My Gaming Memories - Nintendo 64

 

Back in mid-80's to early 90's where Nintendo had dominated the gaming industries with the success of their home system as well as the handheld portable. 

The consoles such as NES, SNES, and GB had gained so much popularity at worldwide thanks to numerous of killer libraries, innovation, price launch, and fanbases that made Nintendo became one of the top dog of gaming company until the new rivalry such as SONY had finally kills off the competition with the Playstation in mid-90s.

At the times before the Playstation, Sony and Nintendo had agreed working together to develop the CD add-ons for SNES to compete with their rivalry such as SEGA's own CD add-ons for SEGA Genesis/MD which is SEGA CD (A.K.A Mega CD in EU and JP), but until Nintendo had changed it mind by making an partnership with Philips, who is a main competitor to SONY, to produce their game titles for the console such as Philips CD-i which led the betrayal on SONY weren't happy with the decision from Nintendo which is the reason why SONY had left the production of SNES's CD based add-ons as cancellation to create their own video game system which is a Playstation leaving Nintendo in panic mode that struggles to create their own CD based console, unlike their competitor such as SONY Playstation and SEGA Saturn which is a 32-bit consoles heavily focuses on the CD-ROM based format as well as 3D based titles including various of arcade ports and AAA exclusive titles. 

While on the development of the Nintendo's own 64-bit system which is a Nintendo 64, their decision is to stick with the cartridge based system as opposed to CD-ROM based, and it is one of the first home console being produced by Silicon Graphics, Inc for its software development kit rendering the 3D technology being developed for the system. 

It is also added some features on the system such as 4 controller ports as opposed to 2 for bigger and wider multiplayer modes, and the expansion pak, a RAM memory add-ons which produces 8MB of console's RAM give the system the advantage of greater visuals and higher resolution.

The N64 had introduced their own unique controller fully designed for the 3D titles such as mostly 3D platformers, First-Person Shooters, and Action-Adventures that utilizes the 3D analog stick resulting the smoother and response 360 degrees controls as opposed to fixed-traditional Digital Pad.

It had shared with their own accessories designed for N64 controllers such as Memory Pak which is save function slot, Rumble Pak is a feedback vibration designed for some games, and Transfer Pak  which give ability to transfer data between N64 games and Game Boy games.

Nintendo 64 was widely positive upon the release for sharing with many acclaimed titles such as Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Starfox 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 which made Nintendo 64 being the second most recognised video game consoles of 5th generation era behind SONY Playstation still remains as number 1 top-selling system. 

I decided to share my gaming nostalgia to discuss my experiences on games console that I've still own as today such as the games that I remember playing back then as a child and does it defines my childhood memories, so these are the stuff that I like to talk about my history of owning the video game system as well as collecting many libraries of games.

So without go further do here is my gaming memories on Nintendo 64. 

My Gaming Memories - Nintendo 64:

In around year 1997 when I had SEGA Saturn at the time as a child, I remember being into the electronic shop with my brother, so I've discovered the new Nintendo system that had me attention where I saw one of the N64's kiosk previewing a 3D platformer game such as Super Mario 64 which is highly one of the most popular N64 title of launch release at the time. 

I was begging my brother to get me a new Nintendo console, but the issue is that he cannot afford the console yet due to his shortages of money savings till he secretly decides to trade my SEGA Saturn with the Nintendo 64 around in winter holiday without my knowing while I'm at school.   

After I came back from school around 6 hours later, I went straight into the front room and discovered that my SEGA Saturn had missing and asked my brother what has happened while I'm in school? so he said everything to me what has happened the day he took my Saturn away and I got really upset after hearing from him just to tease me on purpose, but he also give me a good news that he bought a N64 as my Christmas gift bundled with Super Mario 64 which is the reason why he did that for me.

As my brother and sister watches me playing a new 64-bit system, I had a go with the Super Mario 64 as one of my very first N64 game to experience a new adventures of Mario in free-roaming 3D platformer. You play as a plumber hero named Mario sets his quest to save his damsel in distress Princess Peach again from Koopa King himself Bowser, so your goal is to collect many stars as possible by completing several of tasks to gain access to the next locations as well as defeating King Bowser at very end.

It is one of the first Mario game being played on the 3D perspective, making it a departure of traditional 2D side-scrolling from previous game. 

Mario has ability to perform many manoeuvring that requires to use these moves to reach a higher up areas like triple jump, dash jump, and wall jumps which is very useful for some bigger variety levels, thanks to N64's analog controller making the full use of 3D stick is really shows that it plays so flawlessly for 3D games like this on N64.

What makes the game quite recognisable are a lot of fun gameplay segments such as battling with bosses, race against koopa, saving baby blue penguin, puzzle solving, reaching higher up castle, collecting all 8 red coins, and discovering hidden secrets which is the reason why it labelled the game as not just being the N64's highly acclaimed and best-seller title ever upon the release, but also being the most influential video games that defines the 3D platform experience.

I really enjoyed playing Super Mario 64 entirely which my siblings and I had spent playing for hours of fun wondering around the levels and searching for stars is quite straightforward and easy to get into with this kind of game that I fell in love with the 3D platform genres.

A week after I had the N64, my cousin came to visit my house as I introduced him with the Nintendo's new console, but as my cousin at the time was an hardcore SEGA fan he doesn't mind trying out with the newer Nintendo consoles as he previously enjoys my SNES as much I've enjoyed his SEGA Genesis/MD, so me and my cousin began to play Super Mario 64 and he was amazed to see a Mario game being in 3D platforming adventure.

In about 6 months later after owning the N64, my brother and I went to local rental store to rent the game that he gonna choose the game for me to try out on N64. 

I had a go with the Blast Corps which is a strange over-the-top action game developed by a same team behind their successful titles such as Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct on SNES, and Goldeneye 007 on N64.

You take control of player uses the destructible vehicles to take down buildings to prevent nuclear missile carrier from destroying the entire city. 

It has over 50 mission levels in single-player action and 8 demolition vehicles to demolish things such as bulldozer, rams, dump truck drifts, buggy, robot mechs and others.

It's a solid experience that is so different from any of action games on N64, so it focuses on mostly a puzzle-style campaign than focusing on the action-combat as a core gameplay which is quite an interesting concept to make the game look more original, but it gets quite repetitive very quickly due to repeated mission objectives and the controls takes sometime to get used with it which requires practice, but overall it's a fun blasting title that I actually had fun playing for hours.

He also rented the copy of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for N64 which is one of the groundbreaking title that had caught my attention. It's the FPS game with dinosaurs mixes with run-n-gun action and open-world exploration where you take control of Native American warrior named Turok set his quest to stop the evil campaigner from conquering the universe with an ancient and powerful weapon.

It is so different from any of FPS games like Doom and Quake which is more of the traditional FPS game, so unlike Turok which is more non-linear approach which is reason why the gaming magazines labelled the game as one of the greatest FPS title which was credited for its open environment graphics and the evolution of the genre, as well as being praised for its combat gameplay, open-world level design, and focusing on the exploration which led into being one of the most popular games for the Nintendo console on the release.

 

In around between summer and autumn season of year 1998, my brother bought me a copy of Yoshi's Story which is a 2D platformer game for N64. As my sister and I previously enjoyed Yoshi's Island on SNES, we are looking forward playing another Yoshi's title stars your favourite cuddly dinosaur himself set his adventure along with his friends to retain a happy fruit tree back from that little brat himself Bowser. Jr who has taken their happy stuff away, so your goal is to beat the stage by eating all the missing fruits as opposed to reach at the finishing goal line. 

It's one of the Yoshi's first title on N64 still retains the 2D perspective similar to previous Yoshi's title on SNES rather than the 3D perspective like Super Mario 64, but however it's more heavily focuses on puzzle-oriented which is different from being the traditional 2D platforming style.

This game really puts a smile on my face as a child when it's comes with the cuteness of lovable characters, crafty art-style design, and sound designs is what I find the game appeals to me the most, but I don't understand the disapproval from gaming press finding the game disappointing for its lower difficulty, short-length play, and lack of originally compared with the predecessor for SNES, so to me the game aren't bad as many think which I had the reason to like this type of game that is appeals to younger players.

After I had a ton of fun playing Yoshi's Story over 3 weeks, my brother had secretly trade my game with the copy of Goldeneye 007 while I'm at in school without knowing what my brother been up to again, so after I came back to school I head straight through to front room to play N64, but I've notice that the copy of Yoshi's Story wasn't on the TV cabinet which took me awhile to find the game till my brother came in the front room and said to me that he purposely swapped it with the Goldeneye 007, so I got really upset big time that he did it just to tease me again especially I know nothing about the game based off the film he bought it for N64 because I've never watched any of James Bond films before.

He said that he wanted me to give the game a go on the N64, so I did play the game for an hour which took me a week to get used with the game.

It is a Rareware's FPS game based on the film in same name where you take control of British agent James Bond set out his mission to prevent a criminal syndicate from using satellite weapon against London to cause a global financial meltdown.       

The game has received critical reception from the gaming magazines labelled it as the greatest console-only FPS game of all-time and had commercial success worldwide has sold over 8 million copies making it N64's 3rd best-selling game, as well as being credited for pioneering features such as atmospheric single-player missions, stealth elements, innovative gameplay depth and variety, and console's multiplayer mode making it a huge departure of traditional Doom-like approach to more realistic style of FPS genres. 

I had a blast of playing Goldeneye 007 especially with my brother and cousins during the deathmatch mode which is addicting and over-the-top arena-style multiplayer that we couldn't stop shooting at each other for hours of laugh and joy. 

While the local split-screen multiplayer is addictive and fun to play, I also enjoyed the single-player campaign that is so different from any of shooters, so instead of collecting keys and head to the exit like Id's Software Doom and Quake, you had to follow the to-do's list objectives to complete the mission which in fact I like the idea of having a different playstyle of FPS game from bungee jump to destroying gas tanks and escaping from archives to rode on military tank is what made Goldeneye 007 so recognisable.

It is becoming one of my favourite shooters of N64 library as well as being my all-time top favourite FPS games that has inspired many game developers to create their later own successful FPS franchises such as Bungie's Halo, EA's Medal of Honor and Battlefield, and Activision's Call of Duty which is the reason why many had labelled Goldeneye 007 as one of the most important game for FPS genre. 

In the year 1999, my brother had bought something different for N64. As I never actually watched any of the wrestling program at the time before year later, but one of the game that caught my attention was WCW vs NWO: Revenge which is a 3D wrestling game exclusively on N64 based from TV program called World Championship Wrestling.

I overheard the game was being popular on the N64 which they labelled it as one of the best wrestling games on the system by gaming press as well as being a best-selling wresting game for the N64 console.                          

It's one of the game made various of improvement from the predecessor's WCW vs NWO: World Tour which adds wrestler ring entrances, customisable outfits, new gameplay mechanics with combo system and more grappling moves, actual arenas such as Monday Night Nitro and Starrcade, new championship mode, and added new rosters such as Bret Hitman Hart, Bill Goldberg, British Bulldog, Brian Adams, Chris Jericho, and Fit Finlay, while retaining the previous roster such as Hollywood Hogan (A.K.A Hulk Hogan), Kevin Nash, Chris Benoit, The Giant (currently known as Big Show for later WWF/WWE era), and Dimond Dallas Page. 

It took me awhile to get used with the fighting controls such as figuring out how to pull off grappling moves and striking, as well as picking up objects, entering ring, sprinting, and pinning and submitting opponent is what wrestling game is all about. 

I remember the day when my brother and cousins had their moment playing this kinds of game which has the awesome local matches such as single match, handicap match, tag-team match, and of course 40-mens battle royale is what kept us playing all day which proves WCW vs NWO Revenge on the N64 is by far one of my favourite wrestling game of all-time.

In month later, my brother and I headed to local rental store to rent the N64 game that many people had considered the title as the most revolutionary game that defines not only the genre itself, but changed gaming industries which is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, an Open-World Action-Adventure by Nintendo themselves where you take control of the Hylian's favourite hero named Link set his quest to save his homeland and rescuing Princess Zelda from the wicked villain Ganondorf.

Unlike any of previous Zelda games which is top-down 2D perspective, this game is a 3D open-world perspective that has a large environmental areas to explore and visit places, so your main goal is to complete the tasks throughout the game such as the dungeon levels and bosses. What really adds the game that is so new to the series is that Link has ability to travel freely between the two time periods of light and dark, he can acquire to ride on horse named Epona that allows him to travel faster as well as attacking while riding is restricted to bow and arrows, and using the musical item known as the ocarina which requires to learn the melodies that allow him to solve music-based puzzles and teleport to previously visited locations.

The game itself has critically praised for its many side-quests, large open-world environments, cinematic design, combat system, puzzles and action, and epic bosses which became one of the most acclaimed video game title ever made had gained many awards by gaming press and had commercial performance worldwide.

I actually liked this type of game that given me a freedom to wonder around the levels, fighting off those foes, collecting rupees, entering dungeons, obtaining new items, and discovering hidden secrets had captured my gaming nostalgia.

In the year 2001 at the time when I still had the SEGA Dreamcast for months, there are a last two games that I ever rented from the local rental store which was released before the end of the N64's lifecycle, so I played Paper Mario which is a colourful-RPGs title where you take control of Mario yet again to rescue Princess Peach from Evil Bowser, who has imprisoned the 7 stars spirits causing the castle to float up in sky and steals the star rod from star haven making himself invincible. 

I have never seen any of Mario game receive an RPGs title as a kid which is entirely a new thing for the franchise, so it involves Mario and number of partners to solve the puzzles in the game's overworld and defeat enemies in a turn-based battle system.

I got to say the game is pretty straightforward RPGs with simplistic battle gameplay are easier to navigate commands and the graphics are made of papers with cartoony visuals and colourful environments adding the game's appeals.

Then I also played Conker's Bad Fur Day which is a 3D platformer created by a same developers who previously worked on N64 titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye 007, and Perfect Dark. 

As a kid at the time, it's kinda strange when I looked at the age rating system on front of the game's cartridge which are aimed for mature audiences, so how can a cute and adorable squirrel turned into a foul-mouthed character since his first appearance in Diddy Kong Racing for N64 as well as Conker's Pocket Tales for GBC. 

I began to play the game on my N64 to see how the game went, so it started out quite normal at the beginning of the game where you take control of hard-drinking red squirrel Conker finding his way to return home to his girlfriend Berri, but until the rest of the whole game went full on edgier content such as the use of explicit language, toilet humour, and graphical violence which I did not expect this was being included on the Nintendo console which is meant for younger children, but not anymore because I have seen games like South Park did a same thing on N64 way ahead before this title.

To be honest that didn't bother me as a child because I finding the game quite entertaining for comedic sense of humour and funny-ass characters that really builds up the story development and I also enjoyed really cool segments in the game such as evading wasps while carrying beehive, force feeding stinky-ass rat with alive cheese, bull fight scene, throwing a toilet roll into a big opera-singing pile of shit called great mighty poo, and it has an awesome pop-culture parodies from the likes of The Matrix, A Clockwork Orange, Aliens, and Monty Python's series that really adds the game's appeal to those who enjoys TV show like South Park will appreciate this type of game.

To conclude my story, the Nintendo 64 is a remarkable gaming system that brings my moment of my nostalgia hood from 3D platforming adventures to over-the-top FPS action, then from wrestling brawling fighting game to open-world action-adventures is what made my childhood so great back then.

Despite my loss of SEGA Saturn been taken away at the time before I finally retained it back in long years later, I did not regret having N64 as a replacement from Saturn which kinda makes sense that the library on N64 is doing somewhat better for its the varieties of 3rd party games and plenty AAA exclusives which is the reason why N64 had sold slightly better than SEGA could do with the Saturn for lacking AAA Sonic games and limited 3rd party support, but don't get me wrong I still loved the Saturn for its great arcade ports and some decent exclusives that are introduced for SEGA's 32-bit console.        

Going back to Nintendo 64, the games are very known for pushing the single-player and local multiplayer into boundaries like Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, WCW vs NWO Revenge, International Superstar Soccer 64, Mario Party, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Starfox 64, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter that defines the N64 legacy.

N64 has fair shares with interesting video game accessories such as memory pak which stores save data as opposed to built-in save battery, rumble pak is designed for types of game that uses vibration feedback for gameplay purposes, transfer pak that allow you to transfer data from GBC to N64 for extra features, and expansion pak that allow N64 runs on hi-res screen or the game that are required to run such as Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora Mask which adds the innovation for the system at the time.  

I do really love the controller which introduces the additional C-buttons, Z digital-trigger, and 3D analog stick which brings the new ways of playstyle for several of the games that has 360-degrees movement, camera system, and other commands which many gaming media labelled it as one of the most influential video game controller at the time until the PS1's Dualshock controller does it better job than the N64 controller itself thanks to dual-stick controls.

While it is not as good compared with SONY's own machine PS1 when it comes with better libraries of JRPGs, Survival Horror, Sports, Fighting Games, Racing, and Stealth-Action that led PS1 still remains a top-selling system of 5th generation era.

What SONY did a right with their PS1 is focusing on CD-based system which is easier for developers to fit a chunks of game data on whole disk as opposed to N64 cartridge being restricted with limited amount of memory which is expensive to produce whereas the CD-ROM is much cheaper to produce with 700MB which is the reason why most developer teams had preferred the PS1 over the N64 for the game's development cycle.   

The N64 really missed out the features such as FMV cutscenes and MP3 format music that likely gonna affect some game's overall for N64 like having a small libraries of licensed soundtrack on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, relying on MIDI music format and in-game slide presentation on Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and altered content on Spider-Man which replaces pre-rendered cutscenes with captioned freeze-frames comic book style and fewer voice clips which proves that the PS1 version has the advantages than the N64 version had to offer.

It's a shame that the N64 had missed out the bigger title like Final Fantasy VII was previously in development for the Nintendo console, but due to N64's restricted storage size which led Square decided to transfer the game into the PS1 instead which makes the first Final Fantasy game ever released on Playstation console, since their previous titles being on SNES and NES, gaining a worldwide commercial success as system best-seller and received critical praise as the landmark game of RPGs genres which the Playstation has beaten their competition against Nintendo who has already lost the support from one of the best 3rd party developers behind their RPGs titles since the SNES and NES era.  

Look how well Capcom had bought Resident Evil 2 to N64 proves that they managed to cram 700MB of data from PS1 Disk into the 64MB of N64 cartridge with compressed FMV cutscenes and audios, running on hi-res as opposed to PS1, and packed of content which is a faithful port of the original game making it the most technically impressive title for Nintendo console that is harder to develop.

The interesting history about Nintendo's own 64-bit system is that they had additional system's addons called Nintendo 64DD which was only released at Japan in holiday 1999, so it is basically a disk drive system that plugs into the N64's system extension port adding more data storage, persistent game design, and audio library for further storage efficiency which allows game developer to create movies, characters, and animations for new genres of games and applications, as well as online services based on Randnet network for online gaming and media sharing. 

Unfortunately it went commercially failure at the release which sold 15,000 units in Japan leading into a system's discontinuation in 2001 causing many 64DD games to be released on traditional N64 cartridges, some being ported to other consoles, or it's likely being cancelled during development due to poor sales of add-on hardware.

It's one of the system's add-ons that never officially released at worldwide leaving the 64DD hardware being stuck in Japan with only 10 official games, so it's a shame that I will never being able to see a system's add-on for N64 at light of the day because it did had the potential to innovate a new technology for gaming consoles.               

Nintendo 64 is a great video game system that I had experienced playing a numerous of N64 libraries which has fun and addicting multiplayer matches, adventurous single-player campaign, and tons of replay values that are worth playing again to revisit my gaming nostalgia.    

In nowadays, I began starting to collect more N64 games on my collection such as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Blast Corps, and Perfect Dark that are worth revisiting my childhood games again since my old days and I am very glad that I still own the copy of Yoshi's Story back in my teen days which proves that I've been missing the game so much as a child back then.        

Then I finally grab a copy of games like Operation Winback, Hybrid Heaven, and Mischief Makers are the N64's hidden gems titles that are worth checking it out.

I will never forget my childhood moments of remembering the days when me, my siblings and cousins had our good times of playing Goldeneye 007, Quake 2, Snowboard Kids, and WCW vs NWO: Revenge which is the reason why N64 had the best multiplayer titles on the system.                          

I'm kinda feel annoyed when N64 games are becoming valuable especially Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of the game that I wanted to add on my collection, but it's difficult to find it cheaper online which cost more than £100 making it the rarest game of N64 library, unless you can find the cheap reproduction copy through Ebay and Aliexpress site, or get it physically or digitally for the XBONE under the Rare Replay, a video game compilation that has 30 original classic games by Rare.

That being said, I love the system as much as the SNES, so that is Nintendo 64 everyone, now you're playing with the ultra 64 power.   

 

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