The following Nintendo Switch '64 games list is compiled using the User Ratings (out of 10) given to each N64 game on Switch in the West. It should be noted that this ranking is not set in stone and will automatically fluctuate over time depending on assigned User Ratings (and new additions to the NSO library, of course, which we'll add in due course).
Think a game below deserves to be higher up on the list? Simply click on the 'star' button and score it yourself — your personal rating could boost its placement in the overall ranking.
So, sit back and enjoy the best N64 games playable on Nintendo Switch...
Designed by Jools Watsham (Dementium: The Ward, Moon, Mutant Mudds) while at the Austin-based Turok studio Iguana, Iggy's Reckin' Balls is an oddball racing platformer. Up to four players are tasked with negotiating tower-like obstacle courses as fast as possible, rolling their way to the finish line using a grappling hook to scramble between platforms and grab other racers on the way.
It remained an N64 exclusive for over 25 years until Nintendo apparently struck a deal with Throwback Entertainment, who owns much of the old Acclaim IP, and bought it (plus Extreme-G) to the NSO Expansion Pack. Not a must-play, but intriguing enough to investigate if you're partial to inessential 64-bit curios.
This puzzler is essentially a 64-bit remake of the original Dr. Mario and was never released in Europe or Japan (although it did appear in the Japan-only Nintendo Puzzle Collection on GameCube alongside Panel de Pon and Yoshi's Cookie). Dr. Mario 64 is just Dr. Mario, but prettier than it had ever been; a solid puzzler with little to get too angry or excited about.
We don't know about you, but games like Operation: WinBack (as this was known in Europe and Australia) and Konami's Hybrid Heaven occupied a the B-tier on our 'to get' lists back in the day — they looked interesting, but they were way down the list behind the first-party purchases and many of us simply never got around to catching up with them once the 64-bit generation came to an end.
While Koei's third-person shooter wouldn't go down in the annals of covert ops gaming as a classic, its cover system felt fresh back in 1999 and the ability to check out the game on Switch and place it in its historical context is most welcome.
Coming after the incredible (and incredibly beautiful) Yoshi's Island on SNES, it's no surprise that Yoshi's Story rubbed some people the wrong way with its accessible, storybook approach and cutesiness. It's certainly not the strongest or most complex 2D platformer you'll ever play, but it's brimming with the Yoshi series' trademark charm and we'd say it's worthy of reassessment if you've dismissed it in the past.
The N64 wasn't blessed with an abundance of side-on platformers, but armed with the knowledge that this isn't a 64-bit Yoshi's Island, this is a great little game starring everyone's favourite fruit-munching dino.
In 1997, the year before the excellent F-Zero X and Wipeout 64 would arrive to battle for gold on the N64's futuristic racer podium, Probe's Extreme-G had the track pretty much to itself. This Acclaim-published, combat-heavy, N64-exclusive bike-racer (don't mention TRON, don't mention TRON) might have had to settle for bronze when those classics arrived on the circuit, but it put in a decent performance in the interim, doing well enough to garner three more series instalments in the years that followed.
Extreme-G can't keep up with the all-time champs, then, but it's a slick, solid racer that takes advantage of the '64's four controller ports for multiplayer. Worth firing up.
Pokémon Puzzle League is really just Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack with a Pokemon makeover. That's not bad though, because it's still the same brilliant block puzzler. Panel de Pon fanatics will have the time of their lives regardless, but the Pokémon wrapper helps draw in and hold the attention of new players long enough for the puzzling to grab hold. With the added Pokémon anime nostalgia factor that's grown over the decades, there's even more reason to investigate Pokémon Puzzle League if it passed you by all those years ago. It's still the same old game, and it still rocks.
A game which teaches the rewards of dedication and perseverance. Winning the race might look like the point of the game, but the real goal is there in the title — pulling a 1080°. It took some of us years, but we kept at it and — boom! — finally, we nailed it. The speed and precision were matched with beautiful visuals, with sunlight glistening off the piste and snow spraying up behind your board. 1080° Snowboarding's frame rate suffered accordingly, but its subtle controls enabled you to sharpen up shallow turns and gracefully arc across the course, and coupled with the visuals it conveyed a taste of the feeling you get from the real-life sport.
When you’re not falling on your arse, that is.
Pokémon Stadium was a revolutionary step up for the monster-catching franchise, and that's not just due to the fact that we got to see all 151 critters in full-fledged 3D. The inclusion of the GB Tower, as well as allowing players to experience Pokémon characters in fun new ways through minigames and the Pokémon Lab, felt remarkably fresh and offered a new perspective on our repository of 'mons. Sure, the battling can get a bit repetitive and lengthy, but the awesome visuals, animations, and commentary can help keep this from becoming mundane. If you're playing this on NSO, you're of course limited to rental teams, but there's plenty to love here if you're an OG fan. And the Lickitung sushi minigame is ace.
Canadian developer Left Field Productions, the team behind the fondly-remembered NBA Courtside games, was responsible for this brilliant entry in Nintendo's motocross series. Shifting the gameplay from side-on to behind-the-rider 3D, it melded the careful pitch and throttle control of the original game with the subtle mechanics of N64 stablemates Wave Race 64 and 1080° Snowboarding to produce something just as deep, rewarding and addictive as those racers.
An underrated entry in the Rareware library, Jet Force Gemini coupled cute design with chunky, gungy third-person blasting in a world-hopping quest to defeat insectoid overlord Mizar. Juno, Vela and trusty good boy Lupus' adventure is not without flaws, but JFG is a surprisingly deep and satisfying one that's worth investigating if you're a Rare fan looking for gems that passed you by around the turn of the millennium.
In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, HAL Laboratory managed to keep the core structure many knew and loved about the Kirby series while glossing it up with a shiny coat of polygonal paint for the new console generation.
Kirby's 64-bit foray into the third dimension (well, kinda — it's 2.5D, or on-rails 3D, if you prefer) stands out as one of the more unique entries in the series, feeling somewhat fresh in comparison to the many, many 2D Kirby platformers and still pleasurable to play to this day.
