Throwback Thursday! N64 nostalgia

After missing last week’s #ThrowbackThursday and copping out of the week before by just revisiting the first ever FULLSYNC article, I decided that I’d make this week a special one. And what better way to make it special than taking you all on a serious nostalgia trip by revisiting my five favourite N64 titles. Now, this is by no means a definitive or official list, so feel free to chip in with your own suggestions in the comments below.

GOLDENEYE 007

I’d say this is arguably the best James Bond game ever made, but if we’re completely honest there is no argument because no other 007 game comes close to GoldenEye. The single-player campaign was great with an excellent story following the movie, but where this game really shined was in its multiplayer mode that would let you take on up to three other friends in a chaotic battle which would normally end in one person getting the golden gun for one-hit kills. Oh, and who can forget the ability to go Odd Job and throw your hat about the place trying to cut your friends heads off? Ah, they were good times.

POKéMON STADIUM

Ok, so Pokémon Stadium had to be one of the greatest games of my childhood. The Pokémon games that came out the GameBoy were great, but this took Pokémon to a whole new level for me, actually allowing you to see the creatures displaying their moves just like if you were watching the show on TV. It truly was an amazing fighting game but what was incredible was the attachment you could get that would allow you to port your Pokémon over from your GameBoy games and even play it on the big screen. And who could forget the amazing mini-games too, where you could battle off against friends or the computer, I used to be amazing at the Ratata race game, but, to this day, I still suck at the Drowsy one.

STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON

Ok, so to many this may not seem like a title deserving to be amongst the others, but in my eyes, this is still one of the best space shooters to this day. The experience of being able to fly around in the ships from all the different films was incredible and in all honesty, I’ve never played a game like it that I’ve enjoyed more than Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.  From blasting TIE Fighters out of the sky in your X-Wing to bringing an AT-AT crashing down to the ground with your T-47 Airspeeder, it was such an amazing experience. I just wish that with all the games from my childhood being remastered at the moment, that this would be one of them.

SUPER MARIO 64

Still revered as the best Mario game ever, Super Mario 64 was the first ever time that we experienced the Italian plumber in three dimensions. It really raised the bar from previous instalments and it set it so high that no other Mario game since has seemed to match it, although Super Mario: Odyssey did come very close. The concept is the same as all Mario games in that Bowser comes and kidnaps Peach and you have to battle your way through all sorts of trouble to rescue her, but with a new 3D world to explore, it made the game so much more fun to play. I particularly remember the endless staircase that you needed to get enough stars to get up to take on Bowser. If you ran up without enough, it just kept going and going, and I can’t tell you the number of times I tried running up the endless staircase just to see if it did ever end. Spoiler Alert: it didn’t.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME

Having blown away the world with 3D graphics on Super Mario 64, Nintendo thought they’d give the same treatment to Ocarina of Time, and again it produced what by many, is still the best game of its series, and also one of the best games of all times. Whether it was the music, the artwork, or the gameplay, this game captured a generation and if you’ve not played it then you should check it out and you’ll see why. I did, however, refuse to replay the remastered HD version because I didn’t want it to tarnish my childhood memories, but if you are going to play it for the first time, then it could be well worth heading for that version instead as getting this nowadays will be rather pricey.

And that’s it. If there are any titles you think should make our list, or maybe something just deserving of an honourable mention, feel free to list them away in the comments section below.