35 Best Multiplayer N64 Games of All Time

Even though the N64 didn’t win the console wars of its time, it had the best online set up and games, many of which are still good today.

This is a list of the ten best, but to avoid duplication, each series is only counted once, and its quality is judged as a whole.

Also, the way they were graded was based on how good it was as a MULTIPLAYER game and how well it fit into the group experience.

Of course, they would be biased by their own experiences, but being objective was the goal as much as possible.

With time, the alien-hand controller, which was not at all designed for comfort, went from being a problem to being a highlight. And any doubts we might have had about the N64 as a computer were replaced by happy memories of playing with friends and family.

I’ve made a list of the best N64 shared games for those of us who grew up with it and miss it very much. Look at this and see if you can spot any old favorites.

Who can say? If you find your old N64 the next time you go to grandma’s and want to test my taste, you could do that.

So, that’s the warning. Hopefully, enough people will agree with the list for them not to go crazy.

35. Turok 2

I never really got the story of the Turok series, other than the fact that there was time travel and dinosaurs to kill.

Still, do you really need more information?

I do know that controlling a velociraptor in a 4-man tournament against your friends is one of the most strange and fun things I’ve ever done.

Good luck not letting your tiny dinosaur hands distract you!

This game’s online engine was great, and even though it has some frame rate problems now and then, it’s a nice improvement over the first Turok.

There’s a lot less fog, for example.

34. International Superstar Soccer ‘98

Back in the day, there were no FIFA games that were so realistic that they had exact copies of real players and lineups for foreign teams.

I mean, there were definitely FIFA games. They were just not good.

So, when it came time to joke around with your simple friends who didn’t know the difference between an RPG and a platform game, International Superstar Soccer ’98 was your best bet.

Even Carlos Valderrama is on the front, so you know it’s good.

Well, it turns out that it’s good.

The controls are easy to use, the pictures are nice, and there are a lot of ways to play.

You can even play a full championship with your friends if you’re tired of traditional vs. open matches.

33. Mario Golf

But if you’re like me and can’t stand sports games unless they’re covered in a thick layer of “video game-y” paint, you should play Mario Golf instead.

It’s not hard at all.

The cute and colorful people of the Mushroom Kingdom play a fun, if a bit unrealistic, version of golf with special shots that give them more power and courses that are named after Mario.

To play with your friends, you don’t even need more than one controller.

You only need one to pass back and forth!

32. South Park

The year is 1998. The number of people who watch South Park is at an all-time high.

And its main users are the same as those who bought the N64. You’re aware of the time, right?

It’s time to use the Turok 2 engine to make a shooter with a South Park theme!

And you won’t believe it, but the result shocked everyone.

It’s one of the strangest and craziest games out there, with weapons like snowballs and alien probes that you’ll be using to kill children.

It might not be a great work of art. I know it’s not true.

It was a lot of fun, though.

I thought about putting it higher up, but now that being rude is the norm, a lot of the funny parts aren’t that funny.

31. Pokémon Stadium

Back when the first generation of Pokémon was the only generation, every kid’s dream was to be in a real-life Pokémon match and watch their favorite creatures fight.

When Pokémon Stadium came out, you can only imagine the chaos that broke out in middle schools all over the world.

This let you move your Pokémon from the Game Boy cartridge to the N64 so you could see them fight in 3D with your friends’ monsters.

This completely changed the game.

The game also has a number of fun minigames based on Pokémon. These minigames were so popular that the makers made more of them for Pokémon Stadium 2, which was based on Gen 2 Pokémon.

If you like Pokémon but have never played the old Stadium games, I think you should try both games. They are worth a lot.

30. Goemon’s Great Adventure

Goemon’s Great Adventure is one of the best-made and most fun games in the series, even though it is often overlooked because of its disconnected Japanese setting and sheer challenge.

The best thing about this bright action-platformer is that you can play it with a friend. One person can play as Goemon, and the other can play as the awkward ninja Ebisumaru.

You can even carry your friend on your back while they protect you both with melee attacks and weapons.

If you finish the whole story mode and get all 44 Entry Passes, you can play with up to four people. Chaos from the Edo time.

29. Susume! Taisen Puzzle Dama: Tōkon! Marutama Chō

Think so! Taisen Puzzle Dama: You’re welcome! Marutama Ch is the best puzzle game for the N64 that you have never played. It is also one of the best N64 games with more than one person.

This fight puzzle game is like Puyo Puyo, but it is a lot harder and moves a lot faster.

From the top of the screen, different-colored balls with faces fall down. Match at least three to get rid of them.

As in other games like this, the goal is to make multiple stacks of balls and get rid of them all in one move. This connects combos, which makes your opponent’s screen full of locked balls that are harder to get rid of.

It keeps going back and forth until one person can’t keep up anymore. It moves fast, is exciting, and has beautiful 2D graphics, which is rare on the N64.

28. San Francisco Rush 2049

When talking about games for the fifth generation of platforms, you can’t leave out racing games.

San Francisco Rush 2049, a future racer that plays like an arcade game, is our first game for the N64.

But it could be any of the San Francisco Rush games on the system, as they are all great races with responsive controls and tracks with so many secrets and shortcuts that you’ll get dizzy.

It will take you and your friends a long time to learn them all, and since the races can be close, you’ll probably keep coming back to it until you get it down.

27. Deadly Arts

Playing fighting games with your friends is the best way to solve all the little problems that come up when you’re with other people.

People say that a match a day keeps bonds strong.

The N64 didn’t have the most shooters in its library. But it did have some games that were different, like Deadly Arts, which was one of the few good 3D fights on the system.

What keeps me coming back to this game is that you can make your own character and change everything about them, down to how they move.

Back then, it was the only one that let you do that. Even games today don’t usually give you that much freedom.

26. Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2

Army Men is so charming that it’s hard not to fall in love with it. It takes you back to a time when your toys had their own lives in your mind.

Even the most ordinary places could be the scene of great experiences.

This game has a 4-player split-screen arena where you can go all out in a free-for-all match or split into color-coded teams for a more organized fight in places like a toy store or a graveyard.

The kitchen stage, which can really throw off your sense of size, will always be my favorite.

I still remember it in great detail, which shows how unique it was.

25. Extreme-G

People find it hard to choose between the violent races in Wipeout and the fast speeds in F-Zero. But what if you could have both?

Extreme-G gives you exactly that!

You can race your friends on bikes that look like the ones in Tron. The tracks range from canyons to futuristic cities, and you can use every tool you have to slow them down and win.

People who find F-Zero too hard will love this game because the tracks are much less dangerous and easy to jump into.

24. Mortal Kombat 4

When Midway’s famous gruesome fighter finally got a new 3D look for fifth-generation consoles, it was a cause for celebration. Fatalities would change forever!

Even though it’s not the best MK game ever, it’s a very good one.

And much better than some of the horrible things that came after it.

Still, if you like how smooth the older games look, you can get Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the N64. It has all of the characters from the first three games with their original sprites. Even Saibot the Noob!

23. Star Wars Episode I: Racer

People, it’s crazy POD RACING.

Do you really need me to tell you why it’s so good?

This game took about 20 minutes of video from The Phantom Menace and turned it into a whole new experience with a lot of racers, ships that could be upgraded, and a lot of different tracks.

It works like a charm and lets you feel the speed and “floatyness” of the ships just right.

Do you have what it takes to win the Boonta Eve Classic and beat your friends? It’s time to find out, I think.

22. Beetle Adventure Racing

Even though this game isn’t well-known, it was one of my favorites when I was a Level 1 Gamer, and I’m happy to show it to everyone.

At first view, Beetle Adventure Racing looks like a very complicated advertisement for the Volkswagen New Beetles that came out the year before it did.

After you play it for a while, you’ll see that it’s a beautiful game with great tracks to race on. All of them have hidden short cuts and things to find along the way.

All of this is set to groovy, feel-good acoustic music that really sets the scene.

21. Ridge Racer 64

Ridge Racer 64 is one of the best arcade racing games on the machine if you want something a little more “serious.”

Even though most reviews didn’t pay much attention to it, this technical masterpiece has amazing gameplay based on risky drifting that can either win you the game or wreck you royally.

When you play this game with your friends, they won’t be talking to each other or telling stories while you play.

Instead, there will be a tense silence that will only be broken by the sound of engines revving and tires sliding on concrete coming from your TV.

20. Snowboard Kids

Snowboard Kids didn’t get as much attention as Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing, which is too bad because it’s a great game.

And, unlike the other two games, it has music playing in the background in four player mode.

The game has a unique two-way power-up system that includes both projectiles and things that you don’t have to aim. This setup works well to keep races close and interesting until the very end.

Snowboard Kids doesn’t have a lot to do, which is a shame. Snowboard Kids 2, a sequel for the N64, lets you play in a similar way, but with new routes and characters.

19. Quake

Arena-based weapons were around before Battle Royale.

Quake became famous because it had some of the most fast-paced FPS action of any game in the genre.

It’s all about getting the right weapons and taking control of the fight, like making sure you’re the only one who can use the Rocket Launcher.

This makes the game play a bit like Domination or King of the Hill. It’s fast-paced and fun.

Quake 2 also came out for the N64. It is a slightly better version of the game that is known for having stages that aren’t in the PC version.

18. Diddy Kong Racing

The strange cousin of Mario Kart is much more than just a game to play when you’re tired of Mario and his friends.

Rare made the game to add some new characters to their lineup. It wasn’t until later that Nintendo turned it into a tribute to the little monkey.

So, the term is very experimental. And you can try out three different types of cars on different roads.

Few people know this, but two players can go through the game together if the code JOINTVENTURE is used. They can’t race against each other, though.

17. Super Mario 64

I know what you’re going to say: “Mario 64 isn’t a multiplayer game.” You’re wrong, though. When the N64 came out, you can be sure that it was.

When the N64 came out, there wasn’t much else to play, so the few people who had one bought this game and brought their friends over to play it.

Even though only one person could hold the controller at a time, everyone else in the room was shouting out ideas, commands, and criticisms for how to control Mario and where he should go, until the person holding the controller lost a life and someone else got a turn.

Multiplayer meant more than one person, right?

Why it’s on the list: It is without a doubt one of the best games of all time, and everyone with an early N64 had it because it was either this or Pilot Wings.

However, as a multiplayer game, it could be very boring to have to wait while your idiot friend Jeff stumbled around, painfully unable to get that last red coin.

But the fact that it happened at the right time, that it was mind-blowing to see “something in 64 bits OMGWTFBBQ,” and that it was a group experience are what put it on this list.

16. Wave Race 64

I love driving sports games because they don’t have anything to do with sports.

It’s just a driving game painted to look sporty.

Wave Race 64 comes as close as possible to the real thing, making you feel like you’re really bobbing up and down on the waves.

A lot of the time, it feels like the real battle is with the waves, not with the other racers.

It’s one of the N64’s many innovative technical successes, and the killer soundtrack is a nice bonus.

I just wish that the game wasn’t limited to split-screen play for only two people.

15. Star Fox 64

Yes, it did have multiplayer, for those of you who don’t remember. You don’t remember it because it wasn’t that great, especially compared to the single-player game, which was very challenging.

Still, going from an X-wing to a tank to a cannon-wielding furry with a couple of friends is one of the best things you can do in a video game, and most of those things are on this list.

Why it’s on the ninth spot: Again, timing is a very important issue because it was one of the first games that could compete directly with the N64.

The game was fun and easy to play, but it was also easy to fly around the level for several minutes without running into any of your opponents.

But the mirror screens were a complete waste of time. There should be two boxes if there are two people, right?

NOT TRUE. When there are two people, there are four boxes. Two of them show what’s going on, and the other two show what’s going on from a different angle.

This is better than having only a quarter of the screen black for three people, but come on. In fact.

14. BattleTanx: Global Assault

BattleTanx: Global Assault is a very fun game to play today because it has a lot of game types and can be played by up to four people.

Even though houses can be destroyed and there are AI players, it runs very smoothly.

The main attraction here is the Tank Wars game. Each player gets a team of AI tanks, which makes for a big war.

In the game’s campaign mode, you can also work with another person.

13. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

Before these games came out, you might not have liked skating, but almost everyone did after. From halfpipes to school roofs to city streets, everyone wanted to be like THPS.

1080 Snowboarding came out first, but the THPS series was better and had more things you could do and ways to do them.

Why it’s the eighth best: There were a lot of things you could do with your friends in this game, like compete for the high score, play tag, or ride a horse. It worked whether you were a button-masher like me or a pro like most of my friends.

When you did a huge air combo and then followed it up with an incredibly long grind, you got a well-deserved “oooo” from whoever was watching or playing against you.

But the main problem was that it could only be played by two people at a time. A great online game should really work well with more than two people.

The game is still great, and the group mode is fun, but the others on this list are better for playing with friends.

12. 1080° Snowboarding

Even though it doesn’t get as much attention as Mario Tennis, this great piece of 90s history is probably the best sports game for the N64.

This great downhill racing game screams “1990s” in every way, from the hilariously cheesy speaker to the weird Tommy Hilfiger product placement.

Also, when it came out, the graphics and art direction made it one of the most beautiful games.

Even though snowboarding games have become more complicated over the years, this game, which started the whole genre, is still a lot of fun because it is so simple.

It would be great if you could play with four people at once instead of just two.

11. Killer Instinct Gold

Breaker, Breaker, Breaker!

Did you think there would be another game?

We have to talk about the best “traditional” fighter in the N64 lineup, so sorry.

Rare’s fast-paced shooter is one of the most popular games on the console, and its detailed sprites that look like 3D make it one of the most visually appealing as well.

Sit down with some friends, go to the game’s Knockout Tournament mode, set the team size to 11, and fight until your hands hurt.

10. F-Zero X

F-Zero X is the best choice if you want a skill-based driving game for the N64.

Even now, this game feels so fast that it’s hard to believe. The vehicles move at a breakneck speed, and even with four people, the game runs at 60 frames per second.

It’s a hard game, and it’s possible that the tracks are harder than your friends.

You can play a slot machine minigame if you lose your car before the end of the race. If you’re lucky, you might be able to drain the power from an opponent’s car.

It’s a great way to get even after death, and it keeps everyone on their toes from the beginning to the end.

9. NFL Blitz

If you don’t like sports, you might not agree that this should be on the list at all. But it is, so deal with it. Even though there have been better football games, and Tecmo Bowl was probably more accurate, realism is not what makes a good multiplayer game.

This was cartoony, cheesy, and often stupid, but it took BS talk to a whole new level. Most normal sports games are mostly about big plays or scores.

Not so with NFL Blitz in its different forms. So what if the quarterback makes a pass that moves the ball ten yards?

It’s not a first down, and about a minute after he let go of the ball, he was almost broken in half. It was mostly a fighting game for me and my friends, and I’d like to see Madden do THAT.

Why it’s in eighth place: Yes, a great catheter for anger. Yes, the games are fun and play like arcade games.

But it had a lot of problems, and even on the lowest setting, it took a long time to play a whole game. It’s fun, there’s direct competition, and there’s a lot of fodder for trash talk, but it is what it is, and there are games that are much better than it.

8. Mario Party 1–3

Mario Party will always be fun.

Not only because of how it changed the industry and how memorable its minigames were, but also because you can still have just as much fun playing it with your friends as you did when it came out.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth.

It combines the evergreen nature of board games with the weird minigame options of the N64 and the random magic of RNG to make a recipe for success (or failure).

Just remember that you play at your own risk and that we are not responsible for any broken joysticks or friendships that end because of it.

7. THQ Wrestling Games

Even though WCW and NOW were rival wrestling leagues at the time, I think it’s safe to say that “WCW vs. NOW: World Tour” and “WWF No Mercy” are both part of the same line of THQ games.

You can try to say you never liked wrestling, but you know you’ve played at least one of these games. Early in the series, the games were pretty simple, and by the end, they were pretty boring. But if you look at the series as a whole, you’ll see that it’s really something special.

**Here’s why it’s number seven: The goal of the game was to beat your opponent, which makes it a great game to play with other people.

But it did it very well, and in most of the games you could make your own wrestlers and choose their moves. This made it a race not only to see who was the best player, but also to see who could make the best wrestler.

And you have to admit that you’ve always wanted to hit your friend with a chair or a broken piece of a table. This series gave you the chance to do that.

Oh, if only I could hear the sweet song “No fair! As I ran across the ring with a stop sign in my hand and said, “I don’t know where I am!” and “Stop in the name of pain before I break your bones!”

Even so, you wrestled, and even though you used different moves, it started to feel the same after a while. But up until that point, it was a great time.

6. Mario Tennis

Don’t be fooled by how cute and funny the figures are. Mario Tennis is actually a pretty realistic and serious tennis game, which may come as a surprise.

But if you want a sillier experience, there is also a special mode with things, like Mario Kart 64.

The game is easy to play because you mostly use the A and B buttons to handle it.

It also looks great and goes so smoothly that you can have fast, crazy rallies with your friends.

5. Gauntlet Legends

The N64 isn’t known for its role-playing games or hard strategy games.

And yet, it has Gauntlet Legends, which is like Diablo III on your couch in the 1990s.

This old-school hack-and-slash game set in a medieval fantasy world was first released in arcades, but it later moved to the N64, giving up some audio quality and FMV cutscenes for the ease of a home device.

It’s a very fun game where you and up to three friends can fight together on the same screen as one of four characters against Skorne’s army of demons.

4. GoldenEye 007

It’s called “Goldeneye”—enough said.Why it’s in third place:* Many of you probably have this as your number one, and it’s not a bad choice.

Goldeneye is the oldest and best-selling computer first-person shooter of all time. It works. It’s cool. Even though the missions were good, everyone bought and played this game a lot because of the multiplayer, which is almost famous at this point.

It was the best game you could get at the time, and it was the first big online game that everyone wanted for the N64.

This game had so many great levels, tools, game modes, and memories that it would be hard to name them all.

It’s still a good game, but if you go back and play it now, you’ll see that the graphics aren’t as good as you remember.

This is true even if you’re used to the images from that time. This game falls short because of its flaws.

3. Mario Kart 64

The single-player mode of Mario Kart 64 is boring, but the team mode is fun and easy to learn.

The famous item system of the game adds a bit of chaos to each race. Even the best racers don’t always avoid getting hit by a blue shell or a lightning bolt.

There’s also the Battle Mode if you want to do something other than race. Even though there are only four maps, Block Fort, the best Battle Mode map, is one of them.

Plus, the frame rate stays the same even with four people, which makes Mario Kart 64 very playable even now.

2. Perfect Dark

This one shouldn’t need an introduction either, but it didn’t sell nearly as well as GoldenEye, so I’ll do it anyway. Perfect Dark was another first-person shooter that came out near the end of the N64’s life.

Because of this, some people probably didn’t get to play it, which is a shame because I think it’s one of the best games of all time in pretty much every category.

The single-player missions were well thought out, the guns and items were well-balanced, and the fact that almost every weapon had a secondary use made them more useful. Plus, it had an Elvis-named grey alien.

Why wouldn’t you like it?

Why it’s number one: Everything you liked about Goldeneye, but a hundred times better. Because this game did just that. Almost every problem I had with or idea I had for Goldeneye is fixed in this game. Oh my god, the battle simulator is so sexy and hasn’t gotten old in the weeks I’ve been playing it.

And by the way, I mean game time weeks. It’s still reckless and fun to throw a laptop gun in sentry mode into a room with one of my friends, just like it was five years ago. I could write pages about how cool and fun Super Dragon, Farsight, Slayer, and Mauler are and how much I’ve enjoyed using them over the years.

I won’t, though, because I need to end this. Perfect Dark is number one because, in addition to being an absolutely sexy multiplayer game (with up to eight computer-controlled simulants, multiple game modes, and character and game customization), it also has Co-Operative and, more importantly, Counter-Operative.

Even though my friends and I didn’t pay much attention to this, it’s the thing that every FPS should have. It makes multiplayer more diverse and lets you do things that a normal death match or take the flag/briefcase game could never do. It’s not why Perfect Dark is on this list, but it’s why I put it at the top of my list.

1. Super Smash Bros.

We’ve talked about a lot of great games here.

But only one can be king, and that one is the one no one says “no” to. You already know what I mean.

The first Super Smash Bros. game, which came out on the N64, is not a typical battle.

It adds platforming features, a new scoring system, and power-ups to an already chaotic 4-player brawl to make it stand out and make the experience truly memorable.

The fact that all 12 playable figures came from popular series like Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda took things to a whole new level.

It was every kid’s dream come true in the ’90s, and there were many more like it.

But the N64 version should always be known as an important part of video game history.