Homage to the Nintendo64

The Nintendo64 was a gaming system that really did bring games to a different level, leaving behind the sad attempts at 3-D that had come before; the Sony PlayStation, however, may have pushed the excellence of the 64 back, with the use of disc-based games instead of the rather clunky cartridges that the 64 was boasting.
I did indeed own both the PS1 and the N64, but after all of these years, if I want some nostalgia in the gaming department, I pick up my frosty purple controller and proceed to wander in the realms of oddly-shaped characters on my trusty, dusty N64.
I remember coming home every afternoon in 5th and 6th grade and turning on the 64, playing it for about three hours a day with my cousin. It didn't take long before we became Diddy Kong Racing PROS. We'd sit there with our PB&J's, staring at the TV and trying to get every stinking thing in that game.
Oddly, the graphics weren't too terrible on DKR. I still play it to this day, and it brings me the same joy it used to. I can always tell when I haven't played for a while, because I don't lap the CPU chars a few times.../cough
Talking about bad graphics, but excellent games, let's take a step over to Goldeneye. I enjoy a good game, really, I do, and if it's that good, the graphics won't have much impact on me....still, there's something to be said about Goldeneye, because they tried to make it too real-looking without realizing that the 64-bit system didn't have the capacity to actually make humans look like humans, instead turning Bond and all of those famous characters into mushy-faced pointy and unfortunate polygons.
This game is still amazing though. Shadowgate64 /shudder/ made the same mistake in trying to make people look real. Seeress, you looked like a melted, overgrown red...beast. That aside, being a halfling is probably the most boring lead ever. Then the ending....don't get me started.
Moving on to my prized possession: Ocarina of Time.
This little beauty really make me appreciate the 64 and exercised caution when presenting characters. Yes, they were pointy polygonal freaks, but the story was incredibly engaging. I remember the summer of 1998, when my cousins and I hooked up the N64 and a tiny TV in our grandma's garage. Every day, we'd gather at grandma's house and the four of us would sit around the little TV and play some Zelda. That was one of the happiest times in my life, I think. The mystery and adventure of the game and hanging out with the people I loved. :)
Enough about games for now; the joystick on the N64 controller was something to be hated. In my own personal experience, I have gone through quite a few controllers, either from the wild antics of Mario Party or just the mad rage to push my characters faster than they'd ever be able to go. Now, I don't know how many of you reading this have ever busted the joystick on those, but it's pretty funny. It just kind of sits there, lifeless, and when you turn a game on, the cursors are going mad. For me, it's been only the crystal purple controllers I've broken, because those are my babies, but, I have been known to break controllers that my friends had, in almost every color of the rainbow...
The flimsy joystick is my only complaint from the 64 controller. I really liked the layout, and it was comfortable in the hands. The Z-trigger is one of my favorite video game buttons, cause it felt like you were unleashing a sickening amount of lasers on your opponent, regardless of the game you were using it in.
This is the first section of homage to the N64.

Fin.