Its hard to believe that the Nintendo 64 came out three decades ago. The N64 was quite possibly one of Nintendo’s most important video game consoles ever. The N64 was important because it was Nintendo’s very first 3D console and featured 64-bit graphics. The quality and realism on the Nintendo 64 was superior than its competitor the PS1 which only utilized 32-bit graphics. The reason why the PS1 was popular among casual gamers around the world was because it appealed more to adults and featured more third-party video games. The N64 was released in 1996 years after the fallout between Sony & Nintendo occurred due to disagreements regarding their unreleased SNES-CD prototype joint console. The some of the issues between Sony and Nintendo started around the early 90’s because of issues regarding revenue sharing and licensing. Also, Sony was more interested in utilizing CD-ROM’s opposed to cartridges for video games unlike Nintendo which lead to both parties scrapping their planned SNES-CD console. The mid 90’s marked a revolutionary era in the gaming world because Sony released the original PlayStation console in ’94 becoming a direct competitor to both Nintendo and Sega during the console wars. While the N64 ended up becoming a commercial success during the second half of the 90’s decade it did sell near as much as the PS1.

The Nintendo 64 sold more than 32 million copies worldwide with the best-selling games consisting of titles like Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Super Smash Bros. The N64 allowed Nintendo to breath new life into popular 2D video game franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox with brand new 3D gameplay. Super Mario 64 was considered to be one of the most innovative 3D platform games of its time. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered to be one of the greatest entries within its series. Also, Star Fox 64 is considered to be one of the most iconic installments within its own franchise. While first-party video games dominated in sales on the N64 console and third-party games like Final Fantasy VII and Tekken 3 dominated in sales on the PS1. Also, first-party games like Gran Turismo 1 & 2 surged in popularity on the PS1 during the late 90’s with the original game from ’97 reaching over ten million copies in sales. Despite, not being able to rival the PS1 in commercial success the N64 has gained a massive cult following over the past three decades with players modding older games like Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 for fun and entertainment on Youtube. The graphics for the Nintendo 64 felt like the pinnacle for early 3D video game design and during the 90’s it seemed ahead of its time. While N64 had almost no loading times it had significantly less storage than the PS1 which affected the average gamers preference in relation to the 90s console wars. The N64 is considered to be one of the most legendary consoles of all-time and despite not having as much success as the NES or the SNES its still beloved by the gaming community to this day.