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Home » 10 N64 Video games We Performed In A Wondrous Alternate Timeline
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10 N64 Video games We Performed In A Wondrous Alternate Timeline

Editorial TeamBy Editorial TeamJune 24, 2026No Comments12 Mins Read
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10 N64 Video games We Performed In A Wondrous Alternate Timeline
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Certainly one of a number of cancelled 64DD initiatives, it was often known as ‘Maiden of Darkness’ and was in growth with sequence creator Shouzou Kaga on the helm till his departure from Nintendo following the completion of Tremendous Famicom’s Thracia 776 (one other Japan-only entry). The sport was quickly cancelled, though character ideas and different components have been used within the growth of The Binding Blade on GBA.

Official phrase on the sport has been uncommon within the years since, with no identified builds current past no matter Nintendo could have locked in its archives. We have glimpsed solely a single screenshot, in 2015, within the twenty fifth anniversary ebook The Making of Hearth Emblem:

Whereas the sequence would change into identified to worldwide gamers quickly sufficient, and a house console launch on GameCube adopted Marth and Roy’s Smash Bros. debut, it could have been fascinating to see Clever Techniques’ 64-bit interpretation and the superlative Ogre Battle 64 some firm within the N64’s slim tactical RPG lineup.

#2 – Tekken 64

Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Of all of the video games my PS1-owning buddies had, Tekken 3 made me most jealous. (Sure, even the sluggish PAL model.) Die Exhausting Trilogy was one other, and maybe Metallic Gear Stable and Gran Turismo, however Tekken may have been an excellent match on a system that has a number of respectable fighters to its title, however no solid-gold classics.

It took some time, however ultimately the N64 would get variations of PS1 stalwarts like WipeOut, Ridge Racer, Tony Hawk’s, and Resident Evil 2 — all of which felt someway illicit on Nintendo {hardware} — however we would not get a house console Tekken till…*checks notes*…Tekken Tag Match 2 on the Wii U! And that is nonetheless the one non-handheld entry in Namco’s sequence we have gotten.

N64 had a number of respectable fighters (Rakugakids, Killer Intuition Gold), and Fighters Future provides me the nice and cozy fuzzies for some purpose (Stockholm syndrome?), nevertheless it was by no means a king of fighters. Type it out, Bamco.

#3 – GoldenEye ‘2’

GoldenEye 007
Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Nintendo’s endurance with Uncommon when GoldenEye 007 was delayed and ultimately launched 21 months after the film paid dividends, with the sport promoting over 8 million copies ultimately. Naturally, Nintendo requested the dev workforce in the event that they needed to make a sequel, however they opted as a substitute for Excellent Darkish. The restrictions of the IP — to not point out the royalties raked in by the holders of stated IP — made pursuing its personal property extra enticing from each design and monetary views.

However lets say for a second that Martin Hollis and co. did determine to crack on with a Bond sequel. On the time, Tomorrow By no means Dies would have been off the playing cards because the film was launched simply three months after GoldenEye (the sport). Then once more, that did not cease EA’s horrible PlayStation adaptation popping out in 1999 – a sport we have been mercifully spared on N64. However a Rareware tackle The World Is Not Sufficient? It stirs the creativeness.

There was an N64 TWINE sport, after all; Eurocom’s effort wasn’t unhealthy, nevertheless it lacked Uncommon’s refinement. It could have been intriguing to see the small Twycross workforce take a second shot at Bond, placing all the pieces they realized the primary time into follow from the beginning.

Do not get me unsuitable, Excellent Darkish is nice, and notionally a ‘GoldenEye 2’, nevertheless it’s not, is it? 007 may need gone to area that one time, however he is by no means tussled with aliens; a Bond sequel would have simply strafed across the weakest elements of Excellent Darkish (learn: all of the Skedar bits) completely by advantage of being earthbound.

Talking of which…

#4 – EarthBound 64

Dipping again into the realm of cancelled video games, just like Hearth Emblem, the unique Mom 3 was one other 64DD challenge which went sideways across the flip of the millennium. It was proven in playable type at Area World 1999, however had been cancelled inside a 12 months.

Buoyed by the success of Mario 64 and underestimating the complexity of the transfer to 3D, the challenge acquired slowed down by ambition, to the non-public remorse of Satoru Iwata, who stated he was “embarrassed that we weren’t in a position to end it” shortly after its cancellation.

The silver lining, after all, is that this would ultimately see the sunshine of day in a special type, with sequence creator Shigesato Itoi transforming components from EB64 for 2006’s Mom 3 on GBA. A contented ending – at the least in Japan. For EarthBound followers within the West, the dearth of official localisations outdoors Japan stays a bone of competition (though the fan translation is superb).

However wanting again at what may have been with our polygon-tinted specs, although, the temporary glimpses and accounts we have now of the 64-bit Mom 3 make it a tantalising prospect.

#5 – Star Fox 64 2

Star Fox 64 Japanese Copy
Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

After completely distilling the spirit of the SNES authentic (and the sequel they shelved) and mixing it with the proper amount of B-movie shlock and spectacle — equal elements Thunderbirds and Star Wars — Nintendo concocted such a scrumptious rail-shooting cocktail with Star Fox 64 that they’ve spent the final 30 years attempting to shake up one thing as tasty. Working example: the soon-to-be-released Star Fox is following the very same recipe.

Nintendo does make pretty ‘straight’ sequels occasionally – suppose Tremendous Mario Galaxy 2, which builds very immediately on its predecessor. We noticed one such first-party sport on N64, too, with Majora’s Masks. So why not construct on Lylat Wars’ Rumble Pak-powered momentum and observe it up with an Enlargement Pak-powered sequel, with grander-scale fight and a few new concepts? Going again to the Independence Day-inspired Katina in the present day, it feels a lot smaller than it did in 1997. There was room to go a bit greater.

With Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo, we did fairly effectively for sci-fi flight fight, and Treasure’s Sin and Punishment is one other all-timer in N64’s Japanese rail-shooter library. Nonetheless, what I might have given for an additional star system’s price of Star Fox’s specific B-movie model. Mockingly, if the remake on Change 2 does effectively, maybe our want will come true (type of) over three a long time on.

#6 – Ultimate Fantasy VII (and VIII, and IX)

Final Fantasy VII
Picture: Gemma Smith / Nintendo Life

Following the SNES, Sq.’s cut up with Nintendo (because of cart-size restrictions and Sony’s cheaper, much less restrictive CDs and licence phrases) left a giant RPG-shaped gap within the N64 catalogue. It was a big think about PlayStation’s success at a time when pre-rendered cutscenes, crisp voice work, and orchestral scores have been novelties and next-gen signifiers.

Later within the technology, video games like Resident Evil 2 proved that it was technically potential to squeeze a CD’s price of information onto a (massive) N64 cart. Ultimately, getting a sport like FF7 on the system would have been technically potential, with caveats. However the incentive simply wasn’t there.

Not so on this alternate timeline, although! There, all of us performed and loved FFVII, VIII, and IX on N64, following proper on from the SNES entries Ultimate Fantasy II (IV) and Ultimate Fantasy III (VI).

Additionally, all of the video games acquired English localisation and releases on this actuality, so it went cleanly from FF to FFVI with no regional confusion or must screw your face up and rely in your fingers. Pretty.

#7 – Metroid 64

Sandwiched between these two...
Sandwiched between these two...
Sandwiched between these two… — Photos: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Of all of the Nintendo sequence with a traditional 16-bit entry that then skipped a technology, Metroid is a giant one. In response to director Yoshio Sakamoto, he did take into account how a Nintendo 64 entry would possibly work, however struggled to discover a idea that may work with its controller. “I simply couldn’t think about the way it might be used to maneuver Samus round,” he informed GamesTM in 2010.

Whereas comprehensible on the time — once more, 3D was the Large New Factor™ and the principle differentiator from the earlier console technology — it is a disgrace {that a} side-on Metroid wasn’t thought-about. N64 has a startlingly low variety of 2D video games, however it could have been refreshing to have a first-party title past Yoshi’s Story that dared to be totally different.

It is tempting to look again, see the success of GameCube’s Metroid Prime only a handful of years later, and transplant its first-person Samus again a technology, utilizing her 64-bit rendition from Tremendous Smash Bros. as a pure place to begin. But the problem of making an enticing 3D Metroid in a interval earlier than first-person shooters grew to become the de facto type for the largest console video games…effectively, it is simpler stated than carried out.

Trendy-day followers have taken to filling that 64-bit hole themselves, with fan initiatives like AM64 imagining what may need been. Try the gameplay footage under and revel within the chunky polys and nostalgia – and ponder if Jet Pressure Gemini is mostly a Metroid sport in googly-eyed disguise.

So, we have had a Metroid – time for a ‘Vania…

#8 – Castlevania: 64 of the Evening

Castlevania
Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

The 2 Castlevania video games on N64 (effectively, one and a half) get a foul rap, most likely as a result of they got here immediately after 1997’s chic Symphony of the Evening and, as fascinating as Castlevania and Legacy of Darkness are as 3D experiments, they ain’t no Symphony of the Evening, that is for certain.

Ah, however let’s suppose for a second that they have been SotN. Once more, it is a case of 2D feeling dreadfully last-gen at a time when the burgeoning 3D period actually added one other dimension. SotN took time to construct its repute; it wasn’t huge vendor out of the gate.

With time, side-on and top-down video games would return, however 2D within the late ’90s was seen as backwards-looking and old style when polygons represented the bleeding edge for sport tech. Even video games arguably greatest suited to 2D (see Earthbound 64) have been being shoehorned into the third dimension.

Nevertheless, we’re a greater, extra refined and clever species on this alternate universe, and SotN (or some ‘Extremely’ variant) launched on N64 to nice fanfare and significant and industrial success.

#9 – Contra 64

Contra SFC
Picture: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

On the subject of Konami sequence starting with ‘C’, the one legit Contra 64 in existence is the Commodore 64 port of the unique, sadly (though I at all times loved how Nintendo carried the Commodore’s ’64’ baton – in title solely, after all, I simply benefit from the symmetry of ‘firm + quantity’).

‘Contra Spirits 64‘ was supposedly in growth for Nintendo’s system at one level. Then once more, Appaloosa Interactive’s modern PlayStation efforts, Contra: Legacy of Warfare and C: The Contra Journey, we would have dodged a bullet with this one.

A traditional case of mid-’90s 2D phobia, maybe. A side-on Contra on N64 would have been a clumsy match, however the underrated Mischief Makers — which got here from Treasure, a studio made up of Konami and Contra vets — proves that there was potential if we simple-minded ’90s players may have simply opened our minds a bit of.

In our various timeline, Probotector 64 blew our collective minds and RD008 and RC011 supplanted meatheads Invoice and Lance because the sequence heroes in all territories.

#10 – Tremendous Mario 64 2

Super Mario 64
Picture: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life

Sure, sure, the ‘Mario 128’ demo tech ended up going into Pikmin for essentially the most half. Sure, Tremendous Mario 64 DS added a few bells and whistles (and characters). And sure, modders within the 30 years since have taken the baton and carried out all kinds of extraordinary issues to Mario 64. Mario 64 Maker, anybody?

However think about, if you’ll, a direct Galaxy 2-style sequel. Choosing up the place the final sport left off, you climb aboard your dino mount on the highest of Peach’s Fort and warp-pipe your option to Bowser’s Fort. Or another fortress belonging to Wario or Wart, if you happen to like – we are able to workshop the small print later. The purpose is, it is the setting for an additional entire new playground expertise, constructing on and bouncing off the concepts within the seminal first one. Think about it.

It was over 20 years earlier than Mario Odyssey lastly delivered a sandbox playground that felt like a real successor to the N64’s launch sport, however I ponder what the devs may have produced with mid- or late-cycle 3D Mario on the identical system.

The tech was transferring too quick again in these days to swing round for an additional cross, maybe. All of it labored out ultimately, however as with the entire above, it is enjoyable to ascertain a world the place issues went only a little in a different way.


Which of the above sounds tickles your fantasy fancy most? Do you dream of a Metallic Gear 64 or getting Animal Crossing a technology earlier within the West? what to do…

Which of those cancelled or imagined 64-bit video games would you have got preferred to play most? (556 votes)

  1. Hearth Emblem 6410%
  2. Tekken 642%
  3. GoldenEye 27%
  4. EarthBound 6420%
  5. Star Fox 64 25%
  6. Ultimate Fantasy VII+7%
  7. Metroid 6424%
  8. Castlevania 64 of the Evening3%
  9. Contra 64  0.7%
  10. Tremendous Mario 64 220%
  11. One thing else (remark under!)2%

See Additionally

Gavin Lane

Gavin first wrote for Nintendo Life in 2018 earlier than becoming a member of the location full-time the next 12 months, rising via the ranks to change into Editor. He can at the moment be discovered squashed beneath a Change backlog the dimensions of Normandy.




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