[Editor’s Note: Authors were told to approach their game of the year lists however they wanted, including listing their favorite games they personally played this year regardless of release year.]
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I’ve been a fairly active member in a few online gaming communities. In one of these communities, we hold an event called N64 Mania—a weekly race of a Nintendo 64 game in the effort of eventually playing the console’s entire North American library; as of the end of 2022, we’ve played 175 of 298 games. Through my participation in N64 Mania and other communities’ events, I played 50 N64 games in 2022. This is my ranking of those games and my experience playing them.
50. Monster Truck Madness 64 – Beat Circuit (Expert)
Monster Truck Madness 64 was one of the worst gaming experiences of my entire life.
49. Mickey’s Speedway USA – Win a Trophy
An incredibly bland attempt at a Mario Kart clone.
48. Micro Machines 64 Turbo – Beat Tricky + Difficult
The default speed at which your machine moves in this game is wild. It makes controlling your vehicle ridiculously difficult.
47. Off Road Challenge – Easy Circuit
There are 63 racing games on the Nintendo 64, which is over 20% of the console’s North American library. Most of them are bad. This one is actually okay compared to many.
46. Virtual Chess 64 – Win a Game
The game has some silly animations, but I was too dumb to beat the AI on the easiest difficulty. Please don’t tell my advisor.
45. Snowboard Kids – Unlock Quicksand Valley
This game also probably deserves to be ranked higher, but it’ll make the redemption of Snowboard Kids 2 that much greater when I play it next year.
44-41. NFL Quarterback Club (‘98, ‘99, 2000, 2001) – Score 14 + Finish the Game
Like the Maddens, but significantly worse.
40. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker – Beat the Game (Normal)
I also beat this by mostly just pressing one button. I really want to like this game, but it’s just so disappointingly boring.
39-37. NBA In the Zone (‘98, ‘99, 2000) – Finish a Game
Playing three of these back-to-back-to-back made it abundantly clear as to why there are no more In the Zone games being made.
36. Virtual Pool 64 – Win a Tournament
The AI opponents had fun names. Other than that, it’s billiards.
35. World Cup ’98 – Win the World Cup
Snickers was the official snack food of the 1998 World Cup and there’s so much Snickers marketing plastered all over this game. It also asks 25-year-old World Cup trivia during halftime so that’s pretty cool. The actual soccer in the game is not that exciting.
34. Roadsters – All Seasons
Another inoffensive racing game, but the cars handled worse.
33-29. The Maddening (Madden Football 64/Madden ‘99/Madden 2000/Madden 2001/Madden 2002) – Score 14 + Finish the Game
First, I’d like to take a moment to recognize Garrison Hearst for his record setting 400 rushing yards and 5 TD performance in Madden ’99. I grew up playing the Maddens and I find them enjoyable for the most part, but the AI for the opposing defenses in these early editions is so bad that it makes them pretty meh.
28. Indy Racing 2000 – Complete Championship
An inoffensive racing game. For the N64, that’s a win.
27. Chopper Attack – Beat the Game
This game is probably better than this ranking, but I was so exhausted while playing that I really didn’t have a good time with it. I should probably give it another chance. My friends seemed to enjoy it.
26. Destruction Derby 64 – Beat Championship Mode (Novice + Amateur)
Another racing game that isn’t great, but the destruction derby component where you can destroy your opponents instead of being faster makes for a pretty fun time.
25. MRC: Multi-Racing Championship – Beat Championship Mode
A racing game that gives the player different options for vehicles that specialize on certain terrains. Each race featured multiple paths that allowed you to travel or avoid those terrains. It isn’t a great racing game, but it is sorta interesting.
24. Asteroids Hyper 64 – Beat the Game
I think this game was good? It was so dark I could barely see anything that was happening.
23. Mace: The Dark Age – Beat First 6
I beat this by almost exclusively pressing one button repeatedly, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
22-21. Chameleon Twist/Chameleon Twist 2 – Beat the Game
I think I played these back-to-back so they sorta feel like the same game in my head. The main difference I remember is that the final boss of CT1 was super anti-climactic while the final boss of CT2 was rage-inducing.
20. Army Men: Air Combat – Beat the Game
There are a few levels that are pretty miserable. I hope the voice actors who exclaimed, “We’re free!!” when you rescued the bugs continued to find work because they were the best part of the game.
19. Buck Bumble – Beat Stage 10
You play as a bee with a gun AND it features the greatest theme song in video game music history. Play this video game if you’re given the chance! Or, at the very least, listen to the 10-hour extended cut of the theme on Youtube.
18. Tetrisphere – Hide & Seek E1-3
It’s Tetris on a sphere and honestly, it’s a damn good time.
17. Nagano Winter Olympics ’98 – Win a Medal in Championship Mode
Curling is the best winter Olympic sport, and it isn’t included in Championship Mode. While devastating, the game is still pretty alright. Snowboard Halfpipe in particular is very fun.
16. Midway’s Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 – Defender: 10,000/Robotron: Beat Wave 5/Tapper: Beat Baseball 1/Joust: 10,000/Spyhunter: 20,000/Sinistar: 15,000/Trivia: Get 12+ points, aka 80% correct
A collection of some classic arcade games (Defender, Robotron, Tapper, Joust, Spyhunter, & Sinistar). They never did release a Volume 2 for the N64 but getting to play these was a great time.
15. Dual Heroes – Beat the Game
One of the character’s occupations is “Millionaire” and I didn’t realize a game from 1997 could speak to our current economic climate so eloquently.
14. Yoshi’s Story – Beat the Game
You either love the music in Yoshi’s Story or you hate it. Personally, I’m on Team “Good Soundtrack”
13. Pokemon Stadium 2 – Minigame Champion
This brought back vivid memories of playing the minigames in a Best Buy as a child while my dad looked for stuff. I don’t enjoy Stadium 2’s minigames as much as Stadium 1’s, mostly because the token system prolongs the experience in a not great way, but Minigame Champion is still a good time for the most part.
12. Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! – Beat the Game
There’s so much about this game that’s not good, but I can’t help but love it. For example, it features the most cursed Woody in existence.
11. F-Zero X – Beat Jack Cup
The goal for this was just to complete the Jack Cup so it only took about 15 minutes. I had never played an F-Zero before, but this is one I will absolutely return to.
10. Pilotwings 64 – Beat the Game
Try as I might, I cannot beat this damn video game and that fact just destroys me. The hang glider levels are no joke. The game is very fun and features an incredibly funky soundtrack.
9. Pokemon Stadium – Who’s the Best?
I love the Pokemon Stadium minigames. Yes, even Clefairy Says.
8. Mario Golf – 100%
The category we were supposed to complete for Mario Golf was 100%, and it’s a lot. While I didn’t complete that goal, this is a good video game. It still may very well be the best Mario Golf that Nintendo has ever made.
7. Paper Mario – 5 Golden Pigs
So I’ve actually never completed Paper Mario, but a joke race we do on occasion is 5 Golden Pigs, where you have to spend money at the Lil Oinks gacha machine until you get 5 gold ones. Sometimes this takes 5 minutes, sometimes it takes 2 hours. Either way, hanging out with friends while we’re all searching for golden pigs is a fun time.
6-5. Cruis’n USA/Cruis’n World – Cruise the USA/Cruise the World + Moon
I have not yet played Cruis’n Exotica, but these two are among the best racing games on the N64. That’s not saying much because most every other racing game on the N64 is bad (as you’ll see at the bottom of these rankings), but the Cruis’n games are a genuinely good time.
4. Blast Corps – Any%
Blast Corps is one of my friend’s favorite games. I played this for the first time at his request and, while frustrating, it does some cool stuff. In the game, you use different vehicles to destroy your surroundings to clear a path for a runaway nuclear missile carrier. Fun fact: Blast Corps can be seen being played by Anthony Jr. in season 1, episode 8 of The Sopranos.
3. Razor Freestyle Scooter – Beat the Game
The N64 version of Razor Freestyle Scooter was a Blockbuster exclusive. It features a plot where a giant robot abducts your friends, and you have to rescue them by collecting all the scooter wheels from six different Sky Fortresses. The game is kinda bad, but also sick as hell.
2. Donkey Kong 64 – Beat the Game/101%
I beat Donkey Kong 64 twice this year. Once in May for the first time ever and again in November doing 101%. In May, I played the game as it was released. In November, I played with ‘Tag Anywhere’—a mod that allows the player to switch Kongs without using the tag barrel. Both were enjoyable, but the mod absolutely makes for a smoother experience in 2022.
1. Super Mario 64 – 16 Star
Super Mario 64 is a game my friends and I speedrun/race quite a bit. There’s really not much to say: it’s SM64; it’s a bona fide classic. It still holds up quite well in 2022 and should be played by all.
