I’ve gotta rep one of my all time favorite party games to this day (ported to PC) Worms Armageddon. They’ve had several sequels, but I believe that was the last one to use that particular physics engine, and every game since has just felt a bit… Hollow?
Also +1 to Paper Mario - S-Tier RPG, best of the whole series IMHO, tho the GameCube sequel TTYD is deserving of a very close second. I wish so bad they’d make a return to badges and acquiring new buddies and buddy upgrades throughout the game. The oragami king battle mechanics did not do it for me, and with it being the core mechanic of the game just soured my whole experience despite the rest of the game being pretty solid.
I’m pretty “basic” in my choices. Both Zelda titles, Mario 64, Mario Kart, the three Mario Parties, StarFox 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Kirby 64, Banjo-Kazooie. I just bought an N64 a few weeks ago partially because I wanted to experience the games I had growing up again and also play a bunch I missed. I tried Mischief Makers because it looked interesting and I enjoy the unique mechanics but the controls are hard to master enough to feel like I even have a basic handle on them.
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.
Spot on with Perfect Dark. It’s one fault imo is that it was trying to do almost too much for the 64. Even as an expansion pak game, the graphics that the 64 was capable of could just not render the necessary detail for a lot of stuff to be easy to see/recognize.
I fucking love Quest 64. I’m under no impression that it is a good game, but I grew up playing it and it remains one of my favorite comfort games to this day. I play through it fully once every year or two. I also enjoy other, better games, as have been mentioned elsewhere, but Quest is just special to me.
Just to say something beyond the obvious ones others are sharing; I really loved Battletanx. The game wasn’t all that great with the nostalgia goggles removed but I had so much fun playing it with friends 25 years ago
Superman: The New Superman Adventures (AKA Superman 64). It’s a baffling time capsule of poor management, crunched game development, and lack of coherent vision (mostly due to the management thing). Is flying through the rings tough? Yup. Do the missions make no sense? Yup. Is there a charm in firing it up and remembering to be grateful you’ve lived to yet another day where you can play Superman 64? Yup.