Best N64 Multiplayer Games of All Time

The N64 and the 4-Player Era

The Nintendo 64 launched with four controller ports built in — an implicit design statement about multiplayer as a primary use case rather than an expensive accessory add-on. The SNES and Genesis had required multitap adapters for more than two players; the N64 invited four players at every session. The games that used those four ports defined an era of local multiplayer that streaming and online play has never fully replicated.

Four people on a couch with GoldenEye was a specific experience — the social negotiation over screen-watching, the house rules about rocket launcher use, the friend who always chose Oddjob and the argument about whether that was fair — that cannot be reproduced on a modern console with headsets and separate screens. The N64’s multiplayer library created social rituals that a generation of players still references.

GoldenEye 007 — The Multiplayer That Changed Everything

GoldenEye 007 (1997) invented the console first-person shooter multiplayer category as a practical experience rather than a technical demonstration. The single-player campaign was already an exceptional Bond game, but the multiplayer — four players on split screen in licensed Bond locations, with weapon sets that could be customized per match, and one-shot kill options that created entirely different tension dynamics — became the primary reason the game remained in households for years.

The Facility bathroom, the Egyptian Temple, the Temple levels — each had specific dynamics that players understood. The DK Mode cheat (massive heads and hands) was a cultural artifact. The Paintball Mode, the Slappers Only challenge, the specific house rules about proximity mines — GoldenEye created a shared culture around its multiplayer that Halo’s online play eventually absorbed and amplified.

Super Smash Bros — The Party Fighting Game

Super Smash Bros (1999) invented a genre — the platform fighter — and the genre has never produced a better execution than its own sequels. The original N64 Smash had 12 characters, a single shared stock and percentage-based damage system that sent characters flying when their damage was high enough, and a deliberately accessible design compared to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.

Four players in Smash was controlled chaos: the stage hazards, the item drops, the specific panic of three opponents focusing on the player in the lead. The game’s low barrier to entry made it the N64’s most inclusive multiplayer title — players who didn’t play video games could participate meaningfully while being beaten consistently by practiced players. That skill gap, visible but not discouraging to new players, made Smash Bros the defining N64 party game.

Perfect Dark — GoldenEye Evolved

Perfect Dark (2000) was Rare’s follow-up to GoldenEye from the same development team. It required the expansion pak (4MB extra RAM) to run the multiplayer mode, but delivered a GoldenEye-scale experience with bots (the N64’s first implementation of single-player AI in FPS multiplayer), more varied weapon sets, and the carryover of everything GoldenEye’s multiplayer had refined.

The Co-Op and Counter-Op modes — one player as Joanna Dark, one player as the enemy she’s fighting — were genuinely innovative implementations that demonstrated what Rare understood about multiplayer design. Perfect Dark never achieved GoldenEye’s cultural penetration, but players who spent time with it consider it the superior technical achievement.