27 years ago today, Nintendo changed everything

Get N or Get Out

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On June 23, 1996 - 27 years ago today - the Nintendo 64 was released in Japan.

Never the most popular console, nor the best-selling, it’s nonetheless still a console that holds the fondest of memories for a legion of fans, and one that was home to some of the most important and influential games the industry has ever seen.

Third-party studios may not have flocked to the system in the same way they did with the PlayStation, but - except for perhaps right now - Nintendo has arguably never been in better form than during the N64 days.

It wasn’t just the quality of the games they put out either, it was the variety. Whether it was platfomers like Mario 64 or action RPGs like Ocarina of Time, extreme sports titles and racers like Wave Race, 1080 and F-Zero, fighters like Smash Bros, or at-the-time-photorealistic semi-simulations like Pilotwings, Nintendo was on a quite remarkable hot-streak.

Incredibly, the same can be said of Rare during the same period, whose catalogue of N64 releases such as Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing and Conker’s Bad Fur Day proved they could go toe to toe with Nintendo every step of the way.

It was a period where the quality of Nintendo and Rare’s output seemed almost effortless. And although those who weren’t there may not appreciate it looking back now, some of those games were truly staggering leaps forward from what had come before.

Super Mario 64 launched on day one with the N64 and, quite simply, changed everything. Seeing Mario in 3D for the first time was a genuinely life-changing moment for a lot of people. It’s difficult to describe just how mind-blowingly new it felt at the time, but I remember queuing in HMV to get my hands on it and watching the people in front of me spend their short allotted time running around in circles – simply because they’d never done that in a game before.

For a game to do so much that was new. To introduce mechanics and features that had never been seen before and to do nearly all of them so perfectly at the first attempt is probably the single most magical feat of game design there’s ever been.

As if laying the very foundations of 3D game design and having Mario control so flawlessly within his new environment wasn’t enough, he would also triple-jump and backflip through rippling paintings, swim in 360 degrees, soar through the skies with the wing hat, surf on shells, perform handstands on trees and discover countless surprises and hidden areas in the game’s labyrinthine castle hub and the levels within it.

I spent months not only playing Super Mario 64, but playing with Super Mario 64. Messing around in its environments and scouring every inch of its arenas for no other reason than because it was an absolute joy to do so.

The N64 may be looked upon now as quaint - its games and visuals dated, but those who were there at the time will never forget the N64 days. The days of playing games that were truly different – truly a step ahead of what had come before. Those GoldenEye and Mario Kart all-nighters, the endless, agonising wait for Ocarina of Time that somehow turned out to be more than worth it, and yes, running around in circles as Mario for the first time.

It may not get the credit it deserves from everyone these days, but the N64 truly changed the industry, and there’s barely a game released today that isn’t directly or indirectly influenced by it.

Happy birthday, N64.

Thanks for the memories.

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As always, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy the rest of the issue. If you do, tell your friends!

Have a great weekend, enjoy some games, and I’ll see you next week

Jeff

THE WEEK IN GAMES

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Ninty Fresh Reprint

The entire back catalogue of the wonderful Ninty Fresh magazine has been reprinted and is now in stock. According to the website “after these issues are gone, they'll be gone forever,” so if you want to see what you’ve been missing or fill in some gaps in your collection, now’s your chance.

All issues are available for just £3.99. You can get more details and order the magazines from the Ninty Fresh website.

INDIE SPOTLIGHT

Shining a light on new and upcoming indies

If you’ve made it this far through today’s issue, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re an N64 fan, and that I don’t have to tell you what inspired the developers of the brilliantly named Agent 64: Spies Never Die.

From the retro visuals and the look of its guns and characters, right down to those all-important glass-shattering effects, everything about it brings back glorious memories of GoldenEye.

There’s no set release date yet aside from 2023, but there is a demo and plenty of lovely screens and videos over on its Steam page.

NEW RELEASES

All the major releases for this week and next

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…and that’s it for this week!

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you just fancy talking about games, you can get in touch at [email protected], reply to this email directly, or catch me over on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks again, and see you next week!

Jeff

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