Top 10 Hidden Gems on the Nintendo 64 That Every Fan Must Play

I still remember the smell: sun-baked plastic, stale cardboard, and the faint, glorious musk of a decades-old cartridge. I picked up a Nintendo 64 box I didn’t recognize, thumbed the label, and found a game nobody on the message boards seemed to remember. It felt like finding a letter from a forgotten cousin - equal parts baffling and thrilling.

The Nintendo 64’s legacy is a short list of seismic hits. Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time sit on pedestals, bathed in museum lighting. But beneath the glare are smaller, stranger works - titles that tried weird things, punched above their weight, or simply existed off the beaten path. Here are 10 of those hidden gems. Some are unfairly rare, some are gloriously peculiar, and all are worth your time.

Why bother? Because video games, like neighborhoods, are full of surprises. The blockbusters are major avenues; the gems are the back alleys where you meet the interesting people.

1) Jet Force Gemini (Rare, 1999)

What it is - A third-person shooter/adventure with massive maps, eccentric characters, and a surprisingly tender human heart.
Why it’s hidden - Rare’s pedigree made it noticeable, but it fell between the cracks - too ambitious to be a simple shooter, too odd to be mainstream.
What to expect - Intense twin-stick-ish shooting (controller dependent), large levels with exploration incentives, and a surprisingly cinematic boss design. It feels like GoldenEye swallowed a sci-fi novel and stayed up all night reading it.
Best for fans of - Sci-fi shooters who like variety and don’t mind a little roughness around the edges.

2) Body Harvest (DMA Design / Gremlin, 1998)

What it is - An open-world action game where you drive vehicles, slaughter aliens, and save an evolving timeline.
Why it’s hidden - Released early in the N64’s life, pre-GTA fame for DMA, and marketed poorly. It’s the awkward, intellectually curious cousin of modern open-worlds.
What to expect - Vast maps, vehicle variety, and emergent chaos. The game is clunky by modern standards, but it has raw, experimental DNA - the sort of ambition we later polished into AAA features.
Best for fans of - Players who love techno-archaeology - watching design ideas from one era mutate into another.

3) Mischief Makers (Treasure, 1997)

What it is - A glorious 2D side-scroller in full 3D hardware, stuffed with invention, bizarre bosses, and a wince-inducing soundtrack.
Why it’s hidden - It arrived on a console famous for polygons, and Treasure’s brand of delightful weirdness never sought mainstream compromise.
What to expect - A physics-forward action platformer where grabbing and shaking are the core verbs. It’s as if a carnival ride were designed by a team of game designers hopped up on espresso.
Best for fans of - Fast, tactile platforming and offbeat humor.

4) Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (Quest / Atlus, 1999)

What it is - A sprawling tactical/strategy RPG with political theater, troop routing, and moral choices.
Why it’s hidden - Strategy RPGs have always been niche. Add limited marketing and a crowded release window, and you get an overlooked masterpiece.
What to expect - Complex unit management, branching story paths, and battles that feel like chess played on a battlefield. The learning curve is steep, but the payoff is strategic poetry.
Best for fans of - Fire Emblem veterans and anyone who likes to obsess over troop placement.

5) Blast Corps (Rare, 1997)

What it is - A destruct-a-thon/puzzle hybrid where you demolish buildings to clear a path for a runaway nuclear truck.
Why it’s hidden - Unwieldy box art and a ridiculous premise kept it from being a mainstream favorite, yet its level design is borderline surgical.
What to expect - Tension, timing, and the exquisite satisfaction of destroying a carefully stacked model city to prevent catastrophe. It’s one of those games that makes demolition feel like art.
Best for fans of - Puzzle games with kinetic explosions and immaculate level choreography.

6) Beetle Adventure Racing! (Rare, 1999)

What it is - A surprisingly joyful arcade racer starring VW Beetles, lush tracks, and secret shortcuts.
Why it’s hidden - Not a Mario Kart, and not pushing any console-selling license. It’s the racer that the N64 quietly loved.
What to expect - Tight controls, environmental interaction, and tracks that reward curiosity. The game’s personality is all charm and chrome.
Best for fans of - Unpretentious arcade racing with memorable track design.

7) Harvest Moon 64 (Natsume, 1999)

What it is - A slow, patient farming sim that’s about building a life, not beating a final boss.
Why it’s hidden - Timing and genre. Farming sims weren’t considered headline material then; now they are a massive, cozy industry.
What to expect - Seasons, relationships, and the gentle tyranny of crops that expect you to care. It’s therapeutic in the way a cup of hot tea is therapeutic - slow, warming, and strangely satisfying.
Best for fans of - Players who want a game that rewards routine and small, repeated rituals.

8) Hybrid Heaven (Konami, 1999)

What it is - A bizarre fusion of beat ’em up, RPG, and cinematic stealth moments.
Why it’s hidden - Because it’s weird, and mainstream marketing doesn’t know what to do with weird. That’s a compliment here.
What to expect - A combat system that flips between real-time brawling and tactical, character-attribute-based decisions. It feels like an experiment someone forgot to explain.
Best for fans of - Players who enjoy genre glitches - where one game bleeds into another and something interesting leaks out.

9) Gex 64: Enter the Gecko (Crystal Dynamics, 1998)

What it is - A pop-culture-savvy platformer starring a wisecracking gecko who stomps through TV-themed worlds.
Why it’s hidden - The N64 platformer field was merciless; Gex 64 didn’t have the mascot presence of Mario or the spectacle of Banjo.
What to expect - Clever level themes, lots of platforming puzzles, and a tone that alternates between clever and smug. It’s a good reminder that platformers don’t have to be solemn epics.
Best for fans of - Nostalgic platformers with pop-culture one-liners.

10) WinBack: Covert Operations (Omega Force / Koei, 1999)

What it is - A third-person shooter famous for pioneering cover mechanics that inspired later blockbusters.
Why it’s hidden - It wasn’t flashy enough to dethrone shooters on other consoles and quietly seeded ideas that later bloomed into genres.
What to expect - Tactical shooting that emphasizes positioning and cover use. It’s earnest and influential in ways the mainstream tends to forget.
Best for fans of - Anyone curious about the evolutionary steps that led to modern cover shooters.

How to approach these classics

Find a cart or emulate wisely - Original cartridges are charming but rare. If you go the modern route, use legal re-releases or hardware like an EverDrive to keep things honest.
Expect quirks - N64 controllers age like wine, not milk. Controls and camera systems can be clunky by modern standards; that’s part of the experience.
Play them for ideas, not nostalgia points - These games reward curiosity. Play them to see how designers solved problems you didn’t know needed solving.

Where to learn more

If you want deeper reading, each game has a dedicated page with release details and historical context. Start with the Nintendo 64 overview and the individual entries: Nintendo 64, and the linked pages for each title above.

Closing thought

Rarer cartridges and oddball designs are the N64’s secret garden. The console’s big names taught us how a platform could be a stage for brilliance; these underappreciated games remind us that innovation often arrives in low-signal bursts. Play them. You might not find a revolution - but you will find a handful of gorgeous, stubborn ideas that still sing.