Sam's video game collection essentials

The first F-Zero was a launch title for the Super Nintendo, and the futuristic racer was one of its most popular games in its first months. There wasn’t a full F-Zero sequel on the console, though there was a “BS F-Zero 2” released via the Japan-only Satellaview add-on which basically felt like more tracks for the original game. But with the release of the 3D-capable Nintendo 64, Nintendo saw that it was time to give F-Zero a true, evolved sequel. And boy, did they deliver. Vehicles in F-Zero are anti-gravity machines that move at very high speeds and are capable of “boosting” to gain a sharp increase in speed. The vehicles often take a beating during a race, so there are “recharge strips” located on every track which restores a vehicle’s energy if driven over. Those are fundamentals that are shared between the first F-Zero and F-Zero X. But otherwise F-Zero X feels very different thanks to the many upgrades and changes allowed by the jump to more powerful hardware.  As was the cas...

Here’s an entry on the list you didn’t see coming. Despite the popularity of Dr. Mario on the NES, Dr. Mario 64 didn’t make a big splash. It was released at the end of the console’s lifespan and was clearly not a big-budget project, featuring 2D graphics during a time when consoles with very impressive 3D capabilities had already been released. And so, this is comparatively one of Mario’s most obscure outings on the Nintendo 64. The basic gameplay here is the same as in the original Dr. Mario, so you can read my post about that game for more info. Since they decided to keep the basic gameplay the same, they tried to make up for it by introducing new modes. One such mode is a short arcade-style “Story mode” in which the player selects either Mario or Wario and faces a series of opponents as they progress through a simple story. There are various other gameplay modes, such as “marathon” which features an infinite onslaught of viruses, “flash” which requires eliminating a few specific vi...

Donkey Kong’s leap from the 2D platformers of the Super Nintendo to 3D on the Nintendo 64 would be much like Mario’s, going from a more linear structure to a full three-dimensional world that’s more vast and open-ended. Rare already had experience making a game like this as they had developed Banjo-Kazooie previously, so the choice made sense. Unlike Mario, Donkey Kong wouldn’t be going at it alone, as this game features the five-member “DK Crew” in which each Kong has unique abilities that are all needed at various points in the game.  Donkey Kong 64 feels even more open-ended than the console’s previous 3D platformers. There’s often not much direction on where to go, which I suppose can be either a blessing or a curse because some people don’t like having their hand held so much while others may be annoyed when they’re unsure of where they can or should go next. There’s also even more of an emphasis on collecting tons of items littered all over the game, which led to some people ...

With Mario Kart being such a huge success, it became common for other developers to copy it. Sometimes these clones are not especially worth playing unless you’re a big fan of whatever intellectual property that is being utilized. However, Rare decided to take a shot at the formula, and they could seemingly do no wrong during the Nintendo 64 era, so we got a notable exception.  Rare had previously developed the three Donkey Kong Country games on the Super Nintendo with permission from Nintendo, and it basically established Donkey Kong as a character and series as we know it, so Nintendo continued to let them have control of the series. The big ape himself is not present in this game, but the star instead is his nephew Diddy Kong who debuted in the first Donkey Kong Country game. Rare introduced some of their own original characters to this game’s cast, including a couple that would go on to star in their own games such as Banjo the bear and Conker the squirrel.  This game borr...

Another case where I’m going a little out of order to cover such a defining game for the system early. Super Mario Kart was one of the best-selling titles on the SNES, so a sequel for the brand new 3D console made all the sense in the world. And boy, the newfound power of the Nintendo 64 was a huge boon to this new series. Just the simple fact that four players could participate at a time instead of two was an absolute game-changer. Suddenly this was one of the absolute top social video games in the world, one that you wanted to see in any group setting. Even people who don’t normally play video games often saw the appeal of Mario Kart 64 and joined in on the fun. And even though the first game was a big success, this one was even more popular and truly cemented the series as a mutual favorite between both dedicated and casual players. The game’s presentation is excellent, and the sounds and voice clips let you know right off the bat that you’re in for a quality experience. All eight c...

Fans of the hit Banjo-Kazooie would be happy to receive this sequel two years later. The “Tooie” in the title this time is not the name of a character, but rather a fun way to incorporate the number “two” in a way that rhymes with the first game’s title. Banjo-Tooie on the surface seems very much like the first time, with our heroes taking on the evil witch Gruntilda once again. Much of what I said about the previous game applies to this one, such as the brilliant sound design and fun cartoony vibes. Gameplay feels mostly the same at first too, and you actually start this game with all the unlockable moves from the previous game, which is a pretty cool thing that video game sequels don’t usually do. However, when you start playing through Banjo-Tooie, you’ll come to find that it’s not simply “more of the same” and it does feel like its own thing. The first game was fairly straightforward and had you going through isolated levels and collecting as much stuff as you could along the way. ...

In my post about the console, I mentioned how developer Rare was the most successful company other than Nintendo when it came to developing games for the Nintendo 64. This game, released nearly two years into the console’s life, was very much inspired by Super Mario 64 and served as another major blockbuster hit for fans who couldn’t get enough of that game. The stars of the game are a bear named Banjo and his female bird friend Kazooie who live with Banjo’s little sister Tooty. Living nearby is an evil witch named Gruntilda, who is jealous of Tooty’s prettiness. At the start of the game, Gruntilda captures Tooty and threatens to use a magical machine to transfer Tooty’s beauty to herself. Banjo and Kazooie set out to traverse Gruntilda’s lair to rescue Tooty. Banjo-Kazooie’s world and characters have a lot of personality, very much like a whimsical cartoon. Many normally-inanimate objects have eyeballs and are sentient. Dialogue is delivered by text and there’s no actual voice acting,...

Normally I go through my list of games on a system in alphabetical order, but I really felt that this had to be the first Nintendo 64 game to post about. This was the big launch title for the console and I would argue that it was its most significant game. Super Mario 64 was a game-changer for the entire industry, and without it at launch I think the Nintendo 64 would have done far worse. It’s no surprise that Nintendo wanted Mario to launch with their new console, since doing so had worked out so well in the past. However, with the Nintendo 64 being a 3D console, the developers had to consider how they wanted to design this new Mario game. Would it be like the previous 2D platformers, only with a new 3D coat of paint? No, Super Mario 64 would be a completely different thing entirely.  At the start of the game, Mario gets an invitation to Princess Peach’s castle to have cake. On a side note, this wasn’t the first game where the princess was named “Peach” outside Japan, but this gam...

Nintendo was basically the king of home video games for a whole decade. They achieved a near-monopoly with the Famicom and NES in the 1980s, and still remained on top in the first half of the ‘90s with their Super Nintendo despite fierce competition from Sega. In the following generation, 3D graphics were clearly the new norm, and they would jump into the fray with the Nintendo 64 in 1996. This console was well-equipped with 3D capabilities, too. The 64 in the title refers to the console’s full-fledged 64-bit CPU which was cutting edge at the time. In early gaming days, the amount of “bits” a console had was often cited. The Famicom/NES had 8 bits, the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis had 16, the competing Sega Saturn and PlayStation had 32, but now Nintendo would 1-up everybody (pun intended) with 64! Granted, the results didn’t actually LOOK twice as good as the 32-bit consoles, but it was still impressive hardware for the time.  However…it was clear early on that things weren’t g...

This is probably the consensus pick for “best game on the Virtual Boy”. Wario debuted as the main villain of Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, but then starred as a sort of “bad protagonist” as he greedily looked for treasure in Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. Now, Wario has shed the “Super Mario” part of the title and has made “Wario Land” a series all on its own. This time the premise is that Wario finds himself lost in a cave and has to find a way out, but the cave is loaded with treasure so Wario also wants to get all of it. This game is a 2D platformer and you can play it in a rather straightforward way like a Mario game, but all Wario platformers heavily incentivize the player to go for “100% completion” and find all the important hidden stuff. In this case, there are 10 artifacts scattered throughout the game’s levels, and a player must find them all if they wish to get the game’s best ending. A player may revisit old levels to try and find artifacts that they missed.  A...

Today’s post is gonna be nice and brief, ‘cause there’s really not a whole lot to say about V-Tetris. You already know what Tetris is, so I don’t have to explain that part to you. The game has two modes that you’d expect to see in other early Tetris games, those being endless and line clear modes.  It’s the third mode, “Loop Tetris”, that puts this game on the list. In this mode, you are basically placing Tetris pieces in a cylindrical playing field. In other words, the stack of blocks you see at any given time does not represent everything in play. If you press the shoulder buttons on the controller, you’ll find that there is an entire background layer, and pressing one of those buttons rotates the cylinder one column at a time. This provides a totally unique spin on Tetris! You do not need to have a perfect string of blocks across the entire cylinder in order to clear them, just what’s on screen. But there’s actually a small penalty for only clearing one row at a time, as an extr...

Here’s a neat, obscure little Mario game that remains exclusive to the Virtual Boy as of 2025. It could be considered a sequel of sorts to the popular 1983 arcade game “Mario Bros.” It’s a stage-based game involving Mario trying to get rid of bad guys who are infesting the sewers. The goal is to defeat all enemies in each stage, upon which you will move on to the next one, trying to get the highest score possible.  While the game is conceptually very much like Mario Bros., you can tell immediately that it is very different. For one thing, you no longer defeat enemies by hitting them from the floor below anymore. Instead, Mario must primarily throw turtle shells (by jumping on turtle enemies first) to knock them out. Also, there is now a background and a foreground, taking advantage of the Virtual Boy’s stereoscopic 3D. There are always pipes that Mario can enter to get to the other side, and enemies use them too. The platform and pipe layouts can vary from stage to stage, not to an...

Here’s a game system that you’ve likely never heard of if you’re not a gamer. If you’re a Nintendo fan, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of this thing, but it’s unlikely that you’ve actually played one. It’s Nintendo’s biggest flop of all time, selling less than a million units, far more than any other system they produced. The concept of virtual reality technology seemed enticing to many as technology rapidly developed, and Nintendo wanted to implement the concept into one of their systems. For context, the Virtual Boy came out in 1995, which was the year before Nintendo’s next major home console and well into the Game Boy’s life cycle. As you may tell from the “Boy” in the title, Virtual Boy was to be understood as a sort of portable system. But Nintendo wasn’t dropping the Game Boy upon the Virtual Boy’s release, so they were effectively planning to support three systems at once. It was smart not to halt production of the Game Boy, as the Virtual Boy had no shot at replacing it to...