The N64 was my console of choice as a kid because I was a huge wrestling fan. The greatest wrestling games ever released on the console. On top of that it had instant classics such as Super Mario 64, a masterclass in how to do 3D platforming, Ocarina of Time, F-Zero, and pretty much anything that Rare released before being bought up by Microsoft and losing their heart and creativity.
But this is not a list of happy memories. Instead, this is a list of the pain many of us kids felt when he played any one of these gaming disasters. Chances are that you at least rented a few of these games back in the day, I know I did, and many still linger in the back of my mind reminding me how sometimes video games can be so bad they make you want to never play video games again.
As always, we’ve pulled the crispest videos we can from some amazing content creators on YouTube. If we are going to talk about the worst games on the N64 might as well see them in their best possible graphical fidelity. Hit that subscribe button on any/all of these guy and help pay it forward!
Now, let’s get to the games!
- – Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98
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Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98 is about as disgusting as a publisher can get with a video. This is simply a reskin of Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey that came out when the N64 launched. The only difference here is that the added new colors and international teams in order to sell it and make a few bucks off the Olympic license without doing more than a weekends worth of work. Hell, the cheat codes from Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey still work here. The worst thing is that Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey was a great game, so much so that it still sat on store shelves when Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98 came out. This mean you could have already owned Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey and picked up Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98 because you loved hockey and wanted a new game without knowing you technically already owned the damn thing. Hands down the worst game on the N64 for the shitty move alone.
- – Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
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KEMCO is a studio of bare minimums. They make video games the way I studied for a test in high school; cram as much as possible at the last possible second and pass the test by the skin of your teeth. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is hot garbage that does nothing with the license. The best part of the game is the art on the cartridge. The game looks bad, plays bad, and features Bat-Gadgets that are worse than using your fists alone. The game is simply bland room after bland room hitting the punch button. It’s a video game, sure, but just barely. Funny enough, KEMCO is still around now making cheap and generic smartphone RPGs that it then ports to console digital stores at a very inflated cost.
- – Dual Heroes
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The N64 was great at a lot of things. One thing it was never, ever, good at though was getting a good fighting game. Just look at an N64 controller and tell me you’d love using that to playing a past-paced fighter. This is why most ever fighter stuck you on the D-Pad. Dual Heroes is what happens when a Japanese company releases a bad game in its home country that no one likes or buys. In order to recoup lots of lost money on development they probably thought selling it overseas was a great idea, and, to be fair, shit like that worked for years before the internet. But by 1998 things were changing and early sites and gaming magazines were warning to stay away from this one. The game stinks and features terrible character designs and movement controls tied to the joystick. No thank you, Japan. Keep your trash to yourself.
- – Carmageddon 64
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The original Carmageddon on PC was a fun game that relied more on shock value than being a good game. In fact, it wasn’t all that great. Part racing game part Twisted Metal. It made waves because it featured gruesome looking cars splattering pedestrians in all sorts of fun ways. I played the original on PC and don’t think I ever actually completed a race in the traditional manner. The game was a cathartic experience of blood and guts where the gameplay mostly an afterthought. Carmageddon 64, brought to you by the people who released Superman 64, is essentially the same game downgraded for a console, but it was also censored taking out all the morbid fun of the original. Running over a few zombies who spit out some green mist and then disappear just isn’t the same game. It’s like you took the, well, Carmageddon out of Carmageddon. Ever funnier is that in Germany it got censored again, taking the zombies and making them extinct dinosaurs instead. Avoid this one at all costs.
- – Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
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Many might select Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue as the worst N64 game and they could easily make a case for why. This is nothing more than simply making a quick buck around the holiday’s off an established kids brand. Kids who love the Power Rangers might ask for it, and lazy parents and distant grandparents will pick up it because they’ve heard of the Power Rangers thing. This is a masterclass in doing the care minimum to be considered a video game. THQ knew they had a stinker as they only released the game in North America at a time when Power Rangers were falling out of favor. I still have no idea why they picked up the license, something that costs money, only to released something like this. The goal of the game is to run around like a robot needing to use the toilet and trying save the city from monsters, but I couldn’t be bothered. It’s one of the very few times I’ve given up on a game in the first level. Apparently there are multiple play modes in the game, but I’ll never find out.
- – Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
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Oh, what could have been. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was supposed to be a new era for the Mortal Kombat series. It was going to take the fighting game and create sub-series of all the major characters and they were kicking it off with Sub-Zero himself. I remember people being really excited to get their hands on this one. Screenshots looked great, and the idea of a 3D side-scroller that expanded on his story was perfect. Unfortunately, this is another case of bare minimum in terms of development. Instead of creating a new engine or creating a 3D game, the team instead decided it was easier, and cheaper, to take the fighting game engine and make it a side-scroller like in the days of the SNES and Genesis. Needless to say it did not go well. Playing a game with lots of movement on an engine that required to to hit a dedicated button to turn around was a complete mess and a total nightmare when it flipped you without hitting a button. Everything was terrible, and the worst of it was that the N64 lacked the hilarious cutscenes the PS1 version got. Seriously, those are the only reason to every play this stinker.
- – Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
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Of all the games on this list I’m pretty sure Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals is one title that simpy wasn’t finished before release. So much of this game makes very little sense, and while Tranformers were going through a bit of a rough patch, the Beast Wars (better know as Beasties in countries that hated children) was a pretty cool show. The basic idea for a game is here: a 3-D, free-roaming fighting game. The story is strange and features a defeated Megtron sending a message back to his old self about how he lost. Then lots of metal animals fight it out! And by fight it out I mean you use one of three attacks to hit another robo-animal until their energy runs out. Graphics are really muddy, which don’t help the action, but the music and sound (characters are voiced) are top notch which keep this Blockbuster exclusive towards the bottom of the list.
- – Deadly Arts
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Apparently this game is worth a little bit of money. Shame, since I got rid of this one as a kid because, even at the time, I knew it wasn’t a great game. The Deadly Arts box knew who to sell the idea of this 3D fighter for the N64. The cast is unique (I still can recall all the female fighters), graphics look fair enough, and, well, that’s about it. The framerate is really low and while there are combos in the game, slamming to punch and kick over and over again never let me down. What’s weird, though, is that you can actually lose a round even if you have more health. The game uses a weird points system, so if you end a match and both players are still standing it tallies up how did better. This means you can lose even if you have more health. And this does happen a bunch as rounds are only 30 seconds long. Look, It’s not the worst, but when it didn’t do well in Japan you know it only came West to try and recoup some money. The real fun you’ll have is the character creator that makes for some replay value and keeps it low on this list.
- Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction
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One of the final games for the Nintendo 64, Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Traction can only be one of three things: a sports title, an instant classic, or a cheap cash-grab trying to bilk the last ounces of change out of a dying console. Considering it’s on this list you can guess which point it falls under. This is a quick Power Stone clone that, while on paper seems like a great idea, falls apart in execution. The combat is sluggish, the framerate is trash, and it barely works at times. The computer can easily cancel your attacks, you can easily get stuck in an infinite loop because of laggy animation, and while you can throw items, the AI seems to always catch them. The animated style of the Powerpuff Girls should work really well on the N64, but everything is muddy and low-res. At the very least the game works, but it only exists for parents to pick up when trying to connect with their kids and not wanting to buy anything that might be too violent for Christmas. If you can hit a single button you can probably beat the entire game with all three girls in about 30-minutes. So, give or take, about two episodes of the actual show. At least those would be more fun.
- Superman
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Not called Superman 64, Superman for the N64 might surprise a lot of people because it isn’t even close to being the worst game on the N64. Hell, it’s not even the worst game Titus released for the N64. The biggest issue with this one, at least after learning its history, is that it just wasn’t ready for release. The team were rushed and never got to release the game they wanted. The plan was to fix up the game for the PS1 release, but they never got the chance. So, as it stands, this is the game we got. It’s a slow game that sees you flying through rings. In fact, most people probably gave up on the game during the first ring section because of how bad it feels. The rest of the game is better, but not by much. Everything in the game works, it’s just really sluggish and makes you question whether you pressed a button or not. And good luck pickup up items when flying. And then there’s the clipping that happens when flying or running about that made players wonder how this one even was allowed to be released. At the very least, Superman is a good laugh with some friends, unlike many of the games on this list that are just plain bad.
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