Luke Kalamar (Television Editor, Remembering the Classics Columnist)-As a lifelong Nintendo fan, I have an incredible amount of memories. To name them all would be a crazy undertaking. Yet despite that, it wasn’t difficult to pick the one period in my personal Nintendo history that stands out: the Nintendo 64. I’m talking the full lifespan of this console. Is it cheating to not pick a single moment? You can say that. But my time with the N64 is so filled with treasured memories that it warrants focusing on the fact that the system even existed. I honestly only need to hear the beautiful title music from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to enter some teary-eyed nostalgia.
For me, the N64 existed at the perfect time. My family first got it when I was in late elementary school and my older brother was still in middle school. This meant that we were at that age when we were experienced enough to fully enjoy the system but too young to have such major responsibilities that restricted our playtime. We clocked countless hours into Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, and the woefully underappreciated Jet Force Gemini, to name a small few. We printed out cheats for each game, or actively sought out glitches to mess with the system. And yes, got a little too aggressive at screen peaking. My two closest friends also lived in the neighborhood so we constantly got together to play on our own as well. Who needs online play (which wasn’t even a thing on consoles) when you have the best people around you within walking distance?
Unfortunately, this golden time had to end. My family moved across town and the impromptu get together sstopped. My older brother entered high school and simply didn’t have the time for constant playing. Of course, I had another brother around to play games with, plus I did get together with friends as much as possible, but nothing was able to replicate that N64 magic. Future online play definitely added convenience to multiplayer and yet that still doesn’t compare with getting together in person. It’s for these reasons that the Nintendo 64 as a whole is my favorite memory. In fact, the Nintendo 64 might actually be my favorite console ever.
