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.

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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.