Best N64 Hidden Gems You Probably Missed

N64 Hidden Gems: Beyond the Nintendo First-Party Lineup

The N64’s library is dominated in retrospective discussion by Nintendo’s first-party output — Mario 64, Ocarina, Majora’s Mask, GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros. These games are exceptional and their prominence is deserved. But the N64’s secondary library includes excellent games from third parties and from Nintendo’s own peripheral divisions that commercial performance and cultural attention never captured.

N64 hidden gems tend toward the creative experiments: Rare’s Blast Corps destroying buildings for an empty truck. Hudson’s Mischief Makers using a shake-and-throw mechanic built entirely around the N64 rumble pak. Konami’s Mystical Ninja Goemon — absurdist Japanese cultural comedy navigated as a 3D action game. These games occupied niches the mainstream market wasn’t seeking.

Jet Force Gemini — Rare’s Most Ambitious

Jet Force Gemini (1999) was Rare’s third-person shooter for the N64, requiring the Expansion Pak for its multiplayer and featuring a twin-stick-adjacent control scheme before dual analog was standard. The game’s twelve planets — each with multiple levels — and three playable characters (Juno with standard movement, Vela who could swim, Lupus the robot who could fly) created a scale unusual for N64 action games.

The Tribal rescue system — finding all survivors on each planet before unlocking the endgame — rewarded completion with access to the game’s true ending. The ant army antagonists, the weapon variety, and the unexpected tonal shift in the final stages made Jet Force Gemini one of the N64’s more substantial action game experiences.

Mischief Makers — The Shake-Based Platformer

Mischief Makers (1997) by Treasure was the N64’s early library’s most unusual platformer: Marina Liteyears, a combat android, played an entirely 2D game on a fully 3D console hardware, with the core mechanic being grabbing-shaking-throwing objects and enemies in specific combinations to progress.

The game’s humor, its distinctly Treasure-ish escalation of boss complexity, and the hidden golden gems in each stage for a special ending created a game that rewarded thorough engagement rather than completion speed. It remains one of the only N64 platformers not made by Nintendo or Rare.

Blast Corps — The Demolition Puzzle Game

Blast Corps (1997) gave players a variety of demolition vehicles — bulldozer, construction dump truck, motorcycle, various robots — and challenged them to clear a straight-line path for a nuclear warhead truck with non-functioning brakes. Every building in the truck’s path had to be demolished; the truck couldn’t be stopped or redirected.

The open-ended nature of the demolition — each vehicle had different capabilities, and buildings could be destroyed in different orders — created puzzle-game freedom unusual for the racing/action hybrid genre. Rare’s early N64 output (Blast Corps and GoldenEye launching in the same 6-month period) demonstrated the studio’s range.

Wave Race 64 — Physics Simulation Showcase

Wave Race 64 (1996) was the N64’s launch demonstration of water physics simulation — the waves responded to weather conditions, the boat bounced and planed differently depending on speed and angle, and the racing line changed based on wave patterns that varied across laps. The physics model was so advanced that the game served as a reference for water simulation techniques for years.

The game’s four racers, its eight courses across different water conditions, and the turbo mechanics that rewarded navigating through marker buoys precisely gave it competitive depth beneath the physics showcase. Players who approached it as a serious racing game found mechanics as refined as any dedicated racing title of the era.