Just over a week ago, the Nintendo 64 game console celebrated its fifteenth birthday. On September 29, 1996, the third generation of Nintendo systems debuted in North America. The Nintendo 64 (often abrbeviated N64) was certainly an innovative system, with many great games and unique features. However, it never really lived up to its smashingly successful predecessors due to the dominance of the original Playstation in the market. Co-op games weren't popular at the time the N64 was released, but there are still a handful of excellent cooperative experiences available, if you knew where to look.
As you might expect from the name, the Nintendo 64 was a 64-bit system. This gave the N64 an advantage over the 32-bit Playstation. However, Sony's system used the CD-ROM format, which allowed more storage than the N64's outdated proprietary cartridges. It was a puzzling decision, and was one factor that led to the Playstation completely owning the format, selling three times as many units as Nintendo's console.
On the other hand, the Nintendo 64 did a lot of things right. The standard four controller ports allowed twice as many players as the Playstation out of the box. The odd looking controller was the first for a major console system to include an analog stick, allowing smooth control in 3D. A vibrating add-on for the controller, the Rumble Pak, was the first use of force feedback on a controller. Both analog control and force feedback are commonly used in modern consoles, and they owe it all to the Nintendo 64.
My own experience with the Nintendo 64 was in late 1999, when I purchased the Donkey Kong 64 bundle, which included a copy of that game as well as a delightfully cheesy translucent green N64 console and controller. The Expansion Pak, which came in this bundle, doubled the RAM on the system. This was required for some games, like Zelda: Majora's Mask, and allowed more players, better resolution, and other improvements to others. Most of my memories of the Nintendo 64 are from non-co-op titles, including Mario Kart 64, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium and its sequel, and Super Smash Bros.
There is a surprising lack of cooperative games from this time in gaming history, as a perusal of the Co-Optimus database shows. The mid to late 90s had a push for 3D in games, and due to console system limitations, adding in more players for this type of game was very difficult. The side-scrolling brawlers and shmups, very important to co-op in the early 90s, had fallen out of favor. It would be several years before the explosion of cooperative games for the next generation of consoles, the Xbox, Gamecube, and Playstation 2. Nontheless, there were still a handful of co-op highlights on the Nintendo 64 that deserve mention.
The Gauntlet series is one of the oldest and most hallowed in co-op gaming history. Gauntlet Legends brought the series into 3D, first hitting the arcades and then home consoles shortly thereafter. The classic gameplay, with Wizard, Warrior, Valkyrie, and Elf, held up quite well on the N64, adding in a level up system and excellent (though now dated) graphics to the winning formula. Gauntlet Legends supported four players, and was one of the few co-op games to do so, though the Expansion Pak was required.
Fan-favorite developer Rare published this quirky, unique game in 1999. A third person shooter, Jet Force Gemini featured platforming elements, with plenty of levels to explore and power ups and other items to collect. Co-op was included, but it wasn't exactly stellar. Player two could control a robot that followed the main character through the levels, and could assist in shooting the bad guys. Sounds like an early version of BYOB co-op, but hey, any co-op is better than no co-op, right?
Another smash hit by Rare, this shooter was a follow-up to the mega-popular Goldeneye 007. A futuristic setting, a tough-as-nails female protagonist, and split-screen two player co-op set Perfect Dark apart from the FPS pack. The game was likely the best-looking Nintendo 64 game ever, and was a critical and sales success. M-rated Perfect Dark showed that the squeaky clean, family image of Nintendo could be tweaked to great effect.
(image courtesy IGN)
Ralph, Lizzie, and George, the monstrous protagonists of the Rampage series, appeared in two different games for the Nintendo 64. The first was based on the arcade Rampage World Tour. The arguably better sequel, Rampage 2: Universal Tour, included new monsters, for the first time in the series: giant-sized versions of a mouse, rhino, and lobster. Smashing buildings and munching on people with your buddies is a good time, no doubt about it.
The first game in the hugely popular tactical FPS series was available on the Nintendo 64. Rainbow Six's trademark realism was quite an innovation at the time. With a friend in tow, you had to plan your attacks carefully, selecting the most appropriate team members in order to maximize chances for success. The level of difficulty and requirement for strategic responses to events made for a very unique, very memorable game. It's no wonder that Rainbow Six would spawn many other games over the past decade and a half.
Though the Nintendo 64 isn't exactly regarded fondly by most modern gamers, it was an excellent gaming system. From a technical perspective, it was the most powerful system available at the time, and the additions of analog control and force feedback would become the standard within a single console generation. There might not have been a huge number of co-op games for the system, but the ones that were available provided great opportunities for teamwork in a variety of ways. The Nintendo 64 is certainly worthy of fond remembrance by fans of co-op gaming.