The Nintendo 64 is impossible to mistake for anything else. It pushed Nintendo into 3D in a very Nintendo way — cartridge-based, controller-led, multiplayer-heavy — and the result still has an immediately recognisable personality.
Despite a lot of happy memories of four-player F-Zero X and GoldenEye, I was late to actually owning one. I didn’t pick an N64 up until a trip to Tokyo in March 2024, where I found an unboxed console and controller at BEEP for JPY 6,950 (about $45), plus a second matching controller for JPY 680 (about $4.50).
What it is
Nintendo’s late-1990s home console, and one of the clearest cases where the hardware experience matters as much as the library — the cartridge slot, that three-pronged controller, the Rumble Pak, and four controller ports built in.
Why I like it
The first time I saw Super Mario 64 I was spellbound — those full 3D worlds felt like a huge leap over the wobblier 3D I associated with the PlayStation. The personality comes from the whole thing working together: instant cartridge loading, the controller, couch multiplayer, the Rumble Pak, and the way the video output changes with the display chain. It’s hard to reduce that to emulator settings.
Pros
- an iconic four-player couch console with a strong first-party identity
- instant cartridge loading, no optical-drive wait
- genuine hardware character — the controller, the Rumble Pak, the video path
- original hardware still feels meaningful in a way emulation doesn’t quite capture
Cons
- the controller is divisive by design
- the anti-aliasing blur and soft “Vaseline filter” image age badly on modern flat panels — it really wants a CRT or a good scaler
- cartridge storage limits meant the N64 missed much of the CD-era JRPG boom