Hot take: Perfect Dark took everything that was great from GoldenEye, expanded on the formula, and is a much better game overall.
StarFox 64 is always gonna be an all-time favourite of mine. The gameplay is so simple yet very rewarding. Very arcade-like game loop, in a good way.
Diddy Kong Racing is one of the first games I discovered the… joys (?) of completionism as a kid.
I played Wave Race a ton with my father, he loved that game. Mario Golf as well.
Mario 64 is insanely good in retrospect, but I both didn’t understand much of English back then, and also sucked at the mechanics too much as a kid to really enjoy it. Similar situation with Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. I somehow managed to play through Donkey Kong 64 using walkthrough guides I printed out chapter by chapter. The multiplayer was nice although laggy as hell.