What cheap N64 games should I look for?

[Anthony1]

I recently got a Nintendo 64, and after looking at places like Funcoland and GameStop and GameCrazy and places like that, I've been pretty amazed by how expensive the old N64 games still are.

Which old N64 games should I look for that are relatively inexpensive?

Right now, the only game I have is Turokinosaur Hunter.


What would be the top 20 games on the Nintendo 64?


Is Donkey Kong 64 any good? I saw it for like $9.99.

I saw Turok 2 for only $2.99. Does this game suck or something?

I also saw Perfect Dark for like $7.99. Of cousre I don't have the memory expansion, and those are still going for $24.99 or so.

Any help you guys can provide would be appreciated.

[Ed Oscuro]

Turok 2 isn't going to kill you (YOU, sitting behind the controller,) but it's quite laggy at times. It's a beautiful game, poorly executed level design in most places though.

Mario! Why not? This game IS lots of fun, but the fun isn't perfectly distributed. While you're at it, Mario Kart 64 isn't half bad either.

Zelda 64 and Majora's Mask MIGHT be pretty difficult to find, but if you can, snag 'em.

Goldeneye...looks awful nowadays, but it captured the, er, imagination of most people who owned the system for years (myself included). It's pretty much laughable now, but worth a shot.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire also looks awful now, but at the time it was lots of fun.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was a great air combat/bomber game (most missions take place planetside within a closed arena) and looked absolutely wonderful at the time. I still wouldn't call it "ugly" by any stretch of the imagination; the landscapes are quite nicely done. It's also the first place that I know of where you can see a Naboo Starfighter anywhere--maybe concept drawings were leaked somewhere or other--but you can pilot it as well! The game was released BEFORE the Star Wars movie, which makes that bit of trivia all the more interesting. There's interesting things to be done with the password system as well; typing "CHICKEN" lets you pilot an AT-ST on a brief mission through a basic square map, shooting everything in sight (including Imperial defense turrets and a barracks/prison, out of which pour Rebel pilots, whom you also may toast).

I hear Perfect Dark pretty much expands and improves Goldeneye in most every way, but it's also notoriously laggy. You can play without the expansion pack...but only in a few arenas for one play mode. Need the expansion pack, in other words.

Banjo Kazooie looks pretty OK and I played it for a short while. Can't say much else about it.

Ack, I'm forgetting what's on this system. Not as much as I'd like.

What about Goemon: Mystical Ninja? Didn't play it, but it sounded like it might have been good.

Stay away from:

Mission: Impossible

I know you like sports games, but I frankly don't find anything in this category on the 64 to have any redeeming value whatsoever, so finding games will be up to you.

[Anthony1]

Sports games on the N64 were pretty weak for what I can remember. I also have to say that although I can play classic sports games from the 16 bit era, I can't play sports games from 3 or 4 years ago. I would either need to play the latest up to date sports games, or the really old ones for nostalgia sake.


I loved Banjo Kazooie, and I would Love Mario Kart too, but everywhere I go they are charging to much cash for these games.

I think Mario Kart is like $24.99 or something. Too much money for an old game on a dead system in my opinion.

And the Zelda's are like $34.99 or so, so it's even worse.

Hey does anybody remember Body Harvest? Was that game any good?

[petewhitley]

I've always really liked the N64. I tried to stand by the system until it's final days. I say for $2.99 you can't go wrong with Turok 2 (I second everything about it Ed's already said). The 2 Mystical Ninja games are alot of fun, but they'll set you back near $20 a piece if you can find them at Gamestop (no easy feat either...). F-Zero X is just brilliant and features a random track generator, I've seen it go for a reasonable price in stores. Up until recently and possibly even now you could pick up Conker's Bad Fur Day NEW for $10. Great, great game and easily one of the best for the system. Mario Golf is my favorite golf game EVER, and just kills with four players. WWF No Mercy will probably set you back $15; if you have any interest in wrestling games this is pretty much the best one ever released in the American market. Wave Race has what I consider the best graphics on the system, and of the era. Super Smash Bros. is probably the best party fighting game ever. And Blast Corps. is strange but fun (you drive different vehicles into buildings to destroy them with a time limit), and you could probably pick it up for a song.

I hear raves all the time for Body Harvest, but I swear that game bored my socks off no matter how I tried to like it.

[nildem]

My top 25, in no particular order:

1080° Snowboarding
Beetle Adventure Racing
Conker's Bad Fur Day (Last time I checked, this was $7.99 at Toys 'R' Us.)
Diddy Kong Racing
Doom 64
Excitebike 64
F-Zero X
Forsaken 64
Jet Force Gemeni
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Mario Golf
Mario Tennis
Pilotwings
Ridge Racer 64
Super Mario 64


These are my favorite multi-player games:

Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Mario Kart 64
Gauntlet Legends (I prefer the Dreamcast port, though.)
Perfect Dark (Also was $7.99 at Toys 'R' Us.)
WWF: No Mercy
WWF: Wrestlemania 2000
WCW/nWo: Revenge
Virtual Pro Wrestling 2

[Ed Oscuro]

This is going to sound silly, but...

What about Paper Mario and Yoshi's Island? I haven't touched either and have heard mixed things about 'em.

I do remember friends talking about Jet Force Gemini, but they had a few issues with it back then (slow turning, if I recall, and probably a few other things). Heck, that was when I heard my first PS2 vs. XBOX vs. GameCube argument, in person no less! Ah, fun days.

[autobotracing]

Here is the link to the retrogaming roundtable top 25 n64 games

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1572

[swlovinist]

Its all about Star Fox and Rogue Squadron....lots of fun and usually under 10 bucs......If you like racing games.........Episode 1 racer is good and cheap, I have found it for under 5 bucks. F-Zero X is fun and cheap as well. For FPS games, you cant go wrong with bond, athough youll find it alot cheaper at a Flea Mart(under 10).

[BenT]

I'm no Rare fan, but Jet Force Gemini was surprisingly addictive. Super long, too -- I got sick of it before I could finish.

The RPG Paper Mario is generally highly recommended as well. I haven't opened my copy yet, but Amazon currently has it for a little over $20! Grab it while you can!

[Ed Oscuro]

Aha...Star Fox! Yes, that game's good enough to make up for the fact that Nintendo never released Star Fox 2. Anyways, I looked through the few carts I've got in this room and found Xtreme G 2 (XG2). The original was a favorite with Nintendo Power's editors and looked beautiful in the screenshots; XG2 I can tell you about from personal experience due to my having played it.

In a word, buy. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination: levels are absolutely huge, the game moves VERY quickly and things just look awesome. Though some levels pretend to be your cliche "green-goo-radiation industrial level," they still look good; there's a few that I consider letdowns but by and large they're inspired and set your imagination into motion (no spoilers here, but let's say that the choices are very nice).

There's a tank battling mode in addition to different fun modes like a survival type game where you see how many points you can rack up with a single ship (fighting waves of enemies and Motherships,) there's the classic time trial and a few other modes carried over from the original.

There's a few odd things about this game...if you ever find this game complete with the manual, take a look at the arena icons on one of the later pages. What do you see?

Then there's Castlevania for the N64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. Though separate titles, they originally were going to be parts of the same game; instead they were split up and the parts are thus larger than the whole envisioned previously. Lots of extras, especially in the (more difficult to find and probably out of your range) prequel, Legacy of Darkness. Both were a lot of fun in their own right, but I think it takes a fairly patient and intelligent player to get past the annoyances, and it helps to have an open mind (can CV be 3D?) It's usually lambasted in the press, and hated by many hardcore CV vets, but it was a pretty decent effort. It does quite well for a storyline, and I had more fun with the original game in all its flawed glory than (gasp!) Symphony of the Night (though it pays to mention that I've got the equivalent of the Japanese Greatest Hits release, and emulating a foreign PSX isn't a lot of fun).

[nesman85]

i like the gex games and san fransisco rush games. road rash 64 and ready 2 rumble are also cool.

[dave2236]

Star Fox
Goldeneye
1080 Snowboarding
Wave Race
Mario Party
San Francisco Rush
Diddy Kong Racing

[Dahne]

If you can find Harvest Moon 64, GET IT. Man I love that game. Spent the better part of a summer at a friend's house playing it. The concept sounds rather crack-headed, but watering your vegetables and trying to make the village girls like you is surprisingly addictive.

[Dahne]

Also, Space Station: Silicon Valley is very unique and very fun.

[Anthony1]

Well my local GameStop was having a buy two used games get one free deal, so I went there and picked up some N64 titles.


I got DOOM 64 for $9.99, Goldeneye for $7.99, and Starfox for free. Then I got Blast Corps for $7.99 and Body Harvest for $4.99 and Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis for free.


I was going to buy Donkey Kong 64 for $9.99 too, but I don't have the expansion pack yet.

Anybody know a cheap place to snag an expansion pack? They were selling them for $24.99, which is more than they charge for a N64 system ! They sell them for $19.99.

Mario Kart was $19.99, and the Zelda's were over 30 bucks. Banjo - Kazooie was $14.99, and Conker was $14.99.

I refuse to pay more than $9.99 for a "old" game.

[kevincure]

That Blast Corps game you picked up is the shiz. Good stuff. Same with Space Station: Silicon Valley, which Dahne recommended. If you're looking for 64 games cheap, they will almost certainly be cheaper on ebay, of all places, that at Gamestop or EB, since 64 collecting hasn't really caught on. A lot of Blockbusters still have good titles left, also.

[nildem]

Check out all your local pawn shops, too. All the stores around me sell their N64 games for $10.00 or less.

[BenT]

I refuse to pay more than $9.99 for a "old" game.

You can't really expect to play some of the best games for lots of systems, then. Like, unless you're stupid-lucky, you're not going to find Ogre Battle 64 or Harvest Moon 64 for 10 bucks.

[Daltone]

Hmm everyone seems to have overlooked the N64s only good sports series - ISS. Seriously, if you like football (of the non-american variety), hell, even if you don't, pick up whatever the last ISS release was (Got a feeling it was called 98 over here.) It's good. Very good.
Snowboard Kids (one) is pretty good too. It looks a little blurry these days, but it's still loads of fun in multi-player mode.

[Ed Oscuro]

I refuse to pay more than $9.99 for a "old" game.

This nice young man said THAT?

I'd like to be able to pronounce BenT here wrong, and happily say that all the best games on old systems could be had for $10 or less. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I think that most of the really standout titles for the N64 will cost you more than $10; cart or otherwise (unless you're going to eBay, maybe you can find them "cheaper" before they throw S&H at you).

I'd spend less time with a bushel of games that I can think of worth $3-5 than one good N64 Zelda.