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No One Can Stop Mr. Talking Time's Top 50 32 & 64-Bit Video Games!

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
I have never played the original Super Smash Bros.

Real talk? At this point, you don't really need to, unless it's for the specific purpose of historical research. It was a watershed at the time, for sure, but literally every other game in the series has surpassed it.
 

Tomm Guycot

(he/him)
Real talk? At this point, you don't really need to, unless it's for the specific purpose of historical research. It was a watershed at the time, for sure, but literally every other game in the series has surpassed it.
Indeed. I've only gone back once since Melee, and that's because at my (different) girlfriend's house for a family gathering, the kids had an N64 and had unlocked NONE of the special characters.

I remedied that. Never even considered playing anything but the latest Smash, since.
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
I put Smash in at #25. It was really cool at the time, but I can't see myself jumping back into it these days. Do love the aesthetic tho.
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
Real talk? At this point, you don't really need to, unless it's for the specific purpose of historical research. It was a watershed at the time, for sure, but literally every other game in the series has surpassed it.

Plus, Smash Bros will destroy your n64 controllers. And there are fewer people dumping their n64s and Goldeneye for an xbox and Halo these days.

Smash Bros 64 will always have a place in my heart because it was the one time I had the game all my friends wanted to play and they would come over to my house after school for an hour or two of multiplayer. It wasn't a huge window; after people started to tire of Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64 but before people started getting PS2s (and later Xboxes; I got a Gamecube, but Melee did not have the same magic for my friend group). Its been more than 20 years and I still remember it pretty vividly; I was a Luigi player, my brother used Kirby, my friends mostly stuck with Link and Samus.
 

Ixo

"This is not my beautiful forum!" - David Byrne
(Hi Guy)
I didn't vote for Smash, and I'm surprised it ended up in the top 10 - I always just kinda figured Melee and other entries had supplanted it. One place where it hasn't been supplanted, though, is in Kirby's power level. I always mained him, and he is a beast in this version. Ever since then, he's been in the mostly-crap to really-crap tier, which makes me sad. Sakurai needs to push back on this constant nerfing of Kirby!
Also a Kirby main! However, being that I was (probably) 10 by the time we got our copy, my only real strategy was to float real high and then down+b brick drop on opponents. I grew out of it eventually. My younger brother played Fox, so the play records are mega super skewed towards those two on my copy.

I played N64 SSB all the way through high school. Just one of those things, y'know? Got nothing else going on; let's see if I can run through the Single Player game and get as many bonuses as possible. Shooting for Speed Demon only takes 8 minutes, so not like it was a huge time investment. Good Friend and DK Perfect being very hard to pull off on the highest difficulty when your CPU allies are as dumb as they are... That Kirby brick almost felt like cheating against Master Hand, but not enough for me to not use it. (For the unaware, Brick Kirby doesn't take damage in that form. If you time it right, you can no sell all of Master Hand's attacks.) Lots of time put in on getting my Break the Targets & Board the Platforms times as tight as possible too.

I've held the opinion since forever that the training stage music is prime nerdcore rap fodder, but haven't heard anyone utilize it.

Can I also give special mention to the manual artwork for this game? I'm forever bummed that Melee onward didn't retain the spaghetti noodle limbs cartoony art style, because just look at it.

tumblr_n2o1nf0j9U1qfmc5ko1_1280.jpg


That sentiment goes double for the Japanese packaging.

13x84inivw801.jpg
 

#7
NQIEyxF.jpg

We're going to greet the morning, together.

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 64
Release Dates: April 27, 2000 (JP), October 26, 2000 (NA), November 17, 2000 (EU)
263 Points, 10 Votes, Highest Vote: #1 (Adrenaline)

Ykl8IAO.jpg


I distinctly remember conversations online about which thing people were going to pick up on October 26, 2000: Were you going to buy a shiny new Playstation 2? Or were you going to buy the brand new Zelda game? While the PS2 did end up having one of the greatest libraries of any console in existence, its launch titles were mostly meh. So I would say that the person who held off on that and got Majora's Mask instead was going to have a more enjoyable fall that year.

I did neither. I did not own a Nintendo 64. I would not play Majora's Mask until a few years later on the Gamecube compilation disc. I did not buy a PS2 until almost a year later, and mostly used it for DVDs until Final Fantasy X came out. It was interesting, though, seeing which people were plunging headfirst into the new generation, and which ones were sticking around for the winding down of the then current one. Sure, games for the Playstation and Nintendo 64 continued to be made and sold for some time afterwards, but Majora's Mask and FFIX were the last two real marquee releases for the generation. So it's fitting that Majora's Mask tackles some of the same themes as FFIX, and like that RPG, it carries a certain wistfulness. The fifth generation was a time of experimentation and upheaval, and it created things that the sixth generation would refine. The generation also straddled turning points for most of us, too. Either the line between youth and adulthood for those of us on the older fringe of TT, or between childhood and the confusing world of one's teens for those here that are a bit younger. Either way, the close of the 32/64-Bit Era also closed a chapter on most of our lives, so it's no surprise that so many of us look at these two games the way we do.

Even more so than FFIX, though, Majora's Mask is about loss, about impermanence. It's certainly one of the darkest games in the series, and yet there is joy there, too, if you look for it. These were things we were dealing with in our own lives, and here was a Zelda game, dealing with them, too. Kind of ironic that the game where you play as child Link the whole time is also arguably the most mature game to bear the Zelda name. So yeah, it's a quality game, one of the best, but like Final Fantasy IX, it is also inextricable from that time in our lives when we were starting to have to figure it all out for ourselves.

And heck, as far as swan songs for a system goes, the N64 definitely got one of the best.

Selected Track:
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
No question my favourite Zelda and one that escapes the crushing pull of its own series, but like before I didn't feel like voting for it.
 

Beta Metroid

At peace
(he/him)
Oh, I had a blurb written up for this one, and forgot to submit it! Here it is:

There's tons and tons I could say about this game's atmosphere, characters, and pathos, but I'd like to focus on something a bit less commonly discussed. I typically gravitate toward platformers and action games, and it took me a while to get into the Zelda franchise because Link felt so stiff and immobile to me. But Majora's Mask offers mobility options for (3) days! You have Epona, you have the bunny hood to speed up standard traversal, and then there are the transformation masks. It's a fact that gliding is one of the most fun things you can do in a 3D space, and the Deku enables that. The Deku's spin is also vastly superior to Link's roll, giving a speed boost and a crowd control option for weak enemies. The Deku's water skipping is also fun, and combining it with the spin is a blast (and it makes the Deku surprisingly useful for the Gyorg fight).

The Goron offers the bowling ball of doom, leading to one of the most satisfying boss fights of the series and just an incredibly thrilling way to tear across the overworld. The ability to create your own platforms is always nifty, making the ice arrows very valuable and fun to experiment with. And of course, swimming as the Zora is one of the most fulfilling actions in gaming.

Weird that the 3DS version actively made just about all of these things worse.

Also, Majora's Mask itself makes for one of the most distinct, iconic, and striking logos in gaming. I've rarely felt compelled to seek out gaming (or other hobby-based) apparel, but I've always been on the lookout for a good Majora's Mask-based shirt.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Majora is the one game I put on my list that I've technically never played. (I didn't own an N64 and by the time it came out I wasn't living with my undergrad dorm mates who did anymore.) I just love the idea of the game. It's a "remix game" using assets from a previous hit, but it does such amazing and weird and wonderful things with them
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
I was one of the folks picking up Majora's Mask when PS2 launched. What a great game! Stone Tower Temple is still my favorite dungeon, and Clock Town is unsurpassed. I don't know if I would say that it's better than LA and BOTW, but it's a phenomenal game.

I'm way behind on commenting in this thread, so I'll cover a few at once. In high school, my best friend and his two brothers pooled their money together to get an N64 with Mario Kart and Goldeneye. I was the default 4th player, and we played the hell out of those games. After playing a ton on my friend's N64, I finally got my own and picked up Perfect Dark. I was obsessed with PD. We would play for hours straight. Multiplayer had so many options. And it had bots! I have incredibly positive memories of these games, whether they hold up or not.

I remember being stunned by the Smash Bros. announcement (also, that commercial is great). I played a ton of it with the same three friends. My moment of glory with Smash Bros. was when my friend and I were visiting U of I and were challenged by our doppelganger rivals and completely crushed them. I don't think that newer games eclipsing it takes anything away from how great of a game it was.
 
Playing Majora's Mask was the moment a lot of us realized "Wow, what we want the most from Nintendo is more 3D Zelda with a new twist or two". And then for like 17 years they became as rare as hen's teeth.
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
Playing Majora's Mask was the moment a lot of us realized "Wow, what we want the most from Nintendo is more 3D Zelda with a new twist or two". And then for like 17 years they became as rare as hen's teeth.
I feel like there were a lot of good 3D Zelda games in that time frame. I missed Windwaker, but I played Majora's Mask, Skyward Sword, and BotW....those were all really good. And those were just the main line games.
 
Yeah, all of them sure were great. MM created the dream that Nintendo could give us more of the same formula (with a new twist or two) on a regular basis. But it sure felt like a lot of those 17 years was very patient waiting.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I was wondering when this one would pop up. I know this is likely verboten on Talking Time, but... I don't much care for Majora's Mask. Don't get me wrong, I love the stylistic choices made here (has any other Zelda been this creepy?), but from a structural standpoint, it's just not what I want from a game in the series. Too many sidequests, not enough dungeons. It's still good by dint of being a Zelda title, though, so despite my complaining, I understand its presence in this list.
 
I know this is likely verboten on Talking Time, but... I don't much care for Majora's Mask.
LOL our gaming opinions tend to line up a lot from this era, eh?

I respect the hell out of and love just about everything about Majora's Mask except for actually having to play it, haha. MM is an easy top 5 "I am so disappointed in this" gaming experience I've had. Zelda is my favorite Nintendo property; 50% of the reason I bought an N64 to begin with was because of the promise of OoT; I was probably more hyped for this game than FF9 which says a LOT (I was really looking forward to that game too). I love the atmosphere, the creepy nightmare-like feeling of everything, the expanded repertoire of items, the music, the ambition and just about everything about the game... except for having to play it. I just traditionally have a really hard time with games that impose time limits or pressure the player into making decisions. It's part of why I gravitated towards RPGs so much because I like for things to be able to slow down and make the best decisions at my leisure. I don't enjoy getting overly stressed out while playing games, and especially if there's no multiplayer competitive aspect to justify it. When I play games like Zelda, I'm the kind of player who loves peering under every rock, cutting every blade of grass, poking into every crevasse on the map at a slow and meandering pace. And MM's design structure heavily discourages that style of play/makes it a lot harder to do. I know that later in the game you gain the abilities to slow down time more, but it was still just alienating to a young teenage me to get 80% through a quest, then to run out of time, and have to redo everything over again. It's a bummer! And would cause minor anxiety panics every time the clock would begin running out but I wasn't done with things. It's the closest thing I imagine I'll ever get to experience with regards to living through a Groundhog's Day scenario. Which for Phil was incredibly frustrating! So on a meta level, I bet the game was doing its job, it just did it a little too well. I like watching people play this game, I'm glad it's well represented on this list too because I appreciate what it does so much (I really wish more game franchises took more risks like this) it just isn't for me personally.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
LOL our gaming opinions tend to line up a lot from this era, eh?
It sure does seem to be the case, haha! We'll have to do a list reveal at the end of this thing. :)

What you've stated is the other part that bothered me for sure - the constant "gotta go fast" mentality when I just wanna sit around and explore. I probably wouldn't even mind all the sidequests as much if I could do them at my leisure. As implemented, it becomes much more an optimization problem: how to get the most done in a limited amount of time. But I can absolutely see how that can appeal to someone else, and indeed, I respect what they achieved. Remarkable that they managed to put together a polarizing but well-loved entry on such a short timetable.
 
That reminds me how the 3DS remake changed the game speed when the song of slow time is played. The new version is far faster, so you often feel railroaded into doing one and only one big task at a time, and it does not feel like the game was balanced around it.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Oh, I did not know that. That's the version I finally finished after bouncing off the N64 version at various stages multiple times. (I got pretty far into the Gamecube port before I had a big swath of progress wiped by a crash, something I understand that version is susceptible to.)
 

4-So

Spicy
Never cared for Majora's Mask. I remember getting stuck in a few places and being extremely frustrated that I had to re-do certain spots once I played the melody to reverse time. I do wonder if Majora's Mask would land better now in the Age of Roguelikes, where you re-do things as a matter of course.

I appreciate the general creepiness of the game, that's it's unsettling in a way that's not expected of a Zelda title. Like many other games, I just really don't like actually playing it.
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Not directed at anyone in particular and I include myself in this because I catch myself doing it unless I actively try not to: I think offering counterpoints or really any criticism at all on the subjects of other people's votes and picks in these popularity threads runs completely against their spirit and purpose, for what it's worth. It's wrecked the readability and desire to participate in some earlier ones, at least, even if the forum generally has become less antagonistic over time. If I don't have much to share about something other people liked, I don't think it's necessary for me to force engagement if I can't make it positive, nor relevant to go on to justify my dislike of or indifference to that same thing. Gushing and praise contextualized by critique is interesting but that's up to each thread participant to convey for themselves if they want to.
 

Tomm Guycot

(he/him)
Not directed at anyone in particular and I include myself in this because I catch myself doing it unless I actively try not to: I think offering counterpoints or really any criticism at all on the subjects of other people's votes and picks in these popularity threads runs completely against their spirit and purpose, for what it's worth. It's wrecked the readability and desire to participate in some earlier ones, at least, even if the forum generally has become less antagonistic over time. If I don't have much to share about something other people liked, I don't think it's necessary for me to force engagement if I can't make it positive, nor relevant to go on to justify my dislike of or indifference to that same thing. Gushing and praise contextualized by critique is interesting but that's up to each thread participant to convey for themselves if they want to.
I'd agree if people were arguing things SHOULDN'T be included, but that doesn't seem to be the sentiment. If a game places, I think any personal experiences with that game are fair to discuss.

Otherwise people who had their finger on the pulse and voted only for popular games would get to do all the talking.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Not directed at anyone in particular and I include myself in this because I catch myself doing it unless I actively try not to: I think offering counterpoints or really any criticism at all on the subjects of other people's votes and picks in these popularity threads runs completely against their spirit and purpose, for what it's worth. It's wrecked the readability and desire to participate in some earlier ones, at least, even if the forum generally has become less antagonistic over time. If I don't have much to share about something other people liked, I don't think it's necessary for me to force engagement if I can't make it positive, nor relevant to go on to justify my dislike of or indifference to that same thing. Gushing and praise contextualized by critique is interesting but that's up to each thread participant to convey for themselves if they want to.
I would honestly have no interest in the polls if they met the conditions you're describing. Picking things apart is the interesting part of this to me, and watching people bounce off of each other due to their differences in perspective is fascinating, and absolutely makes people dive into details and points about the games they wouldn't otherwise. I want to know why someone had a game as a 25 and someone else had it as a 1. It's a great discussion rather than just a boring list of nice things.

Totally get that it can take a turn though. Theory and practice don't always work.
 
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ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
I was just talking during the stream last night about how I really do need to play Majora's Mask. I got the 3DS version when it came out, and still haven't actually played it.
 
I would like to say that I feel that in this list, and most of the more recent lists, that people have been doing a pretty good job of acknowledging the positive points of entries they don't particularly care for. I do understand why someone would feel uncomfortable with people expressing the fact that something is not their cup of tea, given that, for a while, things could get quite nasty. The JRPG list, while being the biggest Top 50 we've ever done, was rife with negative energy, including from the people running it, so I can understand where that might have soured anyone on any less than 100% positive discussion in these lists.

I do think, myself, that saying "entry x is great for these reasons, but it's not for me because of those reasons" doesn't detract from the overall positive tone those of us running the lists have been trying to set. YMMV of course, and I'm not going to tell you how to feel about it, but them's my two cents.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
I don't think there's much merit in showing up just to say you don't like one of the entries, and I think in general the stories about how a game hit you just right as a teenager are much more interesting than explanations about why you didn't like a game.

(I bit my tongue for Chrono Cross, for example)
 
I don't think there's much merit in showing up just to say you don't like one of the entries, and I think in general the stories about how a game hit you just right as a teenager are much more interesting than explanations about why you didn't like a game.

(I bit my tongue for Chrono Cross, for example)
*quietly deletes 1,000 word essay on the evils of paper clips*
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
I like and respect Majora's Mask, but it's not my favorite of the N64 Zeldas, and the tweaks to the 3DS one kinda put me off of it more. But it deserves this spot for being so bold in its direction and scope, and it's definitely among the most unique and dark games in the franchise.
 
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