Nintendo 64 Grades
1-3 = Bad
4 = Below Average
5 = Average
6 = Above Average/OK
7 = Good
8 = Great
9 = Fantastic
10 = Perfect
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Classic/Must Play
Action
Graphics-7 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge- Story-5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun- (7.5) Originality-8
Overall Score-
+ Original concept, good longevity, good in-game instructions, humorous, secrets, good variety of
vehicles including “mechas”
- You can’t zoom out the camera, the flying mecha has awkward controls (no shadow?),
collectathon tendencies, no difficulty options?
Sin and Punishment
Adventure / RPG
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Strategy RPG
Survival Horror
Resident Evil 2
Fighting
Platform
Mischief Makers
Puzzle
Wetrix
Racing
Shoot ‘em up
Star Fox 64 / Star Wing 64
Great/Interesting/Worthwhile (7.5 - 8.5)
Action
Bangai-O
Body Harvest
Jet Force Gemini
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Space Station
FPS
Doom 64
GoldenEye 007
Perfect Dark
Turok
Quake II
ACTION ADVENTURE / RPG
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Graphics-9 Sound-9 Control-7.5 Challenge-7 Story-8
Level Design-8 Frustration-7.5 Fun-8 Originality-7
Overall Score-
+ Innovative gameplay (time manipulation through ocarina playing, the masks that transform you and let you reach certain areas and use new abilites), great creepy atmosphere (a lot darker than OOT), some great characters, great art direction (mixes european and japanese mythological aesthetics), good dramaturgy, weather effects, daylight cycle, you can slow down time or travel back and forth (using basic note input on the ocarina)
- starts out with a few fetch quests (and there are more later on, sometimes very time consuming because of the trial and error), gameplay would've been a lot smoother if you had more control over the time travellng aspect (instead of only being able to travel either to the beginning of day 1 or 12 hours ahead, and slowing the speed by 3x - the game loops n a 3 day cycle), it's easy to accidentally skip some important text and it's (sometimes) not repeated or noted down somewhere (never), some camera issues (tends to go into frog perspective or pick a bad angle, and you can't control it that well outside of combat), annoying fairy sidekick, some handholding, you lose your expendable items and money after time travelling (at least the first time), you can't skip cutscenes, you can't fastforward some text, "no" is default when you're asked a question, jumping is semi-automatic and can only be done in platform segments (when reaching a ledge), you can't talk to some npcs and you need to be exactly in front of everyone/thing to talk/read, moving around larger areas on foot is too slow (you do get a horse later on), having to wait for shops to open or certain events to happen gets tedious, pop up (objects appear out of the blue in the horizon), a lot of pointless item collecting
Paper Mario
RPG
Beat em up / Shoot em up
Fighting
Platform
Banjo Kazooie
Super Mario 64 - Gfx-7.5 Snd-7.5 Ctrl-7 Chl- Sty-4 Ld-6.5 Fr-8.5 Fun-6 Ov-
+ Innovative gameplay, new moves that are fun to use once you learn them (sliding and
stomping, triple jumping), good length, hidden items, save feature (save after each finished
level or collected star), good variation, mario is more charming than ever
- Too much focus on finding and collecting generic items (they do unlock levels at first but
later on there's no real purpose to it), slopes are too damn slippery! (and you can't
slow down once you start gliding even at like 10 degree angles), when turning around
mario sometimes needs too much room making you fall off ledges quite easily, camera
issues (it often chooses a bad perspective and having to tweak it seriously breaks the flow
of the gameplay), many tedious platforming parts where if you fall you have to replay
half the level, somewhat slow swimming, frustrating snow levels, simple bosses, some trial
& error (having to figure out the controls, blocks that suddenly fall beneath you, cheap
hits (caused by camera issues)), levels are often too open ended and vertical (very
tedious if you make a mistake), finding a star throws you out of the level you're in (you
might want to keep playing until the end!?), a simple thing like reading signs/talking to npcs
is tedious because you need to stand in the exact right spot (otherwise you'll punch them
instead)
Puzzle
Sports
Racing
Wave Race 64
Strategy
Ogre
Simulation
Good if You Like the Genre/Worth Trying
Bomberman 64
F-Zero X
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge- Story-6.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-
+ Good length, a more fleshed out take on the classic story, new equipment (slingshot),
new moves, z-targeting works well (though it makes combat too easy), time travel,
horseback riding, hidden items, long quest
- slow start with fetch quests and annoying characters (navi and owl), some lag, the fairy is
extremely annoying at times, travelling is very slow before getting the horse (areas are large
bland looking and mostly empty), mostly predictable and clichéd story, easy bosses
overall, the overworld is too shematic (a large round field connected to a few sub-areas -
how exciting!), camera issues (see majora's mask), the ocarina playing was done before
in Monster World III, and it feels nothing like actually playing music, unskippable dialogue
and cutscenes, mostly boring dialogue
Mario Kart 64
Pilotwings 64
Quake 64
Super Smash Bros.
Wipeout 64
Mediocre/Not For Everyone
Crap…