The Nintendo 64, Nintendo’s 5th generation home console, just celebrated the 30-year anniversary of its June 23, 1996 launch in Japan (it made it to the United States on September 29 of the same year). Nintendo Life commemorated the occasion with a collection of Nintendo 64 memories in “All-Consuming, Joyous, Heartbreaking” – Your Nintendo 64 Memories. Long-time readers will know that I have some olden and more recent Nintendo 64 memories of my own. I was inspired by the Nintendo Life article to share some of my personal favorite Nintendo 64 memories and anecdotes.\
Pre-Nintendo 64 Context
The Nintendo 64 made a strong “first impression” on me. But understanding why requires some pre-Nintendo 64 context.
I have dated myself in many previous articles, notably when I discussed my memories of some original Poké-mania urban legends. I was old enough to play through the original Pokémon Red back in the day, but my adventures with video games began before that.
I am reasonably confident that my earliest video game memories came in 1993, although I suppose it is possible that something could be dated to late 1992. A couple of my Mom’s work friends had kids who were several years older than me. One had a son who had a distinctly 1980s gaming set-up featuring a Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System (I was more interested in some of the Master System games, and, unrelated to the topic at hand, I inherited that Master System in the 2000-2002 neighborhood). Another one of my friends had two daughters who had a Sega Genesis. Of these consoles, the Genesis left by far the strongest impression of me – most notably for Sonic. It was for that reason that the first console I received was a model 2 Sega Genesis bundled with Sonic 2 in 1994.
(I will note that given how heavily the American video game market was tilted toward boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I dare say I was probably in a distinct minority of boys who chose (such as I could choose anything back then) my first console based on having been shown Sonic 2 by two sisters.)
I have discussed in prior articles that I was once a video game magazine connoisseur. However, the origin of my interest in video game magazines was connected to Pokémon in 1998 – so my Sega Genesis predates my first video game magazine by at least four years. While I would go on to play my Genesis, and subsequently Game Boy (I was given my first Game Boy in 1995), my knowledge of the broader video game world was very limited. To that effect, I offer some additional context:
- I was in my first year of real “school” in 1994 and save for the older kids I noted above, I had never interacted with anyone who played video games at that time.To the best of my recollection, not until 1998-99, the year of Pokémania, did I have classmates who regularly played video games and with whom I discussed video games.
- I did not have a computer in my home until late 1996-early 1997, and I almost certainly did not know what the internet was before then. I did not meaningfully use the internet in the 1990s, so I did not learn about video games through the internet.
I received my Genesis when, late in its tenure as Sega’s flagship console, it was superseded in that role in the United States by the Sega Saturn in May 1995. I received most of my games back then from Toys ’R Us, with a few exceptions coming from The Wiz (see my Kirby’s Dream Land memories) and some assorted electronic stores. I recall having been aware of the existence of the Sega Saturn and at some point the Sony PlayStation, but I was content with the Genesis and Game Boy in my very young days. I was also one of the few and proud owners of a Sega 32X, which added a few games to my “Genesis” library since the 32X was functionally a Genesis-expansion console. I am sure I saw some PlayStation commercials on TV, but I never thought about asking for one in the 90s.
You may ask what this has to do with the Nintendo 64. I note this context to highlight that prior to seeing a Nintendo 64 in action, the most ‘advanced’ video games I had played, more or less, were on the Genesis (I did not know anyone with a Super Nintendo). The fanciest game in terms of graphics that I owned prior to receiving a Nintendo 64 was either Virtua Racing or Star Wars Arcade for 32X (on Genesis I suppose it would be NBA Hangtime, Sonic 3, or Sonic 3D Blast, depending on which one you would classify as the best-looking).
My Nintendo 64 Introduction
Another one of my Mom’s colleagues (not referenced above) had a son who was a few months younger than me. He went to the same school as me beginning with the 1996-97 or 97-98 school year, but we were not classmates until 1998-99. However, I had been to his house on numerous occasions before we were classmates. He was an avid video game player, but unlike me I believe he skipped the 16-bit generation and that his first consoles were PlayStation and Nintendo 64. I saw him play Twisted Metal on the PlayStation but it did not leave much of an impression on me. At some point – I will guess summer of 1997 or 1998 (before the 98-99 school year) – he showed me a game on Nintendo 64 that left a decidedly big impression on me: Super Mario 64.
Because my only home console at that point was a Sega Genesis, I had not owned any of the mainline Mario games (I also had not played either of the two Super Mario Land entries starring Mario for the Game Boy). I had played a little bit of Super Mario Brothers 1 and 2 for NES back in 1993-94, but my Mario experience was limited. For whatever it is worth, I recall having been more interested in Duck Hunt than Mario, although I will submit as a random fun fact that I preferred Sega Master System’s Shooting Gallery to Duck Hunt. Sonic was cool, fast, and had cool cartoons. Mario did not. Thus I was a Genesis kid. (Note that I would now opine that Super Mario World is better than the Genesis Sonic trio, but now is not the 1990s.)
While my first exposure to Mario failed to inspire me to ask for a Nintendo console, I was significantly more impressed by Super Mario 64. As someone who had only spent significant time playing 2D platforming games on Genesis and Game Boy, watching Mario move freely through Super Mario 64’s hub world, climb the mountain on the iconic Bob-omb Battlefield, toss Bowser into a mine, and navigate Big Boo’s Haunt was quite impressive. I did not know much else about the Nintendo 64, but I now wanted one to play Super Mario 64. Fortunately for me, I was given a Nintendo 64 in late 1998.
My first Nintendo 64 games were Super Mario 64, NBA In the Zone 98 (an odd duck), and Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside (solid for the era). Super Mario 64 lived up to the expectations I had for it after playing it at my friend’s house, and I would go on to beat the game (albeit not with 120 stars).
Another Nintendo 64 Memory From the Same Classmate
While the Nintendo 64 left a big impression on me, it took a back seat beginning on Christmas 1998, when I received Pokémon Red, which I ranked number one on my personal list of games that left the biggest impressions on me.
I previously published an article on imagination in the generation Pokémon games (Red, Blue, and Yellow). In so doing, I focused specifically on how the combination of the game’s simple set-up and limited visuals inspired kids to fill in the colors of Pokémon’s Kanto with their imaginations. Of course, while I would rate the original Pokémon’s visual simplicity as a feature rather than a bug in context, the minimalist visuals could leave one wanting more. I dare say one reason the Pokémon anime was successful was because it allowed kids and Pokémon fans to see their favorite creatures from the game in full color.
On April 30, 1999, Nintendo released Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 in Japan. The stand-out feature of Pokémon Stadium was that one could use his or her Pokémon from the Game Boy game in Stadium, seeing them in full 3D on a CRT TV screen instead of on a tiny Game Boy. Unfortunately, North America lagged behind Japan in cool Pokémon stuff back in the day, so Pokémon Stadium did not reach the United States until March 6, 2000.
Most people, at least. I first played Pokémon Stadium in the summer of 1999.
The same friend who had shown me Super Mario 64 had acquired a Japanese copy of Pokémon Stadium not long after it was released on April 30, 1999 (I believe his father was an international business lawyer who did business in Japan). Neither my then-former classmate nor I could read Japanese, but he had played enough Stadium on his own to have figured out which button corresponded to which move for a select group of the in-game rental Pokémon, and he had duly worked his way through a good chunk of the Gym Leader Castle challenge without in fact being able to read Japanese.
While I would not say that seeing Pokémon Stadium left the same kind of impression as Super Mario 64 in light of the fact that I had my Nintendo 64 for almost a year before seeing Pokémon Stadium, I will venture that seeing Pokémon in action in 3D for the first time was a memorable video game experience. I would acquire my own copy of Stadium in 2000 (by that point everyone I knew who had played Pokémon in 1998-99 had lost interest).
(Aside: While playing Pokémon Shield, it dawned on me that 3D Pokémon battling aesthetics had not evolved much since Pokémon Stadium, but that would be a discussion for a different article.)
Other Nintendo 64 Memories
I will single out some other Nintendo 64 games I spent significant time with back in the day.
- Yoshi’s Story: I think Yoshi’s Story was my fourth Nintendo 64 game. While it was way too easy, I was not particularly good at 2D platformers, so I enjoyed and cleared it. When Super Smash Brothers came around, I became a Yoshi specialist since Yoshi in Smash Brothers controlled (and controls) similarly to the multi-colored Yoshis in Yoshi’s Story. That carried over into later Smash Brothers (the last one I played was for Wii U). I published a short retrospective for the 25th anniversary of Yoshi’s Story.)
- Mario Party & Mario Party 2: I previously shared my 2019 story of having finished an incomplete round of Mario Party from the early 2000s and my distaste for the joystick-rotation games in the first Mario Party. I completed the single-player campaign in the original and learned many life lessons along the way. But the best Mario Party for Nintendo 64 was 2, which featured better mini-games and memorable board design (albeit I still love the over-world aesthetic of 1). I also had 3 but by that point I was less interested in single-player Mario Party campaigns.
- NBA Live 99: I was a big NBA fan back in the day. The two best NBA games I played for Nintendo 64 were NBA Live 99 and NBA Live 2000. 99 was memorable in part because I was a Celtics fan and it featured then-Celtics star Antoine Walker on the cover. 2000 was probably better than 99 (probably not much different, however), but I spent more time with 99 – not least because 2000 brought about the Sega Dreamcast and NBA 2K. I will submit 99 had an interesting player rating system.
- Mario Golf and Mario Tennis: Unlike most people who played Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, I actually watched golf and tennis starting in the 1999-2000 area. Both games were excellent. Were I to play one now, I would probably go with Mario Golf as having aged better, but I have plenty of memories from both. I remember having excitedly read previews for Mario Tennis in Nintendo Power.
- Mario Kart 64: The only racing game I had played before Mario Kart 64 was Virtua Racing for Sega 32X. I spent a great deal of time with Mario Kart 64 and it made me a fan of the series, although I would go on to be more successful in Mario Kart Double Dash for GameCube. My favorite course back in the day was DK’s Jungle Parkway.
- Pokémon Snap: Pokémon Snap, like Mario Tennis, is one that I read about with some excitement in Nintendo Power before it was released in the United States. I very much enjoyed it and completed the game all the way through while photographing Mew. I remember having gone to the closest Blockbuster on several occasions to use its Pokémon Snap sticker-printing machine (unfortunately and unsurprisingly, I no longer have any of my Pokémon Snap stickers). But its lasting legacy for me comes in a joke. I cannot play most first-person shooters because they offend my sense of balance, but I will tell anyone who asks that I did technically “100% complete” a first-person shooter in Pokémon Snap.
- Paper Mario: Saving the best (in my estimation) for last, Paper Mario was (and I suppose still is) my favorite Nintendo 64 game. It was the first non-Pokémon RPG I completed. I loved the aesthetic, story, and gameplay. See what I wrote about Paper Mario in my list of games that left the biggest impression on me, where I ranked it eighth (first among Nintendo 64 games, one spot above Super Mario 64).
Conclusion
Nintendo 64 was a mild disappointment in a commercial sense for Nintendo compared to the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo, but for me and many others who played it back when it was Nintendo’s flagship home console, it comes with many memories. But more than memories, Nintendo 64 also had plenty of great games, some of which I noted above, and many of which remain fun to play 30 years after the console first landed in Japan. I look forward to undertaking some Nintendo 64-related New Leaf Journal projects in the future.
