Nintendo · 1996–2002

Nintendo64

Insert cartridge. Four players. No mercy. The console that gave us the analog stick, GoldenEye and Ocarina of Time.

[n] Nintendo 64 games available

Shop all N64 games Explore the highlights

Why it mattered

Four ports and a whole new dimension

The Nintendo 64 bet on cartridges when everyone else went to discs, and on a controller with a stick in the middle when nobody knew what to do with one. It lost the sales race to Sony and still changed how every 3D game since has been played.

Super Mario 64 invented the 3D platformer. Ocarina of Time is still on every "best ever" list. GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64 and Smash Bros. turned dorm rooms into arenas. And the carts are nearly indestructible — thirty years on, most still boot first try.

Explore the selections below

Fast facts

ReleasedSeptember 1996 (North America)
Launch price$199.99
MediaCartridge, up to 64 MB
Units sold~33 million worldwide
Best sellerSuper Mario 64 (~12 million)
Did you know?The N64 was the first home console with four controller ports built in — the reason "four-player night" became a thing before online gaming existed.
Did you know?The N64 was the last major home console to use cartridges. Nintendo chose them over CDs for load times and copy protection, which is why Final Fantasy VII went to Sony — and why N64 games still boot in about a second.
Did you know?US N64 cartridges came in colors: gold for the Zelda Collector's Editions, banana-yellow for Donkey Kong 64 and Pokémon Snap, black for Killer Instinct Gold and Turok 2. Later gray reprints of the same games are the cheaper copies.
Did you know?Majora's Mask and Donkey Kong 64 refuse to boot without the 4 MB Expansion Pak; Donkey Kong 64 shipped with one in the box, which is why so many surviving Expansion Paks are in a DK64 bundle.
Did you know?The console launched in Japan in June 1996 and in North America in September 1996 with just two games — Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 — plus a third, Wave Race 64, arriving a couple of months later.
Did you know?GoldenEye 007 was built by a small Rare team, most of whom had never made a game before, and it went on to sell roughly eight million copies — making it one of the best-selling N64 games behind only Nintendo's own titles.
Did you know?The last N64 game released in North America was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 in 2002, roughly a year after the GameCube launched.
Did you know?The N64 controller's memory card slot, the Controller Pak, was needed for saving in a lot of third-party games (Turok, WCW/nWo, most racers). Nintendo's own cartridges usually saved on-board, which is one reason those games feel painless to collect.

Find your next N64 game

Start with a familiar favorite, explore a theme, or browse by what’s included.

Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

Rare's finest

GoldenEye, Banjo, Conker and Donkey Kong 64: the studio that defined the N64's second half.

Nintendo's big ones

Mario, Zelda, Smash and the first-party lineup collectors chase first.

Four controllers, no waiting

Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros., GoldenEye, Mario Party, Diddy Kong Racing, the wrestling games — simultaneous local multiplayer, cooperative or competitive. The reason the console had four ports and the living room had four chairs.

Turok, Star Wars and the third-party hits

The shooters, RPGs and licensed games that filled out the library.

Collector's corner

Gold-cart Zeldas, Limited Run sealed copies, Japanese imports, the Expansion Pak bundle — the copies that don't come around twice.

The cartridge rainbow

Factory shell colors, then the gray-versus-colored reprints: Donkey Kong 64 in yellow, the Zeldas in gold, Pokémon Stadium 2's two-tone shell, black Turok 2 and Killer Instinct Gold. Region and printing matter.

The Expansion Pak shelf

Donkey Kong 64 and Majora's Mask won't boot without the 4 MB pack; Perfect Dark hides most of its content behind it; Turok 2, Rogue Squadron and Episode I Racer use it for hi-res. Check the console before you buy.

The Transfer Pak bridge

Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Perfect Dark, Mickey's Speedway — the N64 games that plug a Game Boy cartridge into the controller. Bring the handheld game too.

The Rumble Pak arrival

Star Fox 64 shipped with the Rumble Pak in the box and the console has shaken ever since; the Japanese Shindou editions of Mario 64 and Wave Race added it after the fact. Bundles and early adopters.

The controller has a memory

Games that save to the Controller Pak instead of the cartridge: Turok, the wrestling games, most racers, Mario Kart 64's ghost data. No pak, no save — check the manual, then check the drawer.

The microphone corner

Hey You, Pikachu! and the Voice Recognition Unit — Nintendo's first experiment in talking to a game. In Japan, Densha de Go! 64 let you announce the train stops. A two-game shelf, faithfully.

The rental exclusives

ClayFighter: Sculptor's Cut, Stunt Racer 64, Razor Freestyle Scooter — cartridges that went to Blockbuster first (or only). The rental sticker is the provenance, not a defect.

The 64DD annex

Mario Artist, Doshin the Giant, the F-Zero X Expansion Kit, SimCity 64 — the Japan-only disk drive that shipped ten titles and one very committed fan base. Its own hardware, its own shelf.

The last cartridge generation party

Released after the PlayStation 2 arrived: Paper Mario, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Dr. Mario 64, Banjo-Tooie, Tony Hawk 3 — the overlap between two console generations, using North American dates. Nintendo saved some of the best for last.

Year one, 1996-97

Mario 64, Pilotwings, Wave Race, Killer Instinct Gold, Turok, GoldenEye — the first year, when a console with a dozen games felt like plenty.

The AKI wrestling lineage

WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, No Mercy, Virtual Pro Wrestling — one Japanese developer, one grappling engine, four promotions on the cover. Collect the engine, not the logo.

First-person, four ports

GoldenEye, Turok, Perfect Dark, The World Is Not Enough — the console that made split-screen deathmatch a household argument.

Every publisher shipped a racer

Wipeout, Extreme-G, Ridge Racer, Top Gear Rally, Lamborghini, Rally Challenge — the N64 racing glut, where nobody agreed on physics.

Someone approved this premise

A squirrel with a hangover. Talking to a Pikachu through a microphone. StarCraft on a controller. Tanks fighting for the last women on Earth. The N64 said yes.

Your weapon needs an explanation

A bird in a backpack. A frying pan. A coconut gun. The Cerebral Bore. Turok, Banjo, Conker and Donkey Kong 64 — not a sword shelf.

Acclaim's N64 run

Turok, Extreme-G, Armorines, WWF War Zone, South Park, Shadow Man — Acclaim shipped more N64 cartridges than almost anyone, and some of them are actually good.

The Midway arcade invasion

Cruis'n USA, Cruis'n World, NBA Hangtime, NFL Blitz, Gauntlet Legends, Killer Instinct Gold, Mortal Kombat Trilogy — Midway's arcade floor, ported to a cartridge, and the reason N64 multiplayer got so loud.

Licensed to print cartridges

Star Wars, 007, Mission: Impossible, Duck Dodgers, South Park, Rugrats — the movie and TV deals, from Rogue Squadron down to Elmo.

The cartridge miracle ports

Resident Evil 2 on a cartridge. Rayman 2, Tony Hawk, Quake II with different levels than the PC. StarCraft, Command & Conquer, Carmageddon — the ports that had no business fitting in 64 MB, and mostly did.

The Treasure import pair

Sin and Punishment and Bangai-O — two Japan-only cartridges from a studio better known on other hardware. Add Mischief Makers, which did make the trip, and you have the whole Treasure N64.

The naming department

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. Conker's Bad Fur Day. Clay Fighter 63⅓. Somebody signed off on all of these.

The collectathon accounting department

Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Rocket: Robot on Wheels — jiggies, bananas, crystal shards, stars. Organized by what the game makes you gather, and how it gates progress on the count.

The water is the attraction

Wave Race 64, Hydro Thunder, Wetrix, Pilotwings 64 for the sightseeing — water physics, swimming, boats and coastlines. The N64 did water better than almost anything else it tried.

The snow day shelf

1080° Snowboarding, Snowboard Kids, Snowboard Kids 2, Nagano Winter Olympics '98, Big Mountain 2000, Polaris SnoCross — snow, ice and winter sports, simulation or not.

The camera is your weapon

Pokémon Snap, and Pilotwings 64 as the sightseeing companion — photography, observation and looking at things instead of shooting them. A tiny shelf, honestly tiny.

The overlooked platformer shelf

Glover, Chameleon Twist, Duck Dodgers, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Space Station Silicon Valley, Mischief Makers, Bomberman Hero — platformers judged as individual games rather than failed franchises. Several are quietly excellent.

The title must say 64

Super Mario 64, Doom 64, Ogre Battle 64, Harvest Moon 64, Kirby 64, Shadowgate 64, StarCraft 64 — a wonderfully mechanical rule that produces a surprisingly varied shelf. If the box says 64, it's in.

Cute box, alarming contents

Conker's Bad Fur Day, Majora's Mask, Earthworm Jim 3D, Jet Force Gemini, Blast Corps, Banjo-Tooie — bright cartoon boxes that open onto unsettling places, dark jokes and a moon with a face. A subjective mood shelf.

You need a notebook

Ogre Battle 64, Shadowgate 64, StarCraft, Paper Mario, both Zeldas — maps, item lists and things worth writing down. Pencil not included.

Someone famous said yes

Ken Griffey, Tony Hawk, Wayne Gretzky, Kobe Bryant, Mia Hamm and the entire WCW roster — games that exist because an agent returned the call.

Japan's alternate N64

Custom Robo, Custom Robo V2, Wonder Project J2, Densha de Go! 64, Animal Forest, the Shindou editions — the Japanese catalog had genres and licenses the North American one never saw.

The franchise takes a side road

Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Puzzle League, Bomberman 64, Paper Mario, Hey You Pikachu, Dr. Mario 64 — the entries that swerved off the series' familiar road. Some of the swerves were good.

WATCH N64 ON THE COOLECTION CHANNEL

From our YouTube channel — played on real hardware.

Explore our videos

The Nintendo 64 is pure nostalgia

Tap to play it right here.

Ocarina of Time returns: ready to revisit Hyrule?

Tap to play it right here.

WHERE NEXT?

More systems to explore next.

NES 8-bit where it all began Explore

Super Nintendo 16-bit RPGs and arcade ports Explore

GameCube The purple lunchbox Explore

Game Boy Pokémon, Tetris and AA batteries Explore

All Nintendo Every Nintendo system in one place Explore