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10. Star Fox 64

The single-player campaign was a cinematic journey, a thrilling space opera that made you feel like a hero. But the multiplayer? That was a different kind of chaos. The frantic dogfights in All-Range Mode were a beautiful mess of lasers and barrel rolls. The screen, split into four small windows, made it tough to see anything clearly. But that was part of the charm.

You weren’t just fighting your friends’ Arwings; you were fighting the limitations of the screen, craning your neck for a better view. And while the ground-based Landmaster tank battles added some variety, it was the aerial combat that kept us coming back. It was never the main event, but it was always a welcome encore.

9. F-Zero X

Pure, blistering speed. That was F-Zero X. Thirty racers on the track at once, a dizzying spectacle of color and motion. The multiplayer mode stripped that down to four, but it lost none of the intensity. The margin for error was razor-thin. One wrong move, one slight nudge against a guardrail, and you were either spinning out of control or exploding in a ball of fire.

The focus here wasn't on weapons or cheap shots; it was about mastering the track, finding the perfect racing line, and having the guts to boost at just the right moment. It demanded a level of precision that few other racers did. It was a game for the purists, for those who believed that victory should be earned through skill alone.

8. WCW/nWo Revenge

For a generation of wrestling fans, this was the pinnacle. The roster was huge, a who's who of late-90s wrestling icons. The gameplay, with its unique grappling system, was easy to pick up but had a surprising amount of depth. Finding a wrestler whose moveset matched your style was a journey in itself.

The arenas were detailed, the entrances were dramatic, and the 40-man battle royal was the stuff of legends. More than just a wrestling game, it was a sandbox for creating your own dream matches, for settling playground arguments about who the best wrestler really was. It was loud, it was chaotic, and it was glorious.

7. Diddy Kong Racing

Diddy Kong Racing was more than just a kart racer; it was an adventure. And, thanks to a hidden cheat code, you could bring a friend along for the ride in the game's adventure mode. That was a game-changer. Suddenly, you weren't just competing against each other; you were partners, working together to defeat Wizpig. But the traditional multiplayer modes were where the real competition was.

The ability to switch between a car, a hovercraft, and a plane added a layer of strategy that other racers lacked. The tracks were inventive, the items were creative, and the whole experience was polished and charming. It might not have the iconic status of Mario Kart, but for many, it's the superior racing game.

6. Conker's Bad Fur Day

This was the game none of our parents knew about. Wrapped in a cute, cartoonish exterior was a multiplayer experience that was shockingly brutal, incredibly creative, and hysterically funny. Conker's Bad Fur Day threw out the rulebook.

Forget simple deathmatches; here you could play as a gun-toting squirrel in a World War II parody, storming a beach held by murderous teddy bears. Or you could be a raptor, hunting down cavemen and feeding them to your baby. The modes were wildly imaginative and diverse, from stealing and protecting bags of cash to a tense, Matrix-inspired lobby shootout. It was a game with a mischievous soul, a defiant and unforgettable multiplayer suite that felt like a secret shared among friends.

5. Mario Party

No game on this list is responsible for more broken friendships than Mario Party. The cheerful, colorful aesthetic hid a ruthless, unforgiving core. It was a game of luck, of chance, of sudden, dramatic reversals of fortune. One moment you were cruising to an easy victory, the next you were bankrupt, starless, and filled with a burning rage. And then there were the mini-games.

The ones that required you to rotate the analog stick as fast as you could were infamous, leaving players with blisters and sore palms. It was a game that demanded a physical toll, a testament to its ability to get under your skin. We loved it, and we hated it, often in the same turn.

4. Super Smash Bros.

It was a concept that shouldn't have worked: a fighting game featuring a cast of beloved Nintendo characters. But it did. And it was brilliant. Super Smash Bros. was accessible in a way that other fighting games weren't. You didn't need to memorize complex button combinations to have a good time. But beneath that simple surface was a deep, complex fighting system that rewarded skill and strategy.

Each character felt unique, each stage was a chaotic playground, and the thrill of launching an opponent off the screen was unmatched. It was the start of a phenomenon, a game that would go on to become a global esports sensation. But back then, it was just four friends, crowded around a TV, trying to answer the age-old question: who would win in a fight between Mario and Link?

3. Mario Kart 64

The ultimate party game. The great equalizer. The reason we all have trust issues. Mario Kart 64 was a force of nature. It was a game where skill mattered, but not as much as a well-timed blue shell. The feeling of being in first place, seconds from the finish line, only to be struck by lightning, hit with a red shell, and then flattened by a speeding train on Kalimari Desert is a feeling that stays with you.

The battle mode, with its iconic Block Fort map, was a game in itself, a tense, strategic affair that could last for hours. It was a game that brought people together, and then tore them apart in a flurry of banana peels and fake item boxes. And we wouldn't have had it any other way.

2. GoldenEye 007

This was the game that proved that first-person shooters could work on a console. And it did it with a style and a swagger that few games have matched since. The single-player campaign was a masterpiece, but the multiplayer was a revolution. The four-player split-screen deathmatches were the stuff of legend.

The maps—Facility, Complex, Archives—are etched into the memories of a generation. The weapons, the gadgets, the satisfying "thwack" of a silenced PP7—it all came together to create an experience that was endlessly replayable. And then there were the house rules. "Slappers only," a chaotic, hilarious mode where everyone ran around trying to hit each other with a single, weak melee attack. It was absurd, it was ridiculous, and it was perfect.

1. Perfect Dark

If GoldenEye was the blueprint, Perfect Dark was the finished masterpiece. It took the formula of its predecessor and polished it to a mirror shine. The multiplayer was deeper, more customizable, and more ambitious. The addition of simulants meant that you could have epic 8-player battles even if you only had a couple of friends over.

The weapons were more creative, the levels were more interactive, and the game modes were more varied. It was a game that felt like it was from the future, a quantum leap forward in console multiplayer. While GoldenEye may have the edge in pure nostalgia, Perfect Dark is, by almost every objective measure, the better game. It was the culmination of everything that made the N64 the king of couch co-op, a game so good that it still holds up today.

That's our definitive list, but we know you have opinions. What did we get right? What did we get horribly wrong? Let us know your N64 multiplayer champion in the comments

Friendships Were Made (and Broken) Here: Ranking the 10 Best N64 Multiplayer Games