When Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in 1996, it absolutely blew away the competition, showing just what the company could do with a 64-bit processor. The system competed with the Sony PlayStation and produced some of the greatest games ever made, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately, with a library of nearly 400 officially licensed games, there’s bound to be some stinkers, and the N64’s library has quite a few. We looked through the lot and found the ten worst games released on the system. They were chosen based on contemporary critics’ reviews upon release, how frustrating they were to play, and how much gamers hated them.
Blues Brothers 2000 isn’t the best movie in the world, but it’s about a billion times better than the game it inspired. Because of delays, the game wasn’t released until two years after the film, which is never a good sign, and in this case, Blues Brothers 2000 shouldn’t have been released at all. The platformer is only loosely based on the movie and doesn’t offer much fun. It’s a boring platformer that takes little time to beat, the graphics aren’t great, and it’s pretty much a reskin of other, more successful 3D platformers that had already come and gone on the system, making players wish they hadn’t spent their cash on Blues Brothers 2000.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero isn’t your typical game in the franchise because it’s not a fighting game; it’s an action-adventure game. It’s set before Mortal Kombat, and follows Bi-Han as he goes on a quest to find an amulet. It introduces some characters and story elements that fit into Mortal Kombat 4, making it a tie-in to that game, which was released later in the year. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is considered to be one of the worst games in the franchise, as it’s devoid of any fun, features frustrating gameplay, and performed poorly on the N64, while the PlayStation port was only marginally better.
WCW Backstage Assault is the last game to be branded under World Championship Wrestling, as it was soon after acquired by the World Wrestling Federation. Unlike previous games, it takes place outside the ring and uses somewhat cartoonish graphics. This was a departure from previously successful wrestling titles, and the fans didn’t like it at all. Across PlayStation and N64, it sold only around 200,000 copies, which is pretty terrible. Essentially, it only attracted hardcore wrestling game collectors, while everyone else avoided it. Even the fans didn’t much like it, as it’s not a well-made title, though the N64 port was better received than the PS version.
In Daikatana, the player controls a swordmaster who carries the eponymous sword across various time periods. It’s a first-person shooter action role-playing game that should have done well given its scope, but the final product left much to be desired. Critics lambasted it for its crummy graphics, repetitive sound effects, terrible AI, and poor gameplay. The game barely sold 40,000 copies, which is absolutely awful, and there’s really no way to put lipstick on that pig because “failure” doesn’t even begin to describe Daikatana’s sales performance. It has long been considered among the worst games ever made and is easily one of the worst N64 games ever released.
The 1990s were filled with exceptional fighting games, but Duel Heroes wasn’t one of them. The game was released in 1998 in North America, and the new IP completely failed against the competition. The biggest complaint at the time was its sloppy controls, making it difficult to play well. Its fighting mechanics were also pretty poorly coded, and the system’s AI made it pretty boring. The enemy characters would run after the player, but would then fly like lemmings off an edge, falling to their deaths. It’s funny once, but as it keeps happening, the game loses all enjoyment pretty quickly.
Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue is based on the TV series’ 8th season, and the game was developed by multiple studios for different systems. Mass Media developed the N64 release, which features simultaneous one- or two-player gameplay, using the Rangers, their vehicles, and, of course, Megazords. It features the show’s cast as well as audio clips, and it should have been great. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly boring and repetitive, which isn’t a great combination. Most of the gameplay is just uninteresting, making you want to pull it out of the N64 and do literally anything else than play Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue.
Sports games are usually well-made and can be relied on to be great sources of entertainment and excellent money-makers. Unfortunately, Olympic Hockey ’98 wasn’t such a game, because it’s actually a complete re-skin of Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98, but without his endorsement. It does, however, have the endorsement from the 1998 Winter Olympics. Otherwise, it’s the same exact game. As a result, Olympic Hockey ’98 received a 0 rating from IGN. Still, beyond that, even the game it copied wasn’t all that great, as it didn’t add anything new from its predecessors, making gamers wonder why Midway bothered with this release in the first place.
Superman: The New Adventures, best known as Superman 64, is the worst game released on the N64. It’s also the worst Superman game ever made, and it’s one that I absolutely loathe. The game is so badly made that it’s infamous. The first level alone is enough to make most players rage quit, thanks to its horrid collision detection and controls. You have to fly through rings while timed, and it’s almost impossible. The next level isn’t much better, but even if you get through that, you’re right back to the rings! The game is so incredibly awful that it’s widely considered to be one of the worst games ever made.
Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, known as Carmageddon 64 on the N64, was released in 1998 and ported to multiple systems. The uber-violent game was well received on PC, but the N64 port was torn to shreds by critics and was decried as one of the worst games of the year when it was released. The port was clearly rushed because it’s messy. The framerate is way off, the textures don’t look right, and the overall graphics flicker. It’s digital garbage that should have gone through some measure of quality control before it was coded onto blank cartridges, but given the state of Carmageddon 64 when it shipped, it’s hard to believe anyone QCd the game at all.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was an animated feature film that spawned several video games, including one released for the N64. The side-scrolling beat-’em-up did fairly well on the Game Boy Color, but the N64 port utterly failed to please anyone. It was decried for being outdated, with terrible graphics and poor sound. The gameplay wasn’t balanced well at all, and the entire thing could be easily beaten in just a couple of hours, ensuring it wasn’t worth the cost of purchasing Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. It’s one of the lowest-rated games on the N64, and a terrible example of a Batman game, as there are some great games featuring the Dark Knight.
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