Nintendo 64
Shares rank 12 of 29 game consoles by recommenders
People recommend it for nostalgia, fun games played with friends and family, and its influence on a generation of players. Critics say its graphics looked blurry and foggy and its hardware was hard to program.
People recommend it for nostalgia, fun games played with friends and family, and its influence on a generation of players. Critics say its graphics looked blurry and foggy and its hardware was hard to program.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 59%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Nostalgia and fond childhood memories
“I remember pre-ordering an N64 with my brother and getting it on launch day with Mario 64.”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “How I launched 3 consoles and found true love at Babbage's store no. 9 (2013)” “I wouldn’t trade the hours I spent with a group of friends in front of a n64”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Retro-Tech Parenting” “I was a very happy owner of both consoles back in the day”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Super Mario 64 for the PS1” - Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Super Mario 64 for the PS1”
- Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Way to Play Super Mario 64: On Apple Vision Pro”
- Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “The Nintendo 64 Partner-N64 Development Kit”
- Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Sony makes bold claim about game ownership”
Influential platform for a generation
“The N64 really laid down an entire historial footprint for the millennial generation despite its significantly smaller sales.”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “How I launched 3 consoles and found true love at Babbage's store no. 9 (2013)” “It felt almost like what going from a NES to a Super Nintendo to a N64 felt like.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Intel 486 CPU announced April 10, 1989” “The PlayStation 1/2 and Nintendo 64/GameCube were a thing.”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Why Japanese companies do so many different things” Fun to play with kids
“I wouldn’t trade the hours I spent with a group of friends in front of a n64”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Retro-Tech Parenting” “it's great just being able to play my games with my kids”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Blurry, foggy, washed-out graphics
“If the N64 had launched with better alpha blending, then "N64 style" would include PS1-esque explosions”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “Additive Blending on the Nintendo 64” “The low draw distance and blanketing everything with fog was pretty horrendous in a lot of games”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “2DWillNeverDie” “I always thought the image from it was blurry and washed out.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “The Nintendo 64 Partner-N64 Development Kit” - Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Architecture”
Odd, hard-to-program hardware design
“The N64 was just really weirdly designed: they went with an overpowered CPU for bragging rights”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Are Arrays Functions?” “the CPU would freeze if the next instruction was also a multiply”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Architecture” “absolutely brutal to program bare metal”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Introduction to Nintendo DS Programming” - Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Super Mario 64 for the PS1”
Poor design tradeoffs and bets
“They just got some bets wrong and calculated some tradeoffs poorly.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Super Mario 64 for the PS1” “from a purely technological perspective, it is wasteful”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Super Mario 64 for the PS1”
Other game consoles people recommend
The four most recommended other game consoles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valve Steam Machine | 326 | 240 | 58% | 12 | 1 mo5 owners | — |
| PlayStation 5 | 121 | 181 | 40% | 12 | 3 yrs8 owners | — |
| Xbox console | 62 | 212 | 23% | 12 | 21 yrs6 owners | — |
| Xbox 360 | 41 | 19 | 68% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Nintendo 64This page | 17 | 12 | 59% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
27 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“for me it'd be the 64 or GameCube”
“Consoles don't go away when the subscription ends or when the company goes away or stops supporting it.”
“N64 was magical when it first came out.”
“I always thought the image from it was blurry and washed out.”
“N64 was amazing in its prime!”
“The low draw distance and blanketing everything with fog was pretty horrendous in a lot of games”
“I still own a Nintendo 64”
“it's been an absolute joy! Would really recommend anyone with a curious, hacker mindset that grew up with these consoles to explore this platform”
“it's great just being able to play my games with my kids”
“Buy Analogue’s or a real N64 if you want to play your cartridges.”
“both the snes and N64 definitely negatively affected my attainment in school”
“I wouldn’t trade the hours I spent with a group of friends in front of a n64”
“the CPU would freeze if the next instruction was also a multiply”
“What an, apparently, dumb mistake. The blur was bad.”
“The PlayStation 1/2 and Nintendo 64/GameCube were a thing.”
“If the N64 had launched with better alpha blending, then "N64 style" would include PS1-esque explosions”
“It felt almost like what going from a NES to a Super Nintendo to a N64 felt like.”
“absolutely brutal to program bare metal”
“I remember pre-ordering an N64 with my brother and getting it on launch day with Mario 64.”
“The N64 really laid down an entire historial footprint for the millennial generation despite its significantly smaller sales.”
“The N64 was just really weirdly designed: they went with an overpowered CPU for bragging rights”
“there was nothing in the nintendo catalogue that could compete with what I basically had free access to due to the internet”
“I still think the N64 was a great console.”
“They just got some bets wrong and calculated some tradeoffs poorly.”
“I was a very happy owner of both consoles back in the day”
“from a purely technological perspective, it is wasteful”
“The RAMBUS speed is the main issue.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.