Have I missed something important in my childhood?

[Noctosphere]

So yea, in my childhood, the only Nintendo console I never played with was the N64
I had like 3 NES at home
I played SNES everytime I was at aunt's
My sistra bought herself a Gamecube
My mom offered us a Wii at christmas
I bought my own Wii U and Switch

When I went at aunt's house (same aunt) I was also playing Gameboy pocket
At my birthday (idr which) I got a Gameboy Color
On NDS release, one of my friend gave me his Gameboy Advance
I later bough a used NDS XL
And I bought myself a brand new 3ds and later a brand new New3ds

And yet, in my childhood, and even as of today, I NEVER played any game of Nintendo 64
I've heard a lot about it, that a lot of games became classic on this console
Ocarina of time
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Kart (Ik it first got released on SNES, but I heard it became popular on N64)
Super Smash Bros
and so much more

So... I'm asking you
Have I really missed something during my childhood?

 

[Veho]

Yeah, getting a life, you nerd

 

[FAST6191]

The Zeldas have been remade/released plenty of times, starting with the gamecube. Have you missed it on those? That said if you have played any 3d home console Zelda, save perhaps Breath of the Wild, since then you have got the same experience really.

Anyway... I am going with no, especially if you have played the other later entries in the series (2d mario kart and handheld 2d zelda is a slightly different affair) or similar gameplay styles on devices around the time and since.
You will probably also struggle to go back today -- things have not aged well, will look quite bad and the framerates of a lot of things are crazy low. While such things could be fixed with fancy emulators and mods such things are somewhat thin on the ground. That said a lot of its quality titles have since been remade by devs with nice source code and what have you into far more acceptable versions -- if you want to do Rare games then prepare to find a Microsoft console with the relevant titles on it (you may have to suffer censored Conker).

To that end I will have to instead look at the games you have played. The N64 did nothing really unique at the time, did nothing of such astounding quality that was not sufficiently matched at the time or since, nothing the N64 did has since died fully* (it is not like space sims or adventure games which more or less dropped off the face of the earth despite once being all important) and nothing else that belongs in this sort of list.
It might alter your frame of reference but there will be many that skipped the N64 as well (it was a bit of a flop) so no great issue there, it is not like you experienced the 16 bit era by means of the Jaguar while skipping the SNES and Megadrive.

*some might argue 3d platformers died with it, and now are basically a Nintendo only affair.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Get goldeneye now.

 

[AmandaRose]

You have never played a n64 before then you don't deserve to be on this site. Pack your bags and leave by the nearest exit thank you. Lol

 

[Noctosphere]

You have never played a n64 before then you don't deserve to be on this site. Pack your bags and leave by the nearest exit thank you. Lol

 

[AmandaRose]

Bye Bye lol

 

[M7L7NK7]

What's worse is you had all these systems that could emulate it

 

[Noctosphere]

What's worse is you had all these systems that could emulate it

well, I did have a computer, windows 95 until like 2006, when my mother divorced
also, I had no internet at all until 2007, since we got our own appartment

So no, I couldn't emulate at all

 

[M7L7NK7]

Wii? Wii U?

 

[Noctosphere]

Wii? Wii U?

oh you mean emulating those console on wii/wii u?
Well, I did have Zelda OoT and MM on wii
But what I meant was playing with a physical N64

Actually, I've only seen N64 controller, never held one in my hand

 

[FAST6191]

Get goldeneye now.

Perfect Dark is a better game, and has a better version in the 360 XBLA remaster.

well, I did have a computer, windows 95 until like 2006, when my mother divorced
also, I had no internet at all until 2007, since we got our own appartment

So no, I couldn't emulate at all

My first tangle with emulation as I know it today was from CDs my friends and I would get from computer fayres so this would be late 90s. If you want to do the pirated games thing which is a direct feeder for that sort of thing then the Amiga, or of course the PC, back when the Amiga was still current -- for reasons I have never quite figured out all my C64, Amstrad, Vic20... stuff was legit.
You will have to try better than that.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Perfect Dark is a better game, and has a better version in the 360 XBLA remaster.

Not denying that, but he has never played Goldeneye at all and he needs to

 

[FAST6191]

Not denying that, but he has never played Goldeneye at all and he needs to

I am not sure it is one of those defining games a la 2d marios, tetris, or various classic arcade games.

Maybe it was at the time but today I am really not sure.

....

A portal thread idea emerges.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Yeah it may just be nostalgia goggles but it's like PD's father and easier to get into

 

[Flame]

 

[MockyLock]

Well, you may have missed some thing yeah.
I mean, even is you played them now, it would never feel like it would have been in its own age.
Though, it's always good to try to fill your gaps.
But please, PLEASE, if you ever want to feel the N64, play it real, not emulated.
Real hardware, real controller, that's the way to do it !

 

[FAST6191]

Well, you may have missed some thing yeah.
I mean, even is you played them now, it would never feel like it would have been in its own age.
Though, it's always good to try to fill your gaps.
But please, PLEASE, if you ever want to feel the N64, play it real, not emulated.
Real hardware, real controller, that's the way to do it !

What gaps would there be if you did SNES, GC, Wii and the handhelds?

While it might be interesting to suffer a N64 controller I am not sure I could suggest hardware in this case -- retextured, properly anti aliased (or at least not the blurry mess that later N64 video stages caused) and frame rate bumped is almost essential for the N64 for me today. Early 3d has aged so poorly and N64 probably worst of all among the mainstream 3d offerings.

 

[MockyLock]

Any gaps you would accept to consider in the N64 era.
we're not speaking about just play a game, but rather some kind of "experience". If he didn't play the N64 in its age, and would like to discover it anyway, so he should play it on real hardware.

And, i can't agree with you when you say that N64 3D aged worst of all.
Damn, play again a bit of PS1, have a look back to Saturn (still 3D models speaking). Then play once again Turok 2, or Conker BFD, or Majora's Mask. Still can say it aged worst ?

 

[FAST6191]

Yeah. PS1 3d mostly played to its strengths and accepted its weaknesses. Not played too much Saturn other than Bomberman in recent years, though as its 3d was always and afterthought I am not expecting greatness. N64 3d pushed it further than might be good if long term appeal was a design criteria. No 3d from that era escaped unscathed (compared to 2d from then and the 16 bit era which is generally considered about as good as it gets -- all modern software stuff does over and above is mostly particle effects) and you certainly have to adjust expectations but I still rate the N64 as lowest in the mainstream 3d as it stands playing things today when all is said and done. Rare's efforts and Majora's were among some of the best playing to the N64's limitations and have aged the best (give or take Perfect Dark's framerates) but still troublesome for me. As for Turok 2... I scanned some gameplay footage just now. Some nice design I guess but nothing to write home about.

Might even go one further. I would say it is worse as a lay student of game design/history to have not played the first medal of honor than it is to have not played goldeneye.

 

[Noctosphere]

hell yea, I remember that PSX boot intro
Everytime I turned my PSX on, I was very impatient to play
I was like, COME ON!!! GO FASTER!!!

 

[MockyLock]

Yeah. PS1 3d mostly played to its strengths and accepted its weaknesses. Not played too much Saturn other than Bomberman in recent years, though as its 3d was always and afterthought I am not expecting greatness. N64 3d pushed it further than might be good if long term appeal was a design criteria. No 3d from that era escaped unscathed (compared to 2d from then and the 16 bit era which is generally considered about as good as it gets -- all modern software stuff does over and above is mostly particle effects) and you certainly have to adjust expectations but I still rate the N64 as lowest in the mainstream 3d as it stands playing things today when all is said and done. Rare's efforts and Majora's were among some of the best playing to the N64's limitations and have aged the best (give or take Perfect Dark's framerates) but still troublesome for me. As for Turok 2... I scanned some gameplay footage just now. Some nice design I guess but nothing to write home about.

Might even go one further. I would say it is worse as a lay student of game design/history to have not played the first medal of honor than it is to have not played goldeneye.

He he, interesting to speak with people knowing their stuff We do not really agree but good discussion. To close the off-topic chapter, i would say that, following your idea about MoH, i would say that for history, he should play Doom (if not already). Didn't FPS use to be called "Doom-like" years ago ? well, decades ago ?

Back to topic, Noctosphere, play N64 with at least an N64 controller to feel the beast ; and make your own idea

 

[x65943]

hell yea, I remember that PSX boot intro
Everytime I turned my PSX on, I was very impatient to play
I was like, COME ON!!! GO FASTER!!!

I have to say, I have never seen 9 dupe posts before right now

They all have different time stamps which makes it look like it was on purpose tho

 

[Noctosphere]

I have to say, I have never seen 9 dupe posts before right now

They all have different time stamps which makes it look like it was on purpose tho

no no no it wasnt
Actually, I clicked on post reply
nothing appeared, so I refreshed the page, and my whole message was still in the replying box
So I clicked post reply, again and again
Nothing appeared
So I waited few minutes and then tryed again, it worked, but too much...

 

[DinohScene]

GG on making me laptop slow.

 

[Noctosphere]

He he, interesting to speak with people knowing their stuff We do not really agree but good discussion. To close the off-topic chapter, i would say that, following your idea about MoH, i would say that for history, he should play Doom (if not already). Didn't FPS use to be called "Doom-like" years ago ? well, decades ago ?

Back to topic, Noctosphere, play N64 with at least an N64 controller to feel the beast ; and make your own idea

Well, if I heard right, you needed a third hand to play with this shit, right?
^^

 

[grey72]

Unpopular opinion here, a good chunk of what makes n64 'the best console Eva!1!' is nostalgia. Mario 64 is frustrating as shit to play. The controls are GARBAGE. And I know, it's a 20 year old game, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't look bland. It may have changed gaming but I don't think it's aged well. From what I can gather by playing the first 15 minutes of it, goldeneye is worse. Zelda is all right, but the 3da remake is unquestionably better in every way other than maybe controller. F-Zero X was good, but GX on the gamecube was LEGENDARY. The one unarguably great game on it is Paper Mario. It is AMAZING. The plot maybe cliche but it did so much right.

So, n64 may have been great for the time , that doesn't mean it's still great today and you should go out of your way to play it instead of something more recent.