Celebrating 30 Years of the Nintendo 64

Ah, yes. The Nintendo 64. Every kid wanted one for Christmas back in 1996. When my youngest brother and I received one, we were ecstatic and couldn't wait to play our brand-new games on it. This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the best game consoles Nintendo has ever released. The Nintendo 64, which was released in Japan in June 1996 and North America nearly three months later. There were 388 games released on the Nintendo 64, with 85 of them were sold in Japan. The retail price of it went for $199.99. Adjusted for inflation, it would cost $416 in 2026. Nearly 33 million units were sold worldwide. The highest selling N64 game is Super Mario 64, which sold nearly 12 million copies. Rounding out the top five are Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Super Smash Bros. To celebrate this monumental milestone, I'll be highlighting some of my favorite N64 games. The following entries will be based on enjoyability. Feel free to comment down below some of your favorite N64 games. Now let's get this show on the road!

NFL Blitz

As someone who loves professional football, I prefer this series and Tecmo Bowl over any Madden game. There were 12 titles in the NFL Blitz franchise, with the last one released in January 2012. Fun fact: the athlete on the cover was Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback at the time Kordell Stewart. One of the best things I loved about this game was using the various cheat codes. There were a couple of them that I loved using. The first was unlocking a hidden character and one of them was Raiden. Yes, Raiden from Mortal Kombat. Select the “Enter Name for Record Keeping” option and enter the name RAIDEN, then enter the pin 3691. Once you've done that, the phrase "Lights out, baby" is spoken. Another code was the players having large heads. To perform this action, At the versus screen, press Turbo (default is Z), Jump (default is B), and Pass (default is A) to change the icons below the helmets, according to Cheat Code Central. The code for that is 2-0-3 Right. The numbers represent how many times a button is pressed. Once you do that, press the D-pad or Analog-stick in the indicated direction, which for this code, is right. You'll see the name of the code, followed by a sound. The list of codes I found for this game are from an article from Cheat Code Central, which was written in March 2000. The link to that will be down below for your viewing pleasure.

https://www.cheatcc.com/articles/nfl-blitz-cheats-codes-cheat-codes-for-nintendo-64-n64-n64/

Mario Kart 64

Welcome to Mario Kart! I've been playing different Mario games for nearly 40 years, but the next entry on my list was how I got into racing games. Mario Kart was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan in December 1996, then in North America over two months later on February 10, 1997. This was the second game in the Mario Kart franchise. 2027 will mark the 30th anniversary of the game's release in North America. It's the second bestselling N64 game, which 9.87 million copies were sold worldwide. You get to play as one of eight characters from the Mario franchise and there are 16 courses in total.

My overall favorite course is Rainbow Road. It was colorful and everything about it was breathtaking.

NFL Blitz 2000

We're going back to football for this next entry. A year after NFL Blitz was released, Midway gave us NFL Blitz 2000. In my personal opinion, Monday Night Football in the 2000s was way better than today's game. Just like the original game, there are cheat codes for the sequel. N64 Magazine gave the game an 87% rating while GameRankings the N64 version a 90% rating. I enjoyed this game, but I'm fonder with the original.

https://www.ign.com/wikis/n64-cheats/NFL_Blitz_2000_Cheats

GoldenEye 007

Released in August 1997, this first-person shooter game was based on the 1995 movie GoldenEye, with Pierce Brosnan OBE, who portrayed James Bond in the lead role. You go through a series of levels by completing the objectives. The game had more that 20 weapons for James Bond to use, including knives and grenades. Enemies fire their guns and throw grenades at you. Whenever you stand in front of a security camera for a period of time as Bond or set off an alarm, guards and other enemies shoot at you. In one level, you can drive a tank and whenever you run over an enemy, they cry out in pain. Finally, in the Egyptian level, your mission is to obtain the Golden Gun and shoot Baron Samedi not once, but twice by using that item. Once you've done that, Samedi appears and his evil laugh creeped me out as a kid and gave me nightmares. It's the third best-selling Nintendo 64 game, selling eight million copies worldwide.

Pokémon Stadium 2

I saved the best for last. Pokémon celebrated their 30th anniversary back in February. Released in Japan as Pokémon Stadium Gold & Silver in December 2000 and in North America in March 2001, 251 Pokémon were featured from the Kanto and Johto regions. If you had a Transfer Pak, you could use the Pokémon you trained from different versions such as Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Gold, and Crystal in this game. There were mini games, a tournament consisting of four Cups, and the Gym Leader Castle, where the trainer had to defeat all eight gym leaders from the Johto region and don't forget about Team Rocket, even though they're not gym leaders. Then, you'll enter the Elite Four, where you would have to defeat Will, Koga, Bruno, and Karen. The final opponent is Lance, the dragon-type Pokémon trainer. After defeating Lance, you'll be greeted by all eight gym leaders of the Kanto region, where you have to go through all of them before going against Pokémon Trainer Red, which would be your final opponent. He might be the silent type, but don't underestimate his talent. This game received positive reviews, and it'll forever be a Nintendo 64 classic in the eyes of fans of the Pokémon franchise.