The Nintendo 64 was launched in 1996 and became known as the home of many excellent games from Nintendo itself and partnered studios. However, compared to later gaming systems, the N64 didn't have as long of a lifespan.

While the Nintendo 64 catalog is overall strong, a reason for this was the console's limited third-party lineup specifically. This is attributed to the limited storage space in the Nintendo 64's cartridges, which left little room for high-budget games on the system. That being said, there are still third-party titles on the Nintendo 64, and many of them are held in high regard.

10 Doom 64 Is Not a Doom Port

Release Date - April 4, 1997

  • GameRankings score: 73% (Metacritic N/A)
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Doom is one of the most influential video games of all time. The game would find its way to various home computers and video game consoles. Doom 64 is not one of those ports, rather, it's a whole game on its own. Doom 64 itself would eventually be ported to other video game systems, including the Nintendo 64's descendant, the Nintendo Switch.

Doom 64 follows the events of Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth and Final Doom. The Doomguy is inadvertently lured back to Hell after being sent into a quarantined area that has become radioactive. From its frantic gunplay and enemy variety, Doom 64 plays well on the Nintendo 64. It has a fittingly gloomy tone and the soundtrack does well convey the game's hardcore atmosphere.

9 Body Harvest Is Grand Theft Auto but in Space

Release Date - Oct. 20, 1998

A soldier gets ready to attack the aliens in the Nintendo 64's Body Harvest.
  • Metacritic score: 73/100

Initially intended as a second-party launch title for the Nintendo 64, Body Harvest would be released two years later instead. Body Harvest was developed by DMA Design, who would later become Rockstar North, the developers of Grand Theft Auto. Body Harvest can be seen as something of a spiritual predecessor to the Grand Theft Auto games with its morbid humor.

Body Harvest takes place in the futuristic year of 2016. Adam Drake is a near-victim of the latest alien invasion that is consuming human life on Earth. Body Harvest is an entertaining and well-designed third-person action game. Thanks to its creative level design and good controls, the game gives players many hours' worth of content.

8 Castlevania Is a 3D Thriller

Release Date - Jan. 26, 1999

The player character running toward a giant skeleton in Castlevania 64.
  • Metacritic score: 78/100

Castlevania on Nintendo 64 is a third-dimensional leap for the mainstay horror franchise. This leap somehow made Castlevania even creepier than ever. It's not the best controlling game, nor is it as hard as other Castlevania games, but it still has solid platforming elements. It incorporates the survival horror elements of its contemporaries like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, although much of the violence of those two games has been toned down here considerably.

Castlevania stars either Carrie Fernandez or Reinhardt Schnieder as they both work to stop Count Dracula from awakening from his death. Carrie and Reinhardt utilize different weapons; Carrie uses energetic projectiles while Reinhardt uses a whip. It does not utilize the Metroidvania elements of the 2D Castlevania games, but that doesn't mean there is nothing to explore around Dracula's castle.

7 Wipeout 64 Is A Thrilling Racer

Release Date - Nov. 4, 1998

Wipeout 64 gameplay featuring a vehicle in the middle of a race.
  • Metacritic score: 84/100
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Wipeout 64 is a racing game that was developed by Nintendo's usual second-party developer, Rare. It's part of the Wipeout series usually developed by Psygnosis for Sony's PlayStation. Many of Rare's games were self-published on the Nintendo 64 due to increasingly mature themes that Nintendo was uncomfortable with promoting themselves.

Wipeout 64 is set a year after its predecessor, Wipeout 2097. Unlike most Nintendo 64 games, Wipeout 64 makes good use of the analog stick on the controller. This allowed new features to be added to Wipeout 64, which would become standard in later installments. This included an early version of the Eliminator mode that future Wipeout games would have. Wipeout 64 is a standout racing game thanks to its intuitive use of the N64 controller and fast-paced gameplay, especially since it's better known as a PlayStation staple.

6 Jet Force Gemini Is a Rare Arcade Shooter

Release Date - Oct. 11, 1999

The main characters from Jet Force Gemini.
  • Metacritic score: 80/100

Jet Force Gemini is an arcade-style shooter game developed and self-published by Rare. Arcade-style is the best way to describe the game, as Rare derived inspiration for this 3D shoot-em-up from the 2D arcade games of old, along with an assortment of pre-Nintendo 64 titles. Playing the game in multiplayer allows for a deathmatch tournament between four players, adding to the game's replayability.

Jet Force Gemini demonstrates the Nintendo 64's graphical capabilities immensely, with scenes and characters being incredibly detailed and stylized. Jet Force Gemini's single-player campaign involves the adventures of the titular vigilante law enforcement group. They are battling against an insect monster named Mizar, who is holding natives on a faraway planet hostage. It's up to Jet Force Gemini, run by twin siblings Juno and Vela, to stop Mizar's reign of terror.

5 Space Station Silicon Valley Is Super Silly Fun

Release Date - Oct. 22, 1998

  • Metacritic score: 83/100

Space Station Silicon Valley was released just two days after Body Harvest, another DMA Design game for the Nintendo 64. It's a delightfully quirky game that features toy-like graphics one would expect. Space Station Silicon Valley sees inventor Dan Danger and his robot companion Evo set out to halt an invasion of cyborg animals, but not before Evo gets broken into pieces.

Thankfully, Evo is not dead, and he can control certain animals, each with different ability sets to traverse levels and overcome obstacles. It's a creative way to shake up the game's mechanics, keeping the gameplay loop consistently interesting with each character. Backed by some inspired level designs, Station Silicon Valley is one of the N64's most unique platformers.

spacestation-silicon-valley-cover.jpg
Space Station Silicon Valley
Platformer
Platform(s)
Game Boy Color , Nintendo 64
Released
October 1, 1998
Developer
DMA Design
Publisher(s)
Take-Two Interactive
How Long To Beat
20 Hours

4 Diddy Kong Racing Is a Racing Game With a Plot

Release Date - Nov. 21, 1997

Diddy Kong Racing gameplay with various characters competing against each other.
  • Metacritic score: 88/100
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Anyone familiar with the Donkey Kong franchise may find it odd that Diddy Kong Racing is not a first-party N64 title, but a Rare self-published third-party game. More fascinating is that Diddy Kong Racing goes out of its way to be a racing game with a plot. In short, Diddy Kong and his friends are all teaming up to fight and defeat a wizard pig named Wizpig.

Rare's titles are known for producing equal parts charming and creative games, and Diddy Kong Racing is bursting with personality from its visual presentation, endearing characters, and fun kart-racing mechanics. Its repetitive tracks were the only downside, but the responsive controls kept the gameplay consistently engaging and more than just a Mario Kart clone.

3 Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Changed First-Person Shooters Forever

Release Date - March 4, 1997

Turok aims his gun at a dinosaur while it attacks in first-person gameplay in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
  • Metacritic score: 85/100

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter came out for the Nintendo 64 months before GoldenEye 007. Like the latter, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a Nintendo 64 that helped to change the first-person shooter genre forever. It had a sophisticated plot for any mainstream FPS game at the time, involving a young time traveler named Turok. He is tasked with ensuring peace between the earthly realm and the Lost Land. The latter hosts multiple forms of life, from the scariest of dinosaurs to hostile aliens.

What made Turok: Dinosaur Hunter different from other first-person shooters of its day was the implementation of a simple heads-up display in the bottom left corner of the screen. This is a convenient way of monitoring the health and armor of the player character. The game controls well with the Nintendo 64's controller, with the analog stick almost mirroring that of a mouse to make combat compelling.

2 Perfect Dark Is a Perfectly Capable FPS

Release Date - May 22, 2000

Four-person multiplayer split-screen in Perfect Dark HD.
  • Metacritic score: 97/100

Perfect Dark is arguably the most advanced first-person shooter on the Nintendo 64. It's so complex that it requires a Nintendo 64 expansion module to access most of the game, including its single-player campaign mode. Set in 2023, Perfect Dark stars Joanna "Perfect" Dark, a secret agent from a spy agency involved in corporate espionage. She is initially tasked with locating and rescuing a robot doctor but is eventually involved in activities beyond all terrestrial control.

Given how big of a game Perfect Dark is, it's no secret that the single-player campaign would be long. Also notable is the incredible multiplayer deathmatch mode that allows up to four-player futuristic action. Thanks so its smooth gunplay mechanics across all game modes, it's almost like Perfect Dark was just designed by Rare to be future-proof.

1 Conker’s Bad Fur Day Is Entertaining Chaos

Release Date - March 5, 2001

  • Metacritic score: 92/100
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Nintendo's refusal to promote Conker's Bad Fur Day is a testament to the game's audaciousness. Rare was left to fend for itself on Conker's Bad Fur Day, which included publishing the game themselves. There's an opera-singing pile of feces as a boss, a Nazi-like group of enemy teddy bears, and even a machine controlled by demons with what appears to be a metal scrotum.

With all this chaos, it's easy to forget that Conker's Bad Fur Day is an accessible game mechanically, thanks to the abundance of context-sensitive buttons that allow Conker to do certain functions at a given time. It's the best third-party Nintendo 64 game thanks to how unapologetically raunchy it is in its use of tried-and-true platforming mechanics. While the raunchiness is certainly part of the appeal, Conker's Bad Fur Day's graphics, platforming, and well-paced and well-designed levels are genuinely impressive.