It's March 1, 2017 today, and that means it's been a full twenty years since the Nintendo 64 launched (in Europe and Australia, at least) on March 1, 1997. America, as it tends to, got their hands on the console five months prior, in September 1996, so perhaps a celebration is a bit overdue at this point, but I digress. Originally retailing for £250 in the UK, which, going off of a few inflation calculators, £250 translates to around £410 in today's money. That's around £100 more than what the Switch will cost when it launches! In terms of games, the N64 launched with a whopping five titles, such as Pilotwings 64, FIFA Soccer 64, Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, Wayne Gretzky's Hockey, and finally, the ever-lovable flagship title, Super Mario 64.
It was a console created to compete with in the fifth generation of gaming, although it was a bit late to the party, coming out two years after the PlayStation and Saturn. The N64 was Nintendo's first foray into the fledgling market of 64-bit games, moving from pixels and sprites to polygons and large, open worlds. Super Mario 64 would revolutionize the platforming genre, and become such a classic, that it still impacts platforming games to this day. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would release nearly two years later, on December 11, 1998, and would further innovate gaming, as it brought the Zelda series to 3D for the first time, as well. Third-party company Rare would continue their partnership with Nintendo, and go on to create well-remembered games such as GoldenEye 007, Killer Instinct, Diddy Kong Racing, and what is probably their most beloved N64 release, Banjo-Kazooie.
