Not counting the Wii U. Was the N64 the worst Nintendo console?

[Fergus Mac Roich]

No. A lot of the games haven't aged well, but at the time, it was incredible. Lylat Wars, F Zero, Super Mario 64, Zelda OoT, Majora's Mask. All these games hold up still.

1. Snes
2. Wii U
3. N64
4. Wii
5. Gamecube
6. NES

Unsure where the Switch goes as I only just got one.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Yes it was. Everyone bringing up a handful of games need to remember that was during a span of five plus years. The N64 would months and months without a single decent game. The drought was so bad that shitty games like dk64, and Diddy Kong racing were considered good.

The N64 starterd the trend of "I only buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games". We fanboys said that because we had no choice lol

 

[FarronFox]

No way. I really loved it at the time.

If it wasn't for Rare though it very well could have been Nintendo's worst console. I tend to look at the N64 much like it was Rare's console, and not Nintendo per se. Only Nintendo titles I had on it were Mario 64 and Mario Kart. All other games were Rare. Loved the Banjo titles, JFG, DK64, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing.

I thought the Star Wars podracing game was pretty cool too. Oh and I did rent the Mario Party games a few times too.

 

[NuclearCake]

Must resist the temptation to quote and reply to so many lines in the OP because damn, that made me livid.

Hard to pick the worst Nintendo console. N64 had a lot of features that played against it, but Nintendo and Rare made so many groundbreaking games on it that simply revolutionized gaming when many genres on the PSOne were still in the "16-bit games but prettier" phase (that definitely ended come 1998, though). I still think the standard way of handling the N64's controller was excellent, and the very best for shooters before gyro and motion controls. Shame about that flimsy stick.

The Cube was a huge disappointment for me, and developers ultimately snubbed it even if it was technically a great console. Opposite to the N64, Nintendo's own games on the GC greatly disappointed me, and the console (or rather, the whole generation) was basically saved for me by Metroid Prime and RE4.

WiiU is something I'd love if it didn't force the Gamepad on you and if it was snappier. It has fantastic games. But for some reason I dread to turn the machine on. Years of the gaming community ridiculing it kinda spoiled my enjoyment of it.

Excluding the Virtual Boy from the discussion makes no sense, as that's the very definition of failure in this market and without a doubt the most ill-conceived hardware Nintendo ever put out. Not portable at all too unless you really want to stretch the definition of portable, so... it should count, and it wins by default.

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I might be mistake but i'm pretty sure Nintendo marketed the Virtual Boy as a handheld. It was meant to be a successor to the GameBoy line and to tide people over until the N64 arrived. I doubt it was ever meant to be a mainline console. Which is why i didn't include it. If you want to count it then it's obviously the worst one but it had so little to offer and such a short life span that i have a hard time taking it seriously.

 

[Simba1]

I dont think that console that had games like Zelda OoT/MM, Mario 64, Golden Eye 007, Banjo Kazooie, Mario Kart 64, Smash...can be worst Nintendo console, we talking about some of best games ever made.
Personally, its best console alongside PS1.

 

[Deleted member 873]

Impossible, honestly. If nothing else, GC had enhanced the formula of the best N64 games (and failed in most cases, including Mario and Zelda).

 

[tapedeck]

Why are we not counting the Wii U? It's a flawed system hardware wise but has a fantastic lineup of games..it's easily above the Virtual Boy that's for sure.

The N64 is nowhere near the worst Nintendo console, it's miles better than the Wii IMO. Those subjective points aside your damning of the cartridge use is the exact reason the N64 was THE 'multiplayer' console..no load times and the first console with 4 controller ports out of the box.

The N64 is solely responsible for modern platforming..Super Mario 64 and OOT are wildly regarded as some of the best games ever made. Not to mention Goldeneyes impact on 3D shooters..which are kind of a big deal. The system lacked the volume of games of PlayStation but the influence of its flagship titles is undeniable.

 

[FrostyLemon]

Any console with OOT, Majora's Mask, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, and Banjo Kazooie can't be the worst lol. It's absurd.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

It easily has the worse controller ever.

But... Mario 64, Ocarina of Time. The answer is no. Honestly I don't think there's been a bad Nintendo console.

 

[mrfusticle]

If you like arbitrary and pointless lists do yourselves a favour and read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.

 

[Orso]

Don't get the hate that the N64's controller gets. Analogue sticks have come a long way since then but the N64's was perfectly functional and a huge leap forward at the time. Zero issues with the button layout too.

 

[FarSight XR-20]

Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark 64, Conker and Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie are probably my favourite games ever.

In my opinion, the N64 was the best Nintendo console with the Gamecube.

 

[Datajoy]

Nintendo 64 is an amazing console though. Second worse for me would definitely be the Wii.

 

[Papasmurff]

I was with you until you said that Mario Kart 64, Majora's Mask, and Super Smash Bros. were disappointments.

 

[Nessus]

I mean it had some of the best games of all time..

Me and my friends spent so many hours playing Goldeneye, Smash Bros., Mario Party, etc.

 

[Treasure Silvergun]

I might be mistake but i'm pretty sure Nintendo marketed the Virtual Boy as a handheld. It was meant to be a successor to the GameBoy line and to tide people over until the N64 arrived. I doubt it was ever meant to be a mainline console. Which is why i didn't include it. If you want to count it then it's obviously the worst one but it had so little to offer and such a short life span that i have a hard time taking it seriously.

Click to shrink...

Oh, you're not wrong either.

But I don't think they ever marketed it as a handheld because... well... one look and you know it isn't. The thing needs its own tripod to hold the goggles, ffs. And I don't think it was ever coinceived as a successor to the Game Boy line.

Nintendo themselves didn't know how to market the VB, and that's what doomed it from the start. There really was no plan behind the VB but Nintendo wanting a new product to sell and Gunpei Yokoi having an idea that seemed like it could be the thing they were looking for. He believed in the product; probably nobody else at Nintendo did.

(Also, he wasn't fired because of the VB's flop, contrary to popular belief)

 

[DisturbedSwan]

It's probably my favourite Nintendo system ever, got so many fond memories playing games on that console as a kid.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

Yes

 

[NuclearCake]

The analogue stick is the only serious build quality issue. I have heard that apparently the sticks were supposed to use a ceramic grease but there were legal issues so it was omitted. This might be a myth, mind you.

The N64's C-buttons were extremely useful for stuff like Tony Hawk. The Gamecube lacked a diamond button configuration. A second analogue stick was a great addition, but losing the diamond was a huge issue. Something like Tony Hawk was very impractical on the Gamecube.

The N64 has more buttons in that configuration, though? If held like a SNES controller, you have L+R+A+B+the four C-buttons+Start. That's nine buttons. The SNES only had seven. It's the Dreamcast that goofed. It mimicked the N64 design to some degree, but it lacks a Z-trigger and it lacks A+B. (Its ABXY mimic the C-buttons.) That's why FPS games are such a pain on the Dreamcast compared to the N64.

I don't think this particularly impaired game design. For example, Turok 2 uses every button on the controller. Map is L, R is jump, Z is shoot, A is weapon wheel 1, B is weapon wheel 2. C buttons are movement. And the D-Pad had functionality like crouching, changing ammo types, and so on mapped to it. As a PC gamer, the idea of repositioning your hand to perform an action is not some great heresy. It's quite notable that in terms of controls, N64 games often had really elegant controls due to those limitations. Turok 2 and 3 had elegant weapon wheels. Turok: Evolution and TimeSplitters had clunky scrolling systems. This isn't always the case -- The World is Not Enough is way more convoluted than Nightfire, for instance. Rare deserve a huge shout-out for how amazing and elegant the menu and inventory design is in GE/PD. It's amazing how you hold A to get your weapon wheel, press Z to go to the submenu where you can change fire mode, and then press Z again to get the AI control menu -- if you're playing co-op with a bot, you can give the AI partner commands. All this functionality packed into a single elegant button hold. "Context sensitive," as Conker put it. (One of the things I dislike about PD XBLA is how they moved "use" from B to A. In the N64 version, reload, use, and change fire mode are the same button. Which is far more elegant than the XBLA version splitting functionality all over the controller for no real reason.)

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The games that made use of the C buttons does not make up for the fact that the N64 should of had a C stick instead. So many N64 games are doomed to forever have a bad camera thanks to this limitation. Had Nintendo just went the extra mile and added the second stick and two more primary buttons it would have been great but that's just wishful thinking at this point. Yeah i guess it did have more buttons if you count the C buttons than the SNES controller but for me the controller not having a second stick is a huge downside. OOT and MM in particular suffered the most thanks to this limitation.

I have to disagree with your comment about the build quality. Playing some games like Mario Party with that controller made the buttons wear off really quickly. The analogue stick is the worst part about in terms of build quality but i don't think the rest of the controller is great either.

As for the other examples that you mentioned did technically work but i see no reason as to why those games couldn't have been better had they been designed with a more standard controller in mind.

 

[SiG]

No.

The legacy the N64 left is one of the most defining things to happen in 3d gaming.

 

[Scar]

Virtual boy exists, so no.

 

[Baji Boxer]

I have a hard time considering it the worst considering how long Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Goldeneye lasted as go to multiplayer games. N64 Smash was still being played regularly by the college kids when I went back to school in '09-'10. Goldeneye was the go to console shooter until Halo.

I also have to take into account the inovation N64 brought to the table. Some mindblowing stuff that redefined console gaming. Zelda OOT is still a damn good experience. On a side note, it also had the last Starfox game that I really enjoyed.

Wii was probably the weakest of their non-portable consoles (do we count Virtual Boy as portable? I'm not sure). The mainline Wii games mostly had inferior contols compared to their past consoles, and we went firmly into the HD era making Wii games look hideous by comparison. Even their Zelda was just a worse version of the Gamecube game. The saving graces for me were the backwards compatibility, virtual console, Mario Galaxy, and Xenoblade.

 

[Lo-Volt]

I think there was definitely some trouble with the console and it showed, but the core Nintendo titles were strong and the games made the 3D transition fairly well. It also had a strong multiplayer component. And this console started Super Smash Bros. That alone should put it in the pantheon.

 

[Loanshark]

Nah, id say the Wii was worse from a "traditional" gaming standpoint. N64 despite its issues still put out genre defining games and the console was at the forefront of games development. The Wii sold a lot but had very few truly influential games, and was a step or two behind the competition in almost every aspect related to traditional gaming. This is especially true in hindsight, since the motion controls and gimmicks amounted to basically nothing in the end. The Wii had a pretty shallow appeal sure, but gaming as a medium was pushed by the other consoles both in terms of games and infrastructure.

 

[PurestGamer78]

Snes was the last great Nintendo console imo.

 

[entremet]

I'd give it to the Gamecube. Lackluster Mario and Zeldas. EAD kinda sucked that generation. We got Prime and Melee sure, but everything else was meh.

I enjoyed the Wii U and N64 over the Cube.

 

[giapel]

Home consoles:
SNES>NES>GC>N64
So yes.
If we counting handhelds, I'd say the GBA was worse than the N64 (at least before the GBA SP)
However the N64 has some seminal games (Mario64, OoT and Goldeneye) that completely redeem it.

 

[DarkFlame92]

Worst console? Hell no,N64 was awesome,Gamecube must be their worst though

 

[HighFive]

Im speaking for myself, i think my worst console was the Wii. Its a console iv tried later after its life circle ( yeah i tried it at the beginning, to see the motion tech ), grab a few games, and no, i cant like it. I honestly prefer the Wii U over, and also enjoyed more the N64. Golden Eye, the amazing THQ wrestling games, Star Wars games, Turok, gave me tons of fun. In the end yeah, it didnt also have tons of games that grab my interest like previous console, but i myself rate it equal to the Wii U, and Wii standing last.

 

[Jonneh]

I felt a great deal of Nintendo's Gamecube output felt rushed and the N64 as a whole was more consistent. GC still had its share of greats like Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, F-Zero GX and Resident Evil 4 but in general I think it's Nintendo's worst lineup.

 

[XDevil666]

No, I loved the N64, it was only really the FMV's on the PSone which made it look ahead.

The GameCube was easily my worst Nintendo console, it seemed so far behind the PS2 and Dreamcast

 

[bane833]

Worst console? Hell no,N64 was awesome,Gamecube must be their worst though

Click to shrink...

Nah man, the GameCube had one of the best library's of any Nintendo console.

Metroid, the Capcom Five, new IPs like Pikmin, the best F Zero, Star Wars etc.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Absolutely not. Majora's Mask was my GOAT until Bloodborne, Mario 64 was a revolutionary experience and then you have games like Ocarina, widely regarded as one of the best games ever made, Goldeneye (another groundbreaking title), Perfect Dark, Mario Kart 64, Waverace 64 (my favorite racer ever), Star Fox 64 and so on.

I prefer if to the NES, Wii, Wii U and probably GameCube as well.

 

[NuclearCake]

I felt a great deal of Nintendo's Gamecube output felt rushed and the N64 as a whole was more consistent. GC still had its share of greats like Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, F-Zero GX and Resident Evil 4 but in general I think it's Nintendo's worst lineup.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't say that any games bar Sunshine and Wind Waker was rushed. Sunshine wasn't as good as 64 but i still enjoyed it more than any other 3D platformer since Mario 64 and mechanically it was the best 3D Mario up until Odyssey came around. Wind Waker was cut down heavily during development but i still had a much better time with it than i did with MM. Aside from that i don't think any of their first party efforts were "rushed"

On the other hand games like Smash and Mario Kart 64 felt like tech demos instead of fully fleshed out games. There was so little content there that i was gut punched when i discovered how little content there was for fully priced games.

Still tho i don't think any console has a worse output than the Wii U. Which was a safe retread of the Wii lineup but minus anything unique or ambitious with software droughts that rival the N64 days.

 

[andymcc]

Yes-- not counting the Virtual Boy.

Funny you made this thread, I almost made an exact one like this outside of the fact that I argue the Wii U is better than the N64.

The N64 is also the worst console of its generation by a very large margin.

 

[Garlador]

Depends on your perspective.

In terms of third-party support? Yeah, it was one of the weakest systems out there as PS1 snatched up 3rd party support left and right. It was the system devoid of a Metroid game, the system Final Fantasy decided to avoid, the system that really missed out on great fighters like Soul Blade, Tekken, Street Fighter Alpha, Marvel vs Capcom, Darkstalkers, and more. It was a system devoid of JRPGs while PS1 was swimming in not just Final Fantasy but Dragon Quest, Valkyrie Profile, Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross, Koudelka, Arc the Lad, Lunar, Vagrant Story, Xenogears, and countless others. It was a system that didn't get most of the survival horror hits like Dino Crisis, most Resident Evil titles, or Silent Hill. It was a system that epic franchises like Soul Reaver, Tomb Raider, and Metal Gear Solid avoided for a myriad of reasons.

... And yet... it also had some of the most influential games ever created, brought countless timeless Nintendo IPs into the third dimension, knocked it out of the park with massive first-party hits ranging from Mario 64 to Ocarina of Time, had THE best years of RARE support ever from Goldeneye to Perfect Dark to Banjo-Kazooie to Diddy Kong Racing to Conker's Bad Fur Day to Jet Force Gemini, introduced stalwart mega-hits like Mario Party and Smash Bros, gave us wacky and unexpectedly great games like Paper Mario, Pokemon Snap, and Wave Race, and still has a library that's so good I feel the system earns its place as one of the best in gaming history, especially considering how many other properties were struggling to adapt to 3D gaming at the time.

It's a mixed system where the mistakes it created reverberated for years to come into the Gamecube's shelf-life, but also had such a positive impact on gaming as a whole that much of what they pioneer or championed was adopted by the industry wholesale and we take it for granted today.

 

[jroc74]

See, I'm torn.

The games it introduced are iconic.

From an overall library perspective, I might have to agree.

It have some of the worse versions of 3rd party games. Some games skipped the system. Design choice from Nintendo was, interesting.

 

[Celine]

I might be mistake but i'm pretty sure Nintendo marketed the Virtual Boy as a handheld. It was meant to be a successor to the GameBoy line and to tide people over until the N64 arrived. I doubt it was ever meant to be a mainline console. Which is why i didn't include it. If you want to count it then it's obviously the worst one but it had so little to offer and such a short life span that i have a hard time taking it seriously.

Click to shrink...

Not true.
VB was marketed as his own thing, like a third pillar.

https://images.fastcompany.net/imag...:best,f_auto/fc/3050016-inline-vboy-magad.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17euo2DzBZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzSwrHldg0k

However it was true that VB wasn't ready and was released just as stopgap until N64 was ready to be launched (originallt N64 was planned to be released in 1995 but it got delayed a few times).

 

[Seahawk64]

Uhhhhh No.

N64 is the GOAT console.

 

[shoptroll]

The system had a lot going against it. Early 3D games were still in their infancy at the time and developers were trying to figure out how to make that work hence the controller design. To their credit Nintendo baked into the controller dedicated buttons for controlling the camera in addition to the standard set of action buttons. Whereas Sony made a predominately 3D system using a SNES controller layout plus two extra shoulder buttons and thought that was going to be fine.

Games wise I think the library was very influential but it's been eclipsed by a lot of stuff that has come since. Unfortunately, the library is also pretty limited since they lost some major Japanese publishers who were effectively poached away by Sony and Nintendo's decision to stick with cartridges. Launching late also didn't do it any favors as Sony had been on the market for 12-18 months or more in most regions by the time the 64 hit.

I would probably rank it last but that still feels harsh. SNES > Switch > Wii > GC = Wii U > NES > N64 I think would be my ranking? I haven't played a lot of GC games but I really liked most of what I played on the Wii (this could also be recency bias). Part of what makes Nintendo system rankings hard is that they seem to follow a "tick-tock" model. The NES, N64, Wii were more experimental and focused on new concepts, while SNES, GC, and Switch/Wii U are refinements on their predecessor. So naturally the NES/N64/Wii are going to sift towards the bottoms of most rankings.

 

[Jonneh]

I wouldn't say that any games bar Sunshine and Wind Waker was rushed. Sunshine wasn't as good as 64 but i still enjoyed it more than any other 3D platformer since Mario 64 and mechanically it was the best 3D Mario up until Odyssey came around. Wind Waker was cut down heavily during development but i still had a much better time with it than i did with MM. Aside from that i don't think any of their first party efforts were "rushed"

On the other hand games like Smash and Mario Kart 64 felt like tech demos instead of fully fleshed out games. There was so little content there that i was gut punched when i discovered how little content there was for fully priced games.

Still tho i don't think any console has a worse output than the Wii U. Which was a safe retread of the Wii lineup but minus anything unique or ambitious with software droughts that rival the N64 days.

Click to shrink...

Melee was incredibly rushed. They only developed it for 13 months and while there's a ton of ambition there, half the characters feel under developed. Features cut from Smash 64 - like Final Smashes, wouldn't make it in until Brawl.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

I'm curious what console you would put as third worse after WiiU and N64 and why it's better than N64

Click to shrink...

Colour me intrigued as well.

N64 is a great console. I bought a modded one with RGB support. The different models were confusing and unnecessary, but it still is a great console because of its games catalogue.

 

[NuclearCake]

Melee was incredibly rushed

Click to shrink...

I guess. Not that it matters in the much, since the amount of content it offered and how it plays better than even it's two sequels (Intentional or not) makes the original Smash pretty much just a proof of concept and basically obsolete in comparison.

 

[Nickerous]

I agree. Very disappointed with the N64. I still have my system, but sold off all but a handful of games. Still probably never play them again on the original hardware. Might just get rid of the rest. My collection consists of the black system, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, a sealed Majora Mask, and one or two of the wrestling games.

 

[Tohsaka]

Gamecube is probably the worst for me. RPGs are my favorite genre, and while the N64 had hardly any of them it had plenty of other games I was interested in that you couldn't play elsewhere. I didn't really care for most of Nintendo's offerings in the GC era and I bought a lot of multiplats on PS2 since I got it first.

 

[BriGuy]

The N64 was disappointing coming from the SNES, but the Wii is the worst mainline system in my eyes. Unnecessary waggle controls ruined so many games, which universally looked like crap on an HDTV. And outside of a few Nintendo-made gems, there was almost nothing of value on the system. Just a sea of shovelware. I know the Wii sold like gangbusters, but high sales aren't a measure of quality.

 

[Nax]

Nah. It was my second console and I loved it. I remember playing Paper Mario for the first time on one of those hotel in-room consoles. Played for like 8 hours over the weekend. Then I knew I needed the console. Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Turok, etc all came afterwards. But were also great.

 

[NuclearCake]

Colour me intrigued as well.

N64 is a great console. I bought a modded one with RGB support. The different models were confusing and unnecessary, but it still is a great console because of its games catalogue.

Click to shrink...

I'm just going to quote my own response

If i were to rank the systems on enjoyment level and not count the Switch since it has not yet gotten a fair shake.

SNES
NES (Didn't own this one but since iv'e played most of it's games on other systems it's hard to deny the impact this thing had)
GameCube
Wii
N64
Wii U
/QUOTE]

Click to shrink...

It's probobaly the original Wii. I still love a ton of things about it but overall i'm torn about many things it did, including the controller. It was both a blessing and a curse for the system. Nintendo's first party output was technically more polished than they had ever had been but they were also mechanically much more simple and the games became way too hand holdy and linear for my liking. The lack of a second stick and a few buttons on the remote was restricting. Basically had the Wii remote been like the joycons, the games would have been much better. The lack of any digital output on the Wii was OK back in 2006 but it became nearly unbearable by the time 2010 rolled around. Still i did like many of the things it had to offer. I look back on it fondly, despite the missed potential.

 

[fourfourfun]

The N64 is pretty much season 4 of Buffy.

 

[MisterHero]

The N64 was EAD software and the rest of Nintendo in their absolute prime. So no.

Every Nintendo console has their strengths; first party quality and multiplayer were N64's. To be honest I can't think of any game console being the worst.