some of the same thing that games use it for today: menus, weapon selection, camera control, etc.

You're really going to tell me that they purposefully limited the design of the controller so developers would be pigeon-holed into certain control schemes? Nah.... Nintendo was just too focused on making a controller that was "different" from the other 3D controllers on the market. Face it: from start to finish, Nintendo made lousy hardware choices when they designed the N64.

the controller was designed for Mario 64 (the d-pad tossed on incase not every dev wanted to rely on the analog stick). i am fairly certain that Nintendo planned on devs picking one way to control the game and not having players have to move their hands around.

i dont recall any games that used both d-pad and analog stick... sure now you have games mapping controls to the d-pad, but i cant think of any that did it on the n64 because of how difficult that would be for the gamer. i do remember that in just about every n64 game manual it had a diagram for how you were supposed to hold the controller for that specific game.

i dont think Nintendo made the n64 controller just to be different (that would be the gamecube controller).

 

[General_Phoenix]

I still play my gold cartrige Zelda OOT game on my 64.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite Zelda games of all time, right next to A Link to the Past. I can sit and play that game for hours until completion. I haven't played Zelda Majora's Mask since beating it back in 2000, that game was just a chore to get through.

 

[Timby]

My complete revised list of awesome games:

Mission Impossible

What the hell is wrong with you? That game was terrible. Waiting so long for it and then playing that game was like getting kicked in the dick.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Very few games required you to use the D-pad and the analog stick. The point was for you to choose one or the other (the d-pad left things flexible for any 2-D games that might come onto the scene).

No, the point was that a well-designed controller would have allowed you to use both easily, which would have allowed developers to utilize the controller fully. And plenty of games used the d-pad as buttons, very often for some of the same thing that games use it for today: menus, weapon selection, camera control, etc.

You're really going to tell me that they purposefully limited the design of the controller so developers would be pigeon-holed into certain control schemes? Nah.... Nintendo was just too focused on making a controller that was "different" from the other 3D controllers on the market. Face it: from start to finish, Nintendo made lousy hardware choices when they designed the N64.

the controller was designed for Mario 64 (the d-pad tossed on incase not every dev wanted to rely on the analog stick). i am fairly certain that Nintendo planned on devs picking one way to control the game and not having players have to move their hands around.

i dont recall any games that used both d-pad and analog stick... sure now you have games mapping controls to the d-pad, but i cant think of any that did it on the n64 because of how difficult that would be for the gamer. i do remember that in just about every n64 game manual it had a diagram for how you were supposed to hold the controller for that specific game.

i dont think Nintendo made the n64 controller just to be different (that would be the gamecube controller).

The only game I can think of that used the D-Pad and the control stick was Rogue Squadron (maybe Shadows' first level had it too). In that case, it changed between cockpit mode and regular mode. I only had to hit it once and it still wasn't all that difficult (I wouldn't even have to move my hands and my hands aren't that big).

BTW, you're definitely right that Nintendo planned to have developers pick one way to hold the controller depending on what they wanted to do with it. The layout of the controller in Nintendo Power when they were showing it specifically pointed this out.

 

[Starbreaker]

My complete revised list of awesome games:

Mission Impossible

What the hell is wrong with you? That game was terrible. Waiting so long for it and then playing that game was like getting kicked in the dick.

I think I was 10.

 

[FordSVT]

No, the point was that a well-designed controller would have allowed you to use both easily, which would have allowed developers to utilize the controller fully. And plenty of games used the d-pad as buttons, very often for some of the same thing that games use it for today: menus, weapon selection, camera control, etc.

You're really going to tell me that they purposefully limited the design of the controller so developers would be pigeon-holed into certain control schemes? Nah.... Nintendo was just too focused on making a controller that was "different" from the other 3D controllers on the market. Face it: from start to finish, Nintendo made lousy hardware choices when they designed the N64.

the controller was designed for Mario 64 (the d-pad tossed on incase not every dev wanted to rely on the analog stick). i am fairly certain that Nintendo planned on devs picking one way to control the game and not having players have to move their hands around.

i dont recall any games that used both d-pad and analog stick... sure now you have games mapping controls to the d-pad, but i cant think of any that did it on the n64 because of how difficult that would be for the gamer. i do remember that in just about every n64 game manual it had a diagram for how you were supposed to hold the controller for that specific game.

i dont think Nintendo made the n64 controller just to be different (that would be the gamecube controller).

The only game I can think of that used the D-Pad and the control stick was Rogue Squadron (maybe Shadows' first level had it too). In that case, it changed between cockpit mode and regular mode. I only had to hit it once and it still wasn't all that difficult (I wouldn't even have to move my hands and my hands aren't that big).

BTW, you're definitely right that Nintendo planned to have developers pick one way to hold the controller depending on what they wanted to do with it. The layout of the controller in Nintendo Power when they were showing it specifically pointed this out.

It might be true, but it's remarkably short-sighted on their part. I reiterate: they put all these buttons all over the controller, but then they put an ergonomic limitation on the way you could access those buttons, and then basically told developers to "deal with it" and program every game to control like either 007, Mario64 or Cruisin' USA. It's not a model other companies clamoured to follow, and it's no wonder people think that the N64 was all about giving 3rd party developers the big shaft.

 

[Bishbot]

It might be true, but it's remarkably short-sighted on their part. I reiterate: they put all these buttons all over the controller, but then they put an ergonomic limitation on the way you could access those buttons, and then basically told developers to "deal with it" and program every game to control like either 007, Mario64 or Cruisin' USA. It's not a model other companies clamoured to follow, and it's no wonder people think that the N64 was all about giving 3rd party developers the big shaft.

Well the D-Pad was spongy and crap anyway, but it was only ever used for menu functions, like the aforementioned Rogue Squadron did. Who cares about using both at the same time? How do you even control a game with a D-Pad and an analog stick?

You had the D-Padesque C Buttons on the other side of the controller which worked great for FPS games. The fact that the D-Pad sucked was bad for fighting games, but it was an outdated control option for all other 3D games and was therefore almost completely unnecessary. It was just nice to have more buttons over there that could be used for options if need be.

 

[DigificWriter]

The N64 is ranked #9 on IGN's list of the Top 25 video game consoles of ALL TIME (the PS1 beats it by just two spots at #7). For me, though, the console ranks #5 in my top 5 (along with the NES, PS2, PS1, and SNES) favorite consoles ever, and with a lineup of games like Mario 64, DK 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Rogue Squadron, LoZ: OoT, LoZ: MM, and what I would consider to be two of the best wrestling video games of all time - WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF No Mercy - it's not hard to see why.

 

[FordSVT]

Who cares about using both at the same time? How do you even control a game with a D-Pad and an analog stick?

I can't think of a game I own that doesn't use the d-pad for something, even if it's not the primary way of moving the character on-screen. Usually menus, weapon and ability selection, camera, things like that.