It came out around my birthday, so my mom had it pre-ordered for me as a gift from Babbage’s. I still remember her picking me up from school and telling me she had a surprise for me in the trunk.
Also: The Wii is about to turn 17. And is holding up surprisingly well. My kids love the sports and dance games - and none of the newer platforms really managed to provide the same feeling for that kind of activity games.
A lot of good memories of this one and yes I feel old now!
It was the console my group of friends had so it was 4 player greatness every day. We all had our controllers and depending on who’s house it was a mix of SSB, Goldeneye, Mario Kart, Snowboard Kids, WCW vs nWo and everything else we could get a hold of.
Many halcyon college days playing GoldenEye 007, Super Smash Bros., Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Conker’s Bad Fur Day multiplayer, and Mario Kart 64 with friends, four at a time…
We played Metal Gear Solid VR Missions, Symphony of the Night, PowerStone, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 too, but 90% of the time it was the Nintendo 64. Being so blocky, we never thought the graphics were particularly amazing—we grew up 8-bit but were comparing by that time to the PlayStation 2, and especially the Dreamcast after it came out—but man, the games were fantastic.
Not to take anything away from the classics that were built up on,I think sports games really came up a level in visuals in N64 as far as playability with the 3rd dimension added. Being able to actually have depth made soccer, football, hockey, all those games so much richer; instead of only side scrolling you could view a field, rink or court from the short end view, zoom in and out on play level, etc.
I remember the hype I felt when they installed a demo unit at the store I worked at. Mario was mind-blowing and I bought one later that week. I had to hide the box is the stock room so it wouldn’t be gone by the end of the release week.
I remember having discussions with friends in school marveling at Perfect Dark’s graphic quality. It and GoldenEye in 4 way split screen was so freaking fun. Donkey Kong 64 ran at like 12FPS at times and I didn’t even realize. Modern gaming is really spoiling us.
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