10 Most Iconic N64 Games Of All Time

In 1996, the Nintendo 64 helped usher in the era of true 3D console gaming. It's a nostalgic machine with a lot of idiosyncratic collective memories, like blowing in the game cartridge (which Nintendo officially disavowed) and wondering why anyone would make a controller with three handles. But most of all, the N64 is remembered for a slate of truly iconic games.

Below are the 10 games that most typified the Nintendo 64 – plus a handful of honorable mentions. There are a few games from the same franchise, but we've refrained from including more than one game from any single series. The Nintendo 64 is a beloved retro platform, and its most iconic games are singularly influential.

Star Fox 64

Star Fox 64 remains a high point of a series that has more recently lost its footing. Rumors of a new Star Fox game abound, and it will supposedly lean into the series' roots, which means we may get a new rail shooter á la Star Fox 64. The 1997 game is the second in the series, usurping the shelved Star Fox 2 (which would later release in 2017) so that the Star Fox Team could join Nintendo's big push into 3D.

While it might be quaint by modern standards, Star Fox 64 has a tremendous amount of replayability, with your performance in certain levels determining which path you take through the Lylat system to stop Andross. Star Fox 64 cemented Fox as one of the biggest Nintendo characters of the era, and is one of the N64's trademark titles.

Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64 was one of the heavy hitters during the collectathon boom around the turn of the millennium, making it very surprising that it took Nintendo 26 years to make another 3D game starring DK. It was a radical departure from the storied Donkey Kong Country trilogy that preceded it, but Donkey Kong 64 was a cornerstone experience for the N64.

A distinct highlight is getting to play five different characters from the Kong family, which has brought some modern critiques regarding backtracking, but nonetheless helped the platformer feel robust in 1999. Donkey Kong 64's most enduring legacy, however, might just be the iconic "DK Rap."

Pokémon Stadium

The Nintendo 64 was a turning point for many existing franchises as they adopted 3D graphics for the first time, but there was perhaps no series more anticipated to make the jump than Pokémon. Amid the Pokémon TCG craze of the 90s, it was finally going to happen: we'd get to experience fully rendered Pokémon battles, closer to what we saw in the anime.

While Pokémon Stadium itself was incredible, its biggest impact was arguably increasing the demand for a full, 3D-rendered mainline Pokémon game. It's also just one of three Pokémon all-timers that were released for the N64, the other two being Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Snap (apologies to the two Hey You, Pikachu! fans out there).

Mario Party

The preeminent party game does not need an introduction. Mario Party was iconic on the Nintendo 64, and remains iconic 28 years and 11 installments later. Despite all the iteration and Nintendo gimmicks introduced over the years, some of the original Mario Party mini-games remain among the series' best – Mushroom Mix-Up, Bumper Balls, Crazy Cutter, Buried Treasure... there are too many to list.

Mario Party's original release gets top billing here, but it's worth noting that a whole incredible trilogy came out on the N64. Mario Party 2 and 3 made some early improvements, introduced new mini-games, boards, and characters, and laid the groundwork for how the long-running series would continue to evolve.

Banjo-Kazooie

Developer Rare was on a legendary run on the Nintendo 64, having released Banjo-Kazooie just one year before the aforementioned Donkey Kong 64 – and this isn't the studio's last iconic N64 release on this list. Since we're limiting this list to one game per series, honorable mention here has to go to Banjo-Tooie, which is effectively on par with the original, though personal preferences differ.

Banjo-Kazooie is another vaunted entry in the N64's collectathon catalog, and has a delightful amount of variety in its mini-games. Despite the series fizzling out a decade later, Banjo-Kazooie remains iconic, and is regularly among classic, beloved series that fans hope will make a comeback.

Super Smash Bros.

Like Mario Party, the original Super Smash Bros. on the N64 launched a series that is still a phenomenon. After the competitive peak of Melee on the GameCube and the massive roster of the Switch's Ultimate, the original Smash is quaint and incredibly slow, but that doesn't make it any less of an icon.

The platform fighter is a who's who of gaming giants from the era. Its 12 original characters – Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Kirby, Link, Mario, Luigi, Ness, Samus, and Yoshi – have subsequently appeared in all four Smash Bros. sequels, making the series a vehicle for legendary characters to outlive their own series (looking at you, Mother and F-Zero).

Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 64 was not the first game in the racing series – that honor goes to Super Mario Kart on the SNES – but it did bring true 3D graphics and solidify the series formula that persists through Mario Kart World. One of the all-time local multiplayer greats, Mario Kart 64 is practically synonymous with the console, and was a must-have if you owned an N64.

Mario Kart's legacy is undeniable, but it should also be noted that the N64 specifically had an astounding number of awesome racing games. Diddy Kong Racing and Excitebike 64 are personal favorites, but Star Wars Episode I: Racer and Wave Race 64 also made their mark on the console.

GoldenEye 007

Speaking of legendary split-screen games, GoldenEye 007 is up there with the best to ever do it. Playing a first-person shooter on a three-handled controller that has only one joystick is a real pain nowadays, but it didn't get much better than GoldenEye in 1997. There's nothing like inevitable accusations of screen-peaking to get friends yelling at each other – except maybe someone cheating by choosing Oddjob.

While GoldenEye 007 is remembered most for its split-screen, its campaign shouldn't be discounted. It's an interesting adaptation of the GoldenEye film, Pierce Brosnan's best turn as James Bond, and set a high bar for the franchise's games going forward. We wouldn't have gotten the great original stories of James Bond 007: Nightfire or James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing without GoldenEye cementing the MI6 agent's place in gaming.

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

There's an argument to be made that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the best game ever made. It enjoys perhaps the most illustrious legacy of any video game, and still stands as one of Nintendo's crowning achievements in the medium. It's impossible to look at the Nintendo 64 and not give a nod to Ocarina. It redefined the adventure genre, set an impossibly high bar for the rest of the series, and has a wide-reaching influence on gaming at large.

But if we're talking about Zelda on the N64, I would be remiss not to give an honorable mention to Ocarina's direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. It's hard enough to make an iconic game once, let alone go back-to-back. The N64 duology still looms large over the Zelda series, and if the Ocarina of Time remake rumors turn out to be true, there will surely be a desperate outcry for Majora's Mask to follow.

Super Mario 64

You cannot adequately discuss the historiography of the Nintendo 64 without Super Mario 64. It was a launch title for the console in 1996 and changed the course of gaming forever. On a system known for iconic platformers, Super Mario 64 arguably stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. It has stood the test of time with a moveset so satisfying it still feels refreshing to play 30 years later.

SM64 kicked off one of the most vaunted series in gaming, only producing four direct successors thus far: Sunshine, Galaxy, Galaxy 2, and Odyssey. All five are bona fide classics, so it's no wonder we're all on the edge of our seat for the Switch 2's contribution. Super Mario 64 is the prototypical Nintendo 64 game, and what a way to debut a console.