INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
incredible ideas which would evolve to become mainstays of modern gaming
Some of the greatest gaming adventures of all time, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Banjo-Kazooie, flourished on what was in
its day an incredibly powerful console.The commitment to 3D gaming and to (usually, at least) colorful, impactful characters and game worlds
Nonetheless, Ocarina of Time was well worth waiting for
This long, packed adventure game translated everything great about the 2D Zelda games into 3D, including the dungeons, tools, the series'
iconography and the sense of scale in its world
It's hard to imagine modern open world games even looking the same without those first moments stepping out onto Hyrule Field
Heck, the daddy of 3D gaming, full stop
the portly plumber, but of games as a whole
options, which had been notoriously troublesome to nail in the early days of 3D gaming
Packed with interesting things to do and secrets to unearth, it has that Nintendo magic touch, in that every task it sets you is enjoyable
Mario Odyssey.GoldenEye 007Released almost two years after the Pierce Brosnan Bond movie it was based on hit cinemas, GoldenEye popularized
first-person shooter games on consoles, particularly with its local multiplayer competitive mode
Its singleplayer campaign, which sometimes adapts just a few seconds of the film into dense levels packed with secrets, was fantastic
But it was the multiplayer that made the N64 the centerpiece of any gathering of friends
So much about this game entered the popular vernacular
single game back in the late '90s
The original Smash Bros is an incredibly light affair compared to later offerings in its selection of fighters and levels, and good god
in the ring was turned by THQ into a chunky brawler in WWF Wrestlemania 2000
Remaining one of the best wrestling games ever, it was slightly slower than the likes of WWF Attitude, focusing on light and heavy grapples
that would become battles to pull off moves and counter attacks
and all, as WWF Wrestlemania 2000
Its follow up, No Mercy, is also well worth a look.Mario Kart 64In retrospect, it may be one of the weaker Mario Kart games
A lengthy, challenging campaign that puts you in control of a fleet of classic Star Wars ships, it had some great unlockable secrets and a
fantastic medals system that made for high replayability.Donkey Kong 64One of the few Nintendo 64 games to require the RAM-injecting
expansion pack add-on, Donkey Kong 64 was the zenith of the late-'90s obsession with platforming collectathons (arguably to the point of
Putting everything it had learnt on the console thus far into one giant simian-themed adventure, it gave you expansive levels to explore,
five different Kongs to control (each with their own unique skill sets) and even a reasonably well-executed multiplayer shooter mode
collect-all-the-things gameplay model.Perfect DarkThe Bond license escaped Nintendo after GoldenEye, leading to the dreadful Tomorrow Never
Rare instead decided to make a spiritual successor called Perfect Dark, which had an entirely different fictional setting, and a lot more
Another important, influential addition to Perfect Dark was the option to add AI bots to multiplayer, giving you the option to play this
turning, gravity-defying roller coasters
It is, essentially, an on-rails first person shooter, except your AK is swapped out for a Polaroid, and your enemies are little cute
MarioMario is no stranger to jumping into different genres, but it was irregular to see him in an RPG during the N64 era
But the series made good use of the console's ability to support four controllers, getting players to compete at a whole slew of minigames
to see who was the best or the fastest
Those N64 controllers took a lot of damage during more intense multiplayer showdowns, and these days the series has little credibility
good thing to come out of The Phantom Menace other than Duel of the Fates, Episode I: Racer is basically an easier version of WipEout set on
Tatooine gets well-represented, of course, with both a training track and the Boonta Eve race seen in the movies
But it's being able to customize your racer that makes journeying through this game such a treat
worn a pair of Vans and scrapped a knee while listening to The Offspring
dark attitude all of its own
A cult classic.Star Fox 64/Lylat WarsThis third-person arcade shooter is still the best of the Star Fox games
It's essentially Star Wars with talking animals, and with multiple paths across the game, you have to replay it a bunch of times to see
Levels vary from Death Star-style space stations to lava-spitting fire planets, and it's easy to finish a run in a single sitting
The 3DS offers the best version of Star Fox 64, but no N64 collection is complete without it.Blast CorpsA bizarre puzzle-action game that
saw developer Rare at perhaps its most inventive, Blast Corps saw you take on the role of a wrecking crew that has to carve a path for an
explosives-laden truck to pass through
Using a menagerie of vehicles and robots, this would see you levelling cities and towns, crashing mechs and digger trucks into buildings, to
Yes, it was essentially another (ace) 3D platforming collect-a-thon in the same mould as Banjo-Kazooie, but Conker was so ridiculously crude
that it came with a warning on the box
He may have looked cute, but Conker was a randy badass
Come for the poop jokes, stay for the solid platforming action.
