Reddit user u/Carl_Sammons recently completed his collection of all 297 Nintendo 64 cartridges, assembling the entire library in a neat display and sharing a photo of it online. The post was well-received by the gaming community; after all, the N64 was responsible for bringing some of gaming’s most beloved characters into the third dimension. In a time when gamers were still in awe at the hundreds of fantastic adventures the Super Nintendo provided us, the N64 emerged as a reminder that the gaming industry had an incredible future.
In the time before Xbox existed and PlayStation still had to prove itself as a viable gaming system, the Sega Genesis was the Super Nintendo’s fiercest competitor and Nintendo was consistently producing classics. To give this some perspective, in 1995 the Super Nintendo released Yoshi’s Island, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2, Mega Man X3, and Mortal Kombat 3 in the span of eight months. To finish off the year, Nintendo then debuted the N64 in November.
As the Atari Jaguar can attest, creating a 64-bit machine was not enough to sell consoles. In u/Carl_Sammons’s Reddit post, viewers are given a complete look at the library that defined the N64 and cemented it as one of gaming’s greatest accomplishments. Featuring 290 cartridges aligned in six rows with six more titles displayed underneath, the photo received over 45,000 upvotes and was met with a variety of responses. One user suggested that he livestream each individual game, while many others remarked upon the memories the library brought back. A few users noted that the first title that many of them looked for–Banjo-Kazooie–was missing from the collection; u/Carl_Sammons responded that he’d forgotten to remove the N64 classic from his mother’s N64 before taking the picture. Other classics mentioned in the Reddit thread were Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, and Pokemon Stadium.
The N64 library itself is notable due to how memorable it was despite its size. 297 titles is a small number by both modern and older standards. This disparity only serves to underline the quality of the games that found a home on the N64. Although its library is less than half than that of its predecessor, many gamers still bond over recollections of playing GoldenEye with their friends after school or struggling to navigate Ocarina of Time’s Water Temple without using a game guide.
As the Nintendo Switch continues producing adventures for some of Nintendo’s iconic characters, it’s important to remember the N64’s contribution to their legacies. Just as Super Mario 64 laid the groundwork for Mario Odyssey and Banjo’s inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing led to his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the N64 revolutionized the gaming industry in ways that can still be felt over 20 years later.
Source: Reddit