The N64 has a fair number of 2d games, if you look for them. Most N64 puzzle games are 2d, as are games like the Rampage games, NBA Hangtime, MK Trilogy, Yoshi's Story (my choice for best 2d graphics on the system), and of course Rakuga Kids, Ogre Battle 64, and Wonder Project J2 as have been shown in this thread. It's a small minority of games on the system, but there are some 2d N64 games. As for why...
There were multiple reasons...
- 3D was in - 2D was out
- 2D sprites consumed more ROM space than 3D models/animations - cartridges were expensive and any increase in ROM size would reduce profit margins for everyone
- 2D consumed more RAM than 3D
- If you were to use 2D, it would typically look low-res due to RAM/ROM limitations
This is a good list of the reasons, yes. Basically the N64 didn't have many 2d games outside of the puzzle game genre (and everyone forgets it, but most N64 puzzle games are entirely 2d!) because carts are expensive, so developers focused on the kinds of games the market most wanted -- 3d games. I don't know why some people in this thread are claiming that Nintendo had anti-2d policies, it is absolutely untrue while Sony very much did on the PS1 and PS2, but gamers in general were biased against 2d on consoles at that time, and developers did not want to release many 2d games for a system with relatively high production costs.
After the DF video about Castlevania: SotN, I'd be intrigued to learn how 2D images were produced by the N64 hardware. Were there set limit on sprites and parallax layers like the 16-bit consoles or were they treated more similarly to 3D objects or textures?
Just like the Playstation, the N64 basically uses flat polygons for sprites. The Saturn is the only one of the three with real sprite abilities.
The 2D Rayman 2 game was planned for PS1 and Saturn.
Yeah, that wasn't even going to be an N64 game, just PS1 and Saturn originally... and Nintendo both published 2d games here and let publishers release whatever 2d games they liked; publishers just didn't want to release many. So I don't really believe this unless it's proven. Nintendo didn't do that. They only blocked games for censorship reasons, not 2d or 3d.
As for Rayman 2, the move to 3d was a good thing. It ended up being really amazing!