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What was the N64 game with the overall best graphics?
- Thread starter Alex_Mexico
- Start date
Yeah I played it recently to take those screenshots and it was a nightmare for me, lol.
Version 3.0
Member
Eh, I played it on high res. But even back then, when lower framerates weren't called out as much, it was pretty bad. It wasn't just a low framerate, it was unsteady in a very weird way, with changes in speed while walking or turning. It was disconcerting.
I wouldn't call it literally unplayable (since I literally played it). But although I can quite happily go back to a lot games with poor framerates by today's standard, Turok 2 is not a game that I see myself ever replaying.
Cool screenshots, Timu. Thanks.
That game was mindblowing visually at the time, especially the in-car view.Honorable mentions
F1 World Grand Prix II Was the best looking F1 sim at the time, with "photorealistic" visuals.
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I remember popping into Game on Grafton Street, Dublin and they had a demo station set up with this game. One office worker in his late twenties was playing it and it blew his friend's mind to such a degree that he bought the N64 and F1 World Grand Prix right there and then. Dude was visibly drooling.
I had the Psygnosis F1 game on PlayStation already and this was just an unimaginable leap beyond it, both graphically and in terms of gameplay, more a sim than the arcade experience offered by other variants.
It hasn't gotten much love in this thread, maybe because F1 wasn't as big a deal in the US as in Europe, especially in the UK and Ireland with the rivalry between Damon Hill and Schumacher at the time.
Thank you, finally I get more recognition!
The head-bobbing combined with the drunken sway of the gun and the chugging frame rate was what made it feel so terrible IMO.
I played through it to the end at the time as well, but it was definitely a struggle. I remember the normally reliable N64 magazine proclaiming it as better than GoldenEye - lol.
I think he's onto something. I just dropped some acid and played a bit of Conker. It looked way better than any PS2 game! Here's some screenshots I took.
HyperZone<3
Member
my choice has got to be Star Fox 64, which had good performance (submarine stage notwithstanding) and never pushed the hardware where it shouldn't go. The only game of its genre that may have looked better was Sin and Punishment, but I think some of the character models got a little too spikey for my taste.
Mental Atrophy
Banned
I like Ogre Battle 64, but I hate the way it looks compared to the SNES game. I'm not the biggest fan of the way older low-resolution pre-rendered sprites look.
SpookyFries
Member
I am going to go with Conker as well. That game looked incredible for the N64. Could have almost pasted as a Dreamcast games in some spots
Turok 2/3 and Perfect Dark were also spectacular looking gsmes on the console
Turok 2/3 and Perfect Dark were also spectacular looking gsmes on the console
No. Miyamoto is known for doing these kinds of things. Dinosaur Planet, had it released on the N64, probably would've taken the crown. It's completely mad what they were doing with that game. I remember going bonkers seeing the preview video.
potatohead
Member
@Timu beautiful screens, really like the racing and Wave Race ones, awesome.
Holyoneturtle
Member
Question. Is jet force Gemini considered a hidden gem. I love that game but feel like not enough people knew about it.
Also I remember smash 64 looked amazing at the time.
Also I remember smash 64 looked amazing at the time.
Thank you! Yeah World Drive Championship is a looker. And the waves are still awesome in Wave Race.
I'm new be nice
Member
I feel like I haven't seen real N64 shots in many many years, thanks for posting! I'd love to see more... specifically Mario 64, as I agree with many posters in this thread, that game utilized the N64 perfectly. Stuff like the paintings shimmering, metal Mario, and standing atop high mountain areas of the game always impressed me more than most N64 games, short of Perfect Dark.
I will certainly get to Super Mario 64 soon! Yes, I prefer real console shots over emulators.
Toadthemushroom
Member
It'd be amazing if we could get some gifs of Wave Race 64 in motion.
Here's some footage of what I believe to be the game running on an actual N64: https://youtu.be/A0-Oe_Z6IZk?t=654
Anyone able to make some good gifs? I'm not up to the task!
Here's some footage of what I believe to be the game running on an actual N64: https://youtu.be/A0-Oe_Z6IZk?t=654
Anyone able to make some good gifs? I'm not up to the task!
Depend if you think a million selling game can be considered "hidden".
Lynd7
Member
Here's some captures from my N64 through the UltraHDMI. I took most in the sharp pixels integer mode, this is 2x the N64 output with no filtering. I have also taken some with the scanline filter on.
Doom 64 looks great in the integer scaling mode, scanlines make it a bit too dark. The game is very dark overall, this was with the brightness in game boosted to max.
I took some of other games, but can post later if people want more.
Integer Scaling
Doom 64
Conker
Scanlines
Doom
Conker
Doom 64 looks great in the integer scaling mode, scanlines make it a bit too dark. The game is very dark overall, this was with the brightness in game boosted to max.
I took some of other games, but can post later if people want more.
Integer Scaling
Doom 64
Conker
The infamous sunflower
Scanlines
Doom
Conker
Robin64
Member
Probably not, it's part of Rare Replay on Xbox One (which is 20 quid!), so even more people will have played it now.
User 479360
Banned
Definitely not Body Harvest, but it was one of the most fun N64 games.
nkarafo
Member
Thanks for the shots (Timu thanks also).
Doom 64 may as well be the game that has aged better than any other for the machine.
I'm new be nice
Member
Awesome shots! I understand completely why most people preferred the sharp look of ps1 textures, but to me there's just something so unique and intriguing about the way the N64 did things. It has an almost organic feel to it, and it's so easy to forget that when you're looking at it through a high res emulator on a LCD. Such an impressive wonderful time that was.
I'm torn on Body Harvest.
On one hand I recognize its importance as the granddaddy of the free roaming genre in 3D which would breakthrough with GTA III three years later.
But I don't enjoy it, I think it's too clumsy.
nuttyevans
Member
BH is one of those games I'm very proud to have actually beaten. Man I had so much free time in those days..
I wouldn't even say most.
Are we talking Japanese launch or American launch here?
For Japanese launch, aside from Kessen (which was impressive for the huge number of on-screen characters), every game ran at 60fps. That alone is kind of a big deal in the face of Conker running at 15-20. Conker is artistically more beautiful than many of those titles, though, I can agree with that.
Am I the only one that thinks Rare's N64 games are aesthetically hideous?
Best graphics rundown on a console where games regularly ran at 15fps doesn't mean much. Developers were biting off more than they could chew in the name of 3D is better.
Paper Mario is a beautiful example of what N64 could and should have been. Instead we got low framerate, low draw distance, foggy games with low music quality, low resolution textures (list goes on).
Paper Mario is the only legit visually appealing game on the system. Fantastic art direction and a visual scheme which the console could actually handle.
Paper Mario is a beautiful example of what N64 could and should have been. Instead we got low framerate, low draw distance, foggy games with low music quality, low resolution textures (list goes on).
Paper Mario is the only legit visually appealing game on the system. Fantastic art direction and a visual scheme which the console could actually handle.
Toadthemushroom
Member
But we've mentioned plenty of games which ran at stable, smooth framerates and either had well balanced visuals or great art direction.
Animal Forest, Wave Race 64 and 1080 Snowboarding instantly come to mind as far as Nintendo's own efforts go, and you could easily also include F Zero X and Super Mario 64.
It became Starfox way before MS was even in the buying picture. Although I've heard a couple of times that Krystal was kept in even though she could easily be cut just so she'd stay with Nintendo, because the people at Rare didn't think MS would ever do anything with her again.
I mean, they were pretty much right. Microsoft bought the rights to Joanna Dark and Kameo and just finished the existing GameCube games and sat on them ever since. Nintendo actually used Krystal two more times in Assault and Command.
edit:
Joanna Dark - existing GC game ported and finished, no new games after.
Kameo - existing GC game ported and finished, no new games after.
Conker - existing N64 game ported to Xbox. no new games after.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies - existing GC game ported to Xbox, no new games after.
Banjo - existing GBA game finished and released, got one new game on 360, now dead.
Viva Pinata - was just a tech demo in the GameCube era, made into a full IP for 360, PC, and DS and a TV show.
Man, when you look at it that way, the Microsoft acquisition of all those IPs is a head scratcher.
Version 3.0
Member
I was going to say much the same, but I couldn't remember for sure if it had a bobbing walk, and I wasn't at home to check.
My friend had the same low opinion of the N64, until I showed him several games that don't fall into that category. The performance of F-Zero X and Doom 64 in particular changed his ill-founded perception of the console.
I don't mean to say there wasn't a consensus lower floor at the time, because there was. And not just the N64; that entire generation was rough and on the whole, didn't age particularly well. But I disagree that this means this type of discussion "doesn't mean much". You could say it means more - the cream of the crop arguably stands out better.
daTRUballin
Member
The Rare acquisition had so much potential, but it was completely a waste in the end. Let's hope Microsoft actually starts using Rare to their fullest potential this generation.
No, I agree. I think they're mostly awful.
Perfect Dark, though, has a nice sense of style held back by the frame-rate.
facetheslayer92
Member
Imagine what Rare could've done with Dinosaur Planet running on N64(faints)
10 frames per second.
If you're gonna do this level, take shots of the (fake) puddle reflections!
Nice ones!
Toadthemushroom
Member
Shout out to DK64 - captured the "feel" of the artwork pretty well.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Is it true that Joanna Dark looks different in the Japanese version? I heard her face got changed when the game was localized. I like to see how they compare if it's true.
APZonerunner
Member
The Japanese version of PD is surprisingly different. The game had a 'Red and Black' theme over there, so a lot of the menus etc were changed to be red and black (EG the N64/PD logo in the opening is not metal, but sort of a blood red on a black background.
And, yep, among that, they changed Jo's face:
They also removed all references to Jonathan being Jo's brother (something they retconned in PDZ etc anyway), removed blood, and removed the combat knife weapon entirely as it was deemed too violent.
Actually, yeah, DK64 is not half bad looking.
Gonna repost this:
Here's 4 games and hopefully more coming, note that these are taken directly from the console with no upscaling, no filters, just scan doubled from 720x240 to 720x480 due to the NTSC signal.
World Driver Championship
http://i.cubeupload.com/RzmafG.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/jCfG9K.pngIMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/tJtVlm.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/6Clpiv.png[IMG]
Turok 2
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/57mvz5.pnghttp://i.cubeupload.com/H4fXQs.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/a1ltf6.png[IMG]
1080 Snowboarding
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/fqRec4.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/7YOexX.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/M6X6Vd.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/aXGrtF.png[/MG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/TAh987.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/WWULSX.png[/MG]
Wave Race 64
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/1RwyUs.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/bZqMrJ.pngIMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/xlPEPt.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/Hmqc6j.png[/IG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/0lf3nK.png[IMG][IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/vncrl5.png[/MG]
The reason Turok 2 has 3 because honestly, it's tough to take screenshots of that game, lol.
Remember I took these directly from the console, no emulation crap.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your effort! It's been a while since I looked at real N64 shots. Some of the art really profited from scan-lines and covered a bit of the hard edges imo, even if the resolution was awful!
Auto-Reply
Member
To be completely fair though, no scanlines means that this is not exactly how these games looked in the late 90's on CRT TVs.
nkarafo
Member
Technically yes, very impressive, but the art direction was somewhat ugly.