I’ve gotten over the Playstation winning the console war of its time, but it still amuses me that the Playstation is so highly regarded among gamers. Indeed, it did bring 3D gaming to the mainstream, despite the fact that it could barely play 3D games in the first place. The fact that the best games on the system, Castlevania: SotN and Alundra, were 2D sprite games speaks volumes about the system. The Playstation is regarded as the superior system (in comparison to the systems it competed with), but this has everything to do with the fact that it sold more and that most people aren‘t aware of a lot of the great games that were released on the N64 later on. It’s the same reason why most people will claim the SNES was better (it did sell a fair amount more than Sega’s system), despite the Genesis having more games worth playing. I have no problem with 3D gaming in theory, but I do when the system is as weak as the Playstation was.

If you were a fan of sports or racing games, there was virtually no reason to own a PSX with the N64 around. But really, there wasn’t much reason to own a PSX period, or at least not at the price the thing used to go for (if you want to play the few worthwhile games on the system, just grab a PS2 and get a nice library of games to go along with it). It might have worked out if the system had been a homage to running 2D games better than previous systems, but Sony practically required the games produced for it to be 3D, condemning their technologically weak system with a library of games that were rarely fun then, and entirely outclassed now.

Even the few 3D games on the system that I actually like, like the Resident Evil or Crash Bandicoot games, were limited in their 3D perspective, because the PSX couldn’t play real 3D games. Games that tried, even popular ones like Spyro, were almost intolerable.

RPGs became one of the most popular genres on the system, largely because of Final Fantasy VII, but also largely because it was one of the only genres that could be 3D, look good, and yet not play like ass. I agree with Mariner’s anti-RPG article in the sense that your average console RPG is bad (although there are still lots of console RPGs I enjoy), which is why, like the SNES, your average RPG on the PSX was boring, generic, and not worth playing. This isn’t to imply the system didn’t have RPGs worth playing (it would be silly to deny that), but it wasn’t enough the redeem it‘s otherwise crippling lack of good games. Certainly I’m a bit biased (my interest in console RPGs has been waning, so I don’t look back on most of the RPGs as fondly as I might have at one point). At the same time, it’s humorous that the N64 still received the best RPG of the generation anyway (Ogre Battle 64, which is still awesome).

The success of the Playstation left critics in an awkward position. The majority now owned a system that was almost incapable of making a good 3D game, but had almost nothing but 3D games. So every time the system needed a new hit, they simply made one up, praising games like Metal Gear Solid, Grand Turismo 2, and Tomb Raider, which were so poor that you couldn’t even pity them. The N64 unfortunately hit its real stride between late 1999 and early 2001 (not to imply that there weren’t great games before then), which by then was too late by then to parry the massive amounts of praise unworthy PSX games were getting. The Playstation sold more, plain and simple. But if sales meant quality, than the N64 wouldn’t have been by far and away the superior system.

So why did I post this? …..Ok, maybe I haven’t gotten over the Playstation winning the console war in sales. But the thing is, although the N64 hasn’t aged perfectly, it still has one of the best library of games worth playing around. The PSX was never a good system, but time has still been very unfavorable on it anyway. Regarding the N64, although new technology has made some of the games obsolete, the N64 is still has some of the best games around.

I still play my Nintendo 64. Banjo-Tooie and Super Mario 64 are still the best examples of 3D platforming ever. Excite Bike 64, Diddy Kong Racing, and F-Zero X are still some of the best racers yet. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are still the best games ever, period. It’s still worth your time to play awesome games like Jet Force Gemini or Paper Mario or Harvest Moon 64 or Perfect Dark or Conker’s Bad Fur Day or Shadowgate 64 or Goldeneye or Mario Tennis or Mario Golf or Mystical Ninja starring Goemon or Banjo-Kazooie or Ogre Battle 64 or Star Fox 64 or any other game that proves the N64’s unquestionable superiority in the 32/64 bit generation.

---

Well, there it is. I wrote this on a whim, so it’s not a beautiful piece of writing, but it also wasn’t intended to be. I’m not the kind of person who will deny being biased (everyone is, and I’m certainly biased here), but even then I think I’ve justified why I find the PSX to be mostly lame despite selling more and the N64 to be mostly awesome despite selling less. This is a blog, so I can say what I want without having to spend tons of time carefully constructing my reasoning into something convincing. But I still think I had good reasoning, or at least a good list of games to redeem the N64 (no matter what you think of the PSX). That’s it really.

Most recent blog posts from Corrupt Angel...

Feedback
	bluberry - November 12, 2005 (03:08 PM) And don't forget that The World is Not Enough was actually good on N64!
	joseph_valencia - November 12, 2005 (03:54 PM) Let's not forget that the Playstation was notorious for not playing games. The damn thing was worse than those early NESes that had the rusty cart readers!
	Halon - November 12, 2005 (03:54 PM) Actually none of the consoles of that generation were any good. The Saturn would've been great if all of its good games weren't $100-200.
	bluberry - November 13, 2005 (11:10 AM) wtf SPACEWORLDER HAX.
	lasthero - November 13, 2005 (11:10 AM) Finally, someone gives the N64 it's due! I agree with everything ya said, GD. N64 was woefully underrated, nowhere near as crap as it got pegged to be. Very glad I chose it over the PS.
	EmP - November 13, 2005 (11:55 AM) haha - the N64 was garbage. It wiped out on its own wave of hype, lost Nintendo the exclusive backing of Square and did nothing but pimp out already overdone lisences in prettier settings. It also gave us Superman 64. The only thing my 64 ever did for me was the Jaks brand wrestling games, which I still think are the best grapple-em-ups on the market today.
	joseph_valencia - November 13, 2005 (12:25 PM) wtf SPACEWORLDER HAX. no U!!!!
	lasthero - November 13, 2005 (01:18 PM) It also gave us Superman 64 PSX gave us Batman and Robin. As bad as Superman 64 was, it doesn't hold a candle to B & R. That game was the anti-awesome. Edit: Dreamcast was better than them both, though. >_> Though it was probably meant more for PS2 competition than N64 and PSX competition.
	Halon - November 13, 2005 (03:19 PM) The PSX had some great games (FFT, CBW, Twisted Metal 2, etc), but for every good game it had 50 shitty ones. The N64 didn't have as many great games but had nowhere near as much crap. In my opinion they both suck equally.
	Genj - November 13, 2005 (05:37 PM) I loved my PlayStation. I nearly played Final Fantasy VII 10 times!
	gdeluca - November 14, 2005 (04:57 AM) EmP: Out of curiosity, how many of the twenty games I listed have you played (and I could have listed more). lasthero: Yeah, when you combine the great launch of the Dreamcast and its following year with all the games released on the N64 in that time, that was a really good time for gamimg. Which unfortunately went almost entirely ignored because of the upcoming PS2 launch.
	EmP - November 14, 2005 (05:13 AM) After my disapointment with Mario 64, I never bothered with Banjo-Tooie. Never played Excite Bike, but found Diddy Kong's Racing to be crap and F-Zero X to be average. Hell, I enjoyed playing Snowboard Kids more than either. As a whole, I dislike the Zelda series, and the N64 games were perfect examples of trugding through repetative and monotoniuos dribble that I felt obliged to suffer through. OoT was average at best, MM a convulted mess. Conker's Bad Fur Day grated once the joke wore thin, which it did quickly, Paper Mario, Shadowgate 64, Mario Tennis/Golf and Ogre Battle didn't get a PAL release, so I have no way of playing them, Goldeneye and Perfect Zero were awesome games that have aged very poorly and I gave up on Mystic Ninja very early on. Star Fox was pretty good, but nothing new. Miss anything?
	lasthero - November 14, 2005 (05:29 AM) Smelly fool! You've never tried the underrated awesomeness of Body Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley!
	bluberry - November 14, 2005 (06:55 PM) wtf Perfect Dark and Goldeneye have aged spectacularly. Go lick Menji's ass.
	Genj - November 16, 2005 (05:51 AM) What do you expect from a UK native that LARPS?!
	magicjuggler - May 22, 2006 (05:32 PM) Remember, the 64 had 3D Castlevania? (Shudders). Though Ogre battle is awesome. The Saturn rocks if you have the cash; I'm going to be playing Guardian Heroes again as soon as I get a working system...