I am probably going to get hate for this, but I don’t think too highly of this console.
Sure, some of the games at the time were astonishing and well regarded classics, but man oh man do I dislike the controller, it just feels so… alien to hold you know?
Another thing too, the cartridge format whilst snappy, suffered from making too many cutbacks compared to the disc format of PS1 and Saturn which gave you pretty much the full scoop.
I am sure Nintnedo had their reasons at the time, but to me it was almost like it was a death by a thousand cuts scenario, a really powerful machine let down by not using what is literally the next gen medium at the time.
Let me know your thoughts, it is fine to disagree as the console is well respected with both nostalgia and entertainment, I’m just an outlier here.
It was definitely a product of its time, but it paved the way to what we have now. It’s important to note the N64 was the first console to have an analog stick, so nobody really knew where to place it. They put it in the middle since it was something extra not all games would use.
That said, the hardware limitations didn’t matter that much as long as the games were stellar. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time are maybe the most influential games of all time, up there with Doom and Quake.
Technically the Sega Saturn had an analog stick controller available before the N64.
https://segaretro.org/3D_Control_Pad#History