10 Best Nintendo 64 Games, Ranked

In 1996, the Nintendo 64 found its way to store shelves, delivering powerful 64-bit processing to gamers with one of the company’s best launch titles. Nintendo continued to release high-quality games on the N64 for several years, amassing a library of nearly 400 licensed titles on the console. While there were some duds, the system had a sizable number of excellent titles. Many were from pre-existing franchises, while others launched brand new IPs. We’ve combed through them all and found the top ten games on the N64, though we limited our selections to only one entry per franchise.

10) Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Rare developed and released Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the N64 in 2001, and while it wasn’t a financial success, it has endured as a cult classic. The game was designed for adults and features toilet humor, profanity, heavy drinking, and more, earning an M rating. This is partly why it didn’t sell well, as it wasn’t advertised as much as the N64’s more successful games. As a result, many who didn’t know of it in the early 2000s have since discovered and enjoyed Conker’s Bad Fur Day. It’s a fun platformer filled with puzzles and the usual fare. It boasts a hilarious story, an over-the-top central character, and a great theme, which fans absolutely love.

9) Mario Golf

Mario has been featured in tons of sports games over the years, including NES Open Tournament Golf, but 1999’s Mario Golf on the N64 is the first time his name has headlined one. This is one of those games people enjoy playing, whether they like real-world golf or not, thanks to its excellent controls, simplified gameplay, and numerous options. It features Mario-related characters and different modes of play, including mini golf. There were many sports games released on the console over the years, but most have nothing but fond memories of Mario Golf, making it a standout title.

8) Star Fox 64

Star Fox 64 is the second title in the franchise and a reboot of the SNES game released four years earlier. Thanks to the N64’s hardware capabilities, the game improves on the flight mechanics and the rendering of its 3D environment over its predecessor. It’s the best-selling game in the Star Fox franchise, and it’s also the first title on the N64 to take advantage of the Rumble Pak, which significantly contributes to gameplay. Many consider Star Fox 64 to be one of the best games in the genre, and it’s often cited as the best in the franchise, which continues to this day.

7) Paper Mario

The Paper Mario franchise launched on the N64 in 2000, elevating Mario games into new territory, as it’s a mashup of RPG and platform mechanics in one. It’s unlike previous Mario games in that it features 2D characters in a 3D environment, mimicking traditional cel animation to give them a familiar yet distinctive design. Paper Mario received widespread critical acclaim upon release, earning praise for its innovative approach to role-playing games, and it spawned a franchise that remains ongoing to this day, including a 2024 remake of its sequel, The Thousand-Year Door, on Nintendo Switch.

6) Star Wars Episode I: Racer

While most movie tie-in games are usually utter trash, the N64 had some good ones, including its best-selling sports title, Star Wars Episode I: Racer. The game was released in 1999 alongside Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and is entirely focused on the podracing scene. Its physics are exceptionally well programmed, making it feel as if you’re piloting a podracer just like Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) does in the film. The game was a massive success and was released on numerous consoles, though the N64 port is easily the best. Star Wars Episode I: Racer sold over 3.12 million units, making it the best-selling sci-fi racing game of all time.

5) Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie was developed by Rare and released on the N64 in 1998, establishing a small but popular franchise. The platformer centers on its titular characters, Banjo, a bear, and Kazooie, his bird buddy. Their quest is to save Banjo’s sister from a witch, and they have nine worlds of exploration to cover to save her. The same development team behind Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest worked on Banjo-Kazooie, and you can see its influence in the game. It sold incredibly well and is considered one of the era’s best platformers, though it had only four sequels, the last of which was published in 2008.

4) Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is one of the N64’s launch titles, alongside Pilotwings 64, and it’s a game many players associate closely with the console. The game’s design takes full advantage of the N64’s hardware, taking Mario out of his familiar 2D environment and dropping him into a vast 3D open-world landscape. While it’s a platformer, it is unlike any Mario game that preceded it, and it set a new standard for how future games in the franchise would be developed. Super Mario 64 is not only one of the best Mario games of all time, but it’s often considered among the best video games ever made.

3) Perfect Dark

Of all the IPs to debut on the N64, Perfect Dark is easily one of the best of the first-person shooters. It centers around Joanna Dark, an agent who’s out to stop an alien conspiracy, and she has the skills to do it. The game was a technical marvel at the time of its release, requiring an Expansion Pak to access its campaign and most multiplayer features. It was critically acclaimed and sold well enough to garner a sequel. Unfortunately, while fans would love to return to the world of Perfect Dark, a planned remake was scrapped in 2025. Fortunately, you can still play the original on Nintendo Switch Online.

2) GoldenEye 007

While Perfect Dark may be a great FPS, it wouldn’t exist were it not for its spiritual predecessor, GoldenEye 007. Despite being another movie tie-in, the game is fantastic and represents a significant upgrade over previous FPS titles. Many of the standards of modern FPS games were established in GoldenEye, as it was highly influential. It’s beloved for its campaign mode as well as multiplayer, which kept people busy for hours on end. It’s easily one of the best games on the N64, and one of the best FPSs ever made, which is why it’s been remade and re-released multiple times.

1) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The N64 had two titles in the Zelda franchise, Ocarina of Time and its sequel, Majora’s Mask. Picking one over the other was a near Sisyphean task, but in the end, we settled on Ocarina, as it’s the best of the two … by a fraction of a tiny margin. The gameplay, sounds, graphics, story, and everything else were programmed to perfection, providing a beautiful playing experience that’s still a treat today, decades after its release. Ocarina of Time sold more than seven million copies on the N64, and it’s subsequently been re-released on every Nintendo Console. There was even an enhanced 3D version published on the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, and the fans’ love for Ocarina of Time has never waned.

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