TheHande’s top 10 Nintendo 64 games

Posted 10 Jul 2014 by Squid

On the 6th of July, Hannu Mäkinen wrote a post listing his 10 top Nintendo 64 games. What caught my attention about this top 10 in particular was the unusual entries in the list. Without further adieu, let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

His top 10

Lylat Wars
Donkey Kong 64
Wave Race 64
Killer Instinct Gold
Mario Kart 64
International Superstar Soccer 64
Super Mario 64
Megaman 64
Zelda OOT & MM
Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Why I find it interesting

Most of the games on this top 10 list are what you’d typically find on any top 10 list – Mario, Zelda, Conker, Donkey Kong etc. I don’t blame him, those are some really great games and deserve to be put on any top 10. What caught my eye though was the few atypical entries in the list. Namely Megaman 64, ISS 64 and Wave Race 64.

Now, Wave Race 64 is pretty decent, so I won’t get into too much detail but I’d say that there are a few racing games that I’d think should be in front of it such as Diddy Kong Racing or F-Zero. I’d also toss Extreme G or Snowboard Kids in there, but that’s more of a personal preference and not what most people would agree with.

International Superstar Soccer 64? Really? He does mention that its mostly due to nostalgia, but even so it’s a stretch. This was the first game I owned for the N64 and even so I wouldn’t put it in a top 30. He even says that “Sports-related video-games […] don’t hold much appeal for [him]”, so there must be a pretty big nostalgia pull to put this where it is. I would say that ISS 64 is an average football game. Good, but it’s still just a sports game so I find it hard to understand why TheHande would include it.

Megaman 64 – now I must preface this by saying that I never played Megaman 64. It was never released in Europe so it’s a bit hard to get a hold of. I’ll probably include it in my next US game order. However most times I hear about it, it’s always saying that it’s mediocre at best, so I was very surprised to find it on this list. I guess it might be worth getting the game and giving it a good and honest look.

Conclusion

I really like this list – it contains most of what you’d expect along with a few surprises. Not only that, but the descriptions are presented from a very personal perspective. Too often, people create top 10 lists and try to present it as if it was an objective, definitive list that everyone should accept rather than discuss. I’m not sure if that was the intention, but that’s what I got out of it.

You can read the full post at theHande’s website.