Why do people hate on the N64?

[bikingjahuty]

People hate on the n64.

I understand that the N64 was a huge departure from the NES and SNES, both graphically and content-wise, but the widespread hate the N64 gets is very undeserved imo. It gave us some of the best games ever made, and many other games that are insanely good. Sure it lacked in the RPG department, the "64" naming gimmick was a bit overkill, but come on, it was an amazing system!

[soera]

People hate on the n64.

I understand that the N64 was a huge departure from the NES and SNES, both graphically and content-wise, but the widespread hate the N64 gets is very undeserved imo. It gave us some of the best games ever made, and many other games that are insanely good. Sure it lacked in the RPG department, the "64" naming gimmick was a bit overkill, but come on, it was an amazing system!

I disagree. The hate on the N64 is very deserved. Its a library of just under 300 games where almost 50% of them are based on sports or racing. It absolutely lacked in the RPG department where literally nothing on there can be counted as an RPG. And lets not even start on the upside down trident that is the controller. There was not anything redeeming about the system. I cant name 5 games on that system that are "insanely good" much less "best games ever made".

[bikingjahuty]

People hate on the n64.

I understand that the N64 was a huge departure from the NES and SNES, both graphically and content-wise, but the widespread hate the N64 gets is very undeserved imo. It gave us some of the best games ever made, and many other games that are insanely good. Sure it lacked in the RPG department, the "64" naming gimmick was a bit overkill, but come on, it was an amazing system!

I disagree. The hate on the N64 is very deserved. Its a library of just under 300 games where almost 50% of them are based on sports or racing. It absolutely lacked in the RPG department where literally nothing on there can be counted as an RPG. And lets not even start on the upside down trident that is the controller. There was not anything redeeming about the system. I cant name 5 games on that system that are "insanely good" much less "best games ever made".

So a console automatically sucks because it has a relatively small library? The Dreamcast and TG16 have pretty small libraries, but both are incredible consoles, as is the N64.


Preference to genre boils down to personal taste; I personally love racing games, as do many other people who enjoy the N64's library. They certainly are not all created equally, but many of the racing games, especially the ones published by midway are pretty fun. I'm not a fan of most sports games, but can still enjoy a huge chunk of the library without touching one.


Yes, the N64 was not for you if you are an RPG fan. Ogre Battle 64, Harvest Moon 64, Paper Mario were definitely the most pure RPG experiences on the console.


The controller if not bad; I feel like it is often the one of the first things people go after when they are looking for something to hate about the console because they don't have anything better to argue about when saying the N64 sucks. It's never been uncomfortable for me, i've never had an issue with the button layout (with the exception of the DPAD), and while aesthetically odd, it's never bothered me.


Some of the Best games of all time:
LOZ: Ocarina of Time
LOZ: Majora's Mask
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Goldeneye 007
Perfect Dark
Super Smash Bros


Some Insanely Good games:
1080 Snowboarding
Banjo Kazooie
Banjo Tooie
Beetle Adventure Racing
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Diddy Kong Racing
Donkey Kong 64
Doom 64
Xtreme G
FZERO X
Harvest Moon 64
Killer Instinct Gold
Kirby 64
Mario Golf
Mario Tennis
Mega Man 64
Mystical nINJA
NFL Blitz
Ogre Battle 64
Paper Mario
Pilotwings 64
Pokemon Stadium 2
Snowboard Kids
Star Fox 64
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire
Turok
Turok 2
Wave Race 64
Yoshi Story


And then there are easily 40+ other games that are very good as well.

There was not anything redeeming about the system.

You obviously don't like the N64, which is fine, but saying there is nothing redeeming about the N64 is just a bit intellectually dishonest. I feel like a lot of people who grew up with the NES and/or SNES were not huge fans of the N64 because of how different it was, but millions, including me, thought it was an incredible console through and through.

[jcalder8]

People hate on the n64.

I understand that the N64 was a huge departure from the NES and SNES, both graphically and content-wise, but the widespread hate the N64 gets is very undeserved imo. It gave us some of the best games ever made, and many other games that are insanely good. Sure it lacked in the RPG department, the "64" naming gimmick was a bit overkill, but come on, it was an amazing system!

I disagree. The hate on the N64 is very deserved. Its a library of just under 300 games where almost 50% of them are based on sports or racing. It absolutely lacked in the RPG department where literally nothing on there can be counted as an RPG. And lets not even start on the upside down trident that is the controller. There was not anything redeeming about the system. I cant name 5 games on that system that are "insanely good" much less "best games ever made".

I think the amount of hate that it gets is too high. It made a number of great games at the time, although most haven't aged well. I think it has become the ET of consoles, there are worse ones out there but people just like to hate on it.

[soera]

I split the topic to keep it out of the collection goals.

As far as this goes, Im going to agree to disagree. And I never said anything about a small library being the reason a system sucks. SMS is one of my top favorite consoles and it barely breaks the 100 title count. Its about the quality of the library. When 50% of it is sports and racing games, that definitely doesnt equal quality.

[burningdoom]

The N64 is the least liked console in my collection, except for my Atari 2600 which I recently sold.

It just doesn't have a very good library of games. I like platformers, but N64's platformer-rich library seems to consist of cuticized and kiddied-down platformers that are just too juvenile for my tastes. There's like no RPGs or shoot-em ups either, which are two of my favorite genres. (I do have Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth on my wishlist, the only shoot-em up I know of on the N64).

There are games I would enjoy, however. Like the FPSes or cockpit-view shooters, IF it wasn't for the complete piece of crap controller. That thing is the most awkward, unwieldy controller I've ever held. And to make matters worse, the thumbstick is so incredibly sensitive to a fault. Heaven forbid you have to replace an N64 controller, either. Because you'll search the depths of the Earth before finding one with a thumbstick that isn't loose (unless you settle for a cheap third-party reproduction). It's FAR MORE than people just "looking for a reason to hate on it". It's quite a legitimate complaint.

[bikingjahuty]

I split the topic to keep it out of the collection goals.

As far as this goes, Im going to agree to disagree. And I never said anything about a small library being the reason a system sucks. SMS is one of my top favorite consoles and it barely breaks the 100 title count. Its about the quality of the library. When 50% of it is sports and racing games, that definitely doesnt equal quality.

Except when you're a fan of racing and/or sports games. Most of which were well received at the time the N64 was being supported, and are still enjoyed to this day. Racing games, like any genre have a to of variation in the genre itself. There are many different flavors of arcade racers, sim racers, cart racers, ext. Mario and Sonic are pretty different games despite both being 2D platformers, as are Arcade Racers like Rush and Cruisin World.Even sports titles on the N64 are still enjoyed and are part of the systems quality library. I'm not going to defend the annual EA sports installments, but there are many wrestling, football, soccer, and hockey games on the console that are still a blast to this day. Let's not forget the Mario Sports games either.


And again, taking out all the sport and racing games, you still have a large amount of quality titles that make the N64 a very impressive and fun system to own. Not for everyone, but certainly one of the best consoles ever made, imo at least.

[Oheao]

I personally love the N64 (my 3rd favourite console after the PS2 and PS1), and even though there were only 392 games released for it (402 if you include the DD games), I feel that many of them were of high quality. Of course when you compare the number of releases with the PS1 it is absolutely dominated, but the N64 doesn't have to be better to be great.

[bloodybaron]

I'm really confused about this topic, maybe I just don't get out enough, but this thread is pretty much the first time I've ever heard anybody say they didn't like the N64.  The game library is lacking in number and quality games, but like someone else said, the games that are good like both zeldas and the mario games are considered some of the best of all time with many others from the system included.  As for the controller its just different I don't see the big deal.  I do pc and console gaming and theres always a learning curve for pc games because you always need to play differently depending on how the keys are mapped out, but you adjust.  You also complain that half the games are racing and sports games, but I'd like to point out that if you look at anything past super nintendo and you take all the racing, sports, and shooters you've taken over half of any and all game libraries.  And yeah if you're looking for an rpg N64 isn't your system, so go with playstation, but if you like platformers then nothing compares to N64 once your past super nintendo.  Also yeah they are cutesy and gimmicky because sorry to bring the bearer of bad news, but video games were made for children mostly.  Even most of the RPG's you probably love are rated either E or T so it's hard to complain about the lack of adult content when they really aren't trying to sell games to us because were the minority gamers, most are probably 18 and below and anyone that games after that plays sports and shooters which is why that's all the make.

[bikingjahuty]

I'm really confused about this topic, maybe I just don't get out enough, but this thread is pretty much the first time I've ever heard anybody say they didn't like the N64.  The game library is lacking in number and quality games, but like someone else said, the games that are good like both zeldas and the mario games are considered some of the best of all time with many others from the system included.  As for the controller its just different I don't see the big deal.  I do pc and console gaming and theres always a learning curve for pc games because you always need to play differently depending on how the keys are mapped out, but you adjust.  You also complain that half the games are racing and sports games, but I'd like to point out that if you look at anything past super nintendo and you take all the racing, sports, and shooters you've taken over half of any and all game libraries.  And yeah if you're looking for an rpg N64 isn't your system, so go with playstation, but if you like platformers then nothing compares to N64 once your past super nintendo.  Also yeah they are cutesy and gimmicky because sorry to bring the bearer of bad news, but video games were made for children mostly.  Even most of the RPG's you probably love are rated either E or T so it's hard to complain about the lack of adult content when they really aren't trying to sell games to us because were the minority gamers, most are probably 18 and below and anyone that games after that plays sports and shooters which is why that's all the make.

I find that the biggest critics of the n64 are those that grew up with the NES and/or SNES. There was a lot of expectations placed upon the n64 to be the true successor to these two consoles, and the combination of everything going 3D and the lack of certain genres really turned this crowd off. My first Ninendo console was a SNES, however my Genesis was my goto console during that Gen so I didn't play it that much. When I got an N64 when they first came out it blew my mind. A big part of why I embraced the N64 was probably because my experience with Nintendo consoles prior was a lot more limited and I had fewer expectations than those who lived through the NES glory days.

[badATchaos]

Eh. People 'hate on' everything though. Who cares if some people dislike the N64.

[burningdoom]

When you have the PS1 in comparison, then the lacking game-library just shows that much more. PS1 covered all the bases: Platformers, RPGs. shoot-em-ups, racers, sports, puzzle games, kids games, horror games, you name it. With the N64, you really had to be a big Nintendo or Platformer fan to really appreciate it. And as I pointed out in my first post, those platformers were aimed entirely at the kiddies, at that.

[badATchaos]

The smoking gun was it's processor. The 64-bit system was just too hard for most developers to program. Coupled with limited storage and expensive cartridges it's a no brainer way there's less games on the Nintendo 64.

[foxhack]

A horrible pad, a horrible video chip that blurred everything to hell, and Nintendo's dumb decision to stick to carts instead of moving to optical media (which limited what devs could do with the system - and raised game prices a lot) are the reasons I hate the system.

But mostly the pad.

[dreama1]

I think it's deserved. It simply didn't have "enough" games with lasting appeal (as it seems most of the games were built around the whole splitscreen aspect), nor the rom space for the big games of that generation. They were lucky to even get resident evil 2 running. (FF7 is twice the size of RE2) Even the big one, zelda has been made inferior by the newer titles in the series. Nostalgia is misleading sometimes.

If you thought 3rd party support on the sega saturn was bad it's even worse on the N64 which is pretty damn imbarrasing saying they had the biggest 3rd party support around 1-2 years before it launched. No Rare games on the N64 then the console doesn't even exist, if that was the case the atari jaguar would of been a better choice than a N64.