Ah, not a fan of the N64. That makes sense. That's understandable, especially if you were coming from a different console like PS1, which I didn't back then. So I didn't miss things like CD quality music, the PS1 controller, diverse selection of games, etc. In that day, I didn't end up getting a ton of games because we just couldn't afford to, so I didn't notice the lack of quantity on the N64, but I did play the heck out of the games I had.
I think many of your criticisms to Mario 64 can be applied to all early games of the genre. Although, Mario 64 did come before Crash or Spyro, so there was more time to refine those. Pretty much every early 3D exploration based game I can think of in 1995 - 1998 had camera issues for sure. I've never played an early 3D platformer that didn't. I can think of several places in Mario 64 where the camera didn't help matters, but never thought that it ruined the game. Level design was rudimentary yes, as with other games. Tomb Raider is another favorite of mine, but the first game sure feels like you're stranded on the moon with a bad camera guy. That's just how it was back then. But I felt Mario 64 had life in it's environment - in the Bob-omb Battlefield you had the Chomp dog hopping around on the leash, the bob-ombs dancing around, Goombas aimlessly shuffling around, canon balls rolling down a mountain side, canon launchers you could use to blast yourself anywhere, and even wings to just fly. It's hard to expect much more from the experience at that time, especially when there wasn't much of any precedent for that type of game. The soundtrack, chiptune or not, I thought sounded good. Some of my favorite Mario tunes, they're so catchy!
If you come off of Spyro and other PS1 games and play N64 I can see how you might not be so impressed. It is what it is, and I think we all have a slight bias towards whatever it is we had or experienced first. I know I had my criticisms of PS1 when I first adopted it, like load times, pop-in, jagged polygons, though in hindsight it was really nothing to complain about.
Yeah, it's just preference and where I was coming from. I picked up the N64 in '98. At that time, I had already played many of the games I mentioned earlier. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon were already out as was Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Metal Gear Solid by the time I bought the N64. The polygon models on the N64 weren't as jagged as the PS1, but the textures were blurry instead of grainy. Lol.
I was always a huge, huge fan of the NES and SNES and the games available on those systems. Both from Nintendo and from 3rd parties. The PlayStation-aside from the lack of the Nintendo-made titles, was the natural progression to me. All of the big 3rd party developers who's games I loved on the NES and SNES kept making great games....just on PlayStation now.
So from my POV, all the 3rd party games moved to PlayStation and the continuation of beloved series like Mario and Zelda took a direction that I didn't care for on the N64. To add fuel to the fire, as an avid comic book reader I
hated the Turok reboot by Valiant and the N64 game just shoved it in my face. Then you have Pierce Brosnan's mug on the cover for GoldenEye 007 who I thought was one of the worst Bond's to disgrace the silver screen. LOL...I guess me & the N64 were destined to be enemies.
I had high hopes with Gamecube and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Bought it at launch and loved Rogue Leader, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros., etc. But then Nintendo sold Rare off, 3rd party support quickly dried up (with a few notable exceptions) and what games were left that were multiplatform were usually lower quality than the PS2 or Xbox because of the limited storage space on those dinky little discs.
But...I'm an optimist and when the Wii rolled out, I bought it within a few weeks of launch despite my less than stellar experiences with the N64 and Gamecube. And I hated it. The games were all hindered by forced motion controls that never felt natural to me and for me, made controlling the games more difficult. Mario Galaxy was a preorder, day-1 pickup for me complete with bonus commemorative gold coin. But I found the game tedious and hated rocketing from planetoid to planetoid. Again like Mario 64-the core elements that made Mario games so fun to me were missing. A few shining stars like Donkey Kong Country and New Super Mario Bros. Wii (among others) were the system's only saving grace to me. I absolutely hated Nintendo's newfound focus on the casual crowd and rolled my eyes every time I saw some grandma's bowling with Wii Sports.
Enter the Wii U. I resisted for awhile, but broke down and bought the Wind Waker limited edition system. I was pissed that I got a download code, even for the Zelda book. For me, packaging a download code in lieu of a physical game is a cop out and only saves the manufacturer a buck. But...ok. Got some good 1st party stuff, but after an initial batch of 3rd party games, they dried up. Releases have been a trickle at best and even Nintendo-published games like Bayonetta 2, Devil's Third and Fatal Frame seem to be shunned by Nintendo like they are ashamed of them. Now Nintendo seems to be pretty much giving up on the Wii U in favor of the NX, their next system rumored to be weak sauce compared to the PS4 and Xbone and their
completely bone-headed handling of the Amiibo situation.
Sorry to go on so long, but I just want you to understand where I am coming from. And...I'm at work and bored.