Getting A Nintendo 64 Was Truly A Life-Changing Moment For Any Person Who Was Growing Up In 1996

Reags5/06/2025 6:45 PM

When everyone's pal Eddie texts you asking to join a draft about 1996 nostalgia, you say yes. That's how we find ourselves here now talking about Nintendo 64. First off, you could make a case that 1996 was the greatest year we've ever lived in. I say that as a 38-year old, so just an idea of the timeframe I'm talking about here. The movie list and song list is as deep as it gets. Without giving away picks, you have movies like Independence Day, Happy Gilmore, Jerry Maguire, Scream, Celtic Pride, Bio-Dome, Sunset Park, Kingpin, Tin Cup, Black Sheep, The Rock and Space Jam. You get the point there. Just a perfect year to be a 10-year old sitting around watching movies that still hold up to this day.

But I'm not here to talk about movies. I'm here to talk about the most important thing any kid could have in the 1990s. The moment you got a Nintendo 64. It's still, to this day, the greatest video game console of all-time. It still has the greatest game of all-time in Mario Kart.

But more importantly you got to experience everything new. You got the 4-person controllers. You had the different color controllers, shout out the clear purple one which was my go to.

You had the Rumble Pak, which just added to it all. That's before you get into the legendary games. Zelda, GoldenEye, Mario Party, Mario Golf, FOX College Hoops 99, Ken Griffey Jr.s' Slugfest. It wasn't a gift for a person, it became a gift for a family and for a neighborhood even at some points. If you were the first in the neighborhood with N64, you had the No. 1 pick house to go hang out at when it was time to come in from playing outside.

I know there were plenty of other systems, none compared to this at the time. It made you feel like you were playing something different. Even the box it made it feel different with the logo and seeing the words on it as you opened up the gift wrap