The Nintendo 64 had a smaller library than its rivals, but it changed video games permanently: it worked out how 3D cameras should behave, put an analog stick in everyone’s hand, and made four-player split screen a standard living room activity. These are the 15 best N64 games ever made, ranked on how good they still are to play and how much they shaped everything after them.
15. Star Fox 64
The rail shooter that taught a generation to do a barrel roll. Branching routes mean almost every mission has a hidden harder path, so the roughly one-hour campaign is built to be replayed a dozen times chasing medals. It also shipped with the Rumble Pak, introducing force feedback to console gaming.
14. F-Zero X
Nintendo stripped the visuals to the bone to hit a locked 60 frames per second with 30 racers on track, and the result is still one of the fastest racing games ever made. The Death Race mode, where you destroy 29 opponents, remains gloriously mean.
13. Diddy Kong Racing
Rare’s answer to Mario Kart added a full adventure mode, boss races, and three vehicle types including a hovercraft and a plane. It is also the debut of both Banjo and Conker, making it an unlikely origin story for two of the console’s biggest mascots.
12. Pokemon Snap
A photography game on rails in an era obsessed with shooting things. Learning each course’s hidden triggers to lure Pokemon into the perfect shot turned out to be endlessly replayable, and the formula was good enough that Nintendo revived it decades later on Switch.
11. Mario Party 3
The peak of the N64 trilogy, with 70 minigames and the Duel Board mode that pits two players against each other directly. It is the purest expression of the series’ original promise: four friends, one couch, and friendships tested over a single star.
10. Donkey Kong 64
The collectathon at its most maximalist: five playable Kongs, each with their own color-coded collectibles across enormous worlds. It is the game that made “collectathon” feel like both a compliment and a warning, and the DK Rap alone earns its place in history.
9. Wave Race 64
An early N64 release that still impresses, because its water physics genuinely matter: the swell shifts between laps, so the racing line you took on lap one is wrong by lap three. Few racing games before or since have made the surface itself the opponent.
8. Paper Mario
Nintendo’s follow-up to Super Mario RPG reinvented the formula with a papercraft art style that still looks sharp and timing-based action commands that keep every turn engaging. Its writing is funnier than a Mario game needed to be, which is exactly why the series became beloved.
7. Banjo-Kazooie
Rare’s platformer took Super Mario 64’s template and filled it with personality: densely designed worlds, a move list that grows all game, and jokes aimed squarely at the player. For many people it is the better-designed of the two, and the argument is genuinely close.
6. Mario Kart 64
The entry that turned Mario Kart into a four-player institution, with Battle Mode arenas that dominated sleepovers for a decade. Rainbow Road, Toad’s Turnpike, and the blue shell all trace back here. The series has grown enormously since, as our Mario Kart World guides cover, but this is where the couch chaos was standardized.
5. GoldenEye 007
The console shooter that proved the genre worked without a mouse. Its objective-based campaign scaled with difficulty (harder settings add objectives rather than just damage), and its four-player split screen defined multiplayer for a generation, right down to the universal house rule banning Oddjob.
4. Super Smash Bros.
Twelve characters, nine stages, and one idea that changed fighting games forever: win by knocking opponents off the screen instead of draining a health bar. Everything the series became, a franchise that now sells tens of millions, started with four friends and a Nintendo 64 controller. Its sequel, Melee, sits near the top of our best GameCube games list.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Built in roughly a year using Ocarina of Time’s engine, and somehow the strangest, most ambitious game Nintendo has ever published. A three-day time loop turns the whole world into a clockwork puzzle where every character keeps a schedule, and the mask transformations rewrite how you move and fight. Darker and denser than any Zelda before or since.
2. Super Mario 64
The game that solved 3D. Before it, nobody knew how a camera should follow a character through open space or how jumping should feel with an analog stick; after it, everyone copied the answers. Decades later the movement is still a joy, which is why speedrunners never left Peach’s castle.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Still the most influential 3D game ever made. Z-targeting gave 3D combat a camera language that action games have used ever since, and the structure (a child’s Hyrule, a ruined adult future, and dungeons that teach you their own logic) remains a masterclass in pacing.
What keeps it at number one is how complete it feels. Hyrule Field at sunrise, the first sight of Death Mountain, the Forest Temple, the ocarina itself as both instrument and key: it is a world that rewards curiosity at every turn. If you are revisiting it, we have answers to the two questions everyone asks: how long it takes to beat and how old Link actually is.
Honorable Mentions
The N64’s library ran deeper than 15 slots allow. Conker’s Bad Fur Day is Rare’s filthiest, funniest game and a technical showpiece for the hardware. Perfect Dark pushed GoldenEye’s engine further than it wanted to go. Ogre Battle 64 and Harvest Moon 64 gave the console real depth beyond its platformers, and Sin and Punishment stayed a Japan-only treasure until the Virtual Console era.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best N64 game of all time? The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, for its influence on 3D game design and how well it holds up today. Super Mario 64 is the closest competitor and the more historically important release for 3D movement.
How can I play N64 games today? Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack tier includes a rotating library of N64 games, playable on Switch and Switch 2 with online multiplayer support for many titles.
What was the best-selling N64 game? Super Mario 64, which shipped with the console in many regions and sold over 11 million copies.
Which N64 games are best for multiplayer? GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros., and Mario Party 3 all support four players on one console. For modern four-player chaos, see our Mario Kart World guides.