When you look at the grand library of consoles that Nintendo has developed, there are some real winners in there. The Switch is the biggest runaway success the company has ever seen, while the DS is a handheld console that no one has been able to match.
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Which Nintendo Console Has The Most Games?
Have you ever wondered which Nintendo console has had the most games released for it? We have the answer.
And then there’s the N64. It is remembered incredibly fondly now for the standout games that did launch on the console, but looking at it objectively, it had a surprising dearth of games. Far less than any other Nintendo console, in fact. Let’s dive into exactly why that was.
How Many Games Did The N64 Have In Total?
While the Switch has far-and-away the largest library of any Nintendo console with over 5,000 games, that’s definitely an outlier. The majority hover somewhere around 1,000-2,000 games, give or take a few either way. Impressive numbers, and they tended to grow with each console. So where does that leave the N64?
There are under 400 games for the N64, with 388 the most commonly accepted final number. Compare this to around 1,700 on the SNES and around 650 on the Gamecube, the N64 lies bizzarely low. Every console following has never reached such a low number, even the Wii U, so what happened for this retroactively beloved console to witness such a dry spell in game releases?
Why Did The N64 Have So Few RPGs In Particular?
A massive aspect that had defined the success of the SNES, the predecessor to the N64, was its massive selection of RPGs. While RPGs were popular internationally, they found their most devoted audience in Japan. As such, it became somewhat of an expectation that any Nintendo console would be rich with RPGs.
This, however, was not the case. While the N64 was lacking in an overall number of games, it was lacking most especially in RPGs. In fact, Japan was the worst-selling region for the N64, and Europe did not fair much better. North America, which did not have as deep an association with RPGs, was more than happy with the other games on offer.
|
Game |
Release Date |
International Or Japan-Exclusive |
|---|---|---|
|
PD Ultraman Battle Collection 64 |
July 1997 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Quest 64 |
June 1998 |
International |
|
Gauntlet Legends |
October 1998 |
International |
|
Zool: Majū Tsukai Densetsu |
June 1999 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Ogre Battle 64 |
July 1999 |
International |
|
Hybrid Heaven |
August 1999 |
International |
|
Super Robot Wars 64 |
October 1999 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Custom Robo |
December 1999 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Robot Ponkottsu 64: Nanatsu no Umi no Caramel |
December 1999 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Paper Mario |
August 2000 |
International |
|
Shiren the Wanderer 2: Shiren’s Castle and the Oni Invasion |
September 2000 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Custom Robo V2 |
November 2000 |
Japan-Exclusive |
|
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage |
March 2001 |
Only Europe and North America |
While there are a few more games with light RPG elements on the N64, this listing focuses solely on those that are fully RPG in nature.
As you can see in the table above, however, the situation for RPGs on the N64 was especially dire. A massive part of this was because of Square Enix’s decision to shift all its major franchises to the PlayStation, the vast majority of which were RPGs. The N64 was more expensive to develop for, and the costly cartridges pushed customers away from buying games in the first place.
That was bad enough, but due to the general lack of interest of RPGs in North America, it meant many of the N64’s RPGs remained exclusive to Japan despite there being an appetite for them in Europe. As such, of the 13 dedicated RPGs released on the N64, only 6 of them actually launched internationally.
Why Did The N64 Have So Few Games In Total?
So now we know why the most celebrated genre of games on the N64 was so limited, but why did the console in general have so few games? Well, it ties back into the same reasoning but on a much larger scale. The original PlayStation had a two-year headstart, and came with CD-ROMs that allowed higher storage that could be read faster than cartridges.
For many, this was enough to jump ship. But then why didn’t they develop for both consoles? Well, a lot of that came down to the storage media as well. Discs and cartridges stored data differently and read it differently as well. It wasn’t a simple copy-and-paste job. On top of this, N64 games were sold at a premium to make up for the cost of the expensive cartridges. This meant less money for third-parties.
Nintendo briefly cut the price of the console and games in the holiday season of 1997, prompting Capcom to continue making games for the console.
Another major angle to consider, and one that likely influenced many, the N64 just wasn’t selling well. Nintendo didn’t have many of its own games ready to go, leading to long periods without any new games, and this in turn lead to lower sales internationally. While the N64 briefly outsold the PlayStation in North America, it didn’t hold this record for very long.
This attitude is even seen when carried over to the subsequent GameCube. While it used optical media, and was more powerful than its competitors, the fear of being associated with a console that simply might not sell had many wary to actually invest in it. That was a direct result of soured relationships from the N64 era.
