With the SNES Mini edging closer to release I was thinking about what a N64 Mini could look like and what game selection the system could realistically have.

The success of the Nintendo Classic Mini series, despite the long winded official names that are different per region, almost guarantees that we’ll see an N64 Mini at some point. The Nintendo 64 is a curious beast both from a hardware standpoint and from a game library one.

Hardware Issues

The controller is the first thing that jumps to mind, it’s still a quirky and unusual bit of hardware visually and physically. The analogue stick is notorious for getting gunked up and just flat out failing over time, and that could be a problem for a potential Mini. It’s also just not as straightforward to manufacture, the tri-prong design is definitely still just an odd thing all round.

Something that comes to mind when you think about the controller was the system’s unique use of addon Paks to enhance the experience and whilst some of these (most?) could be built into the system/controller now like the Rumble Pak or the Controller Pak (Memory Card), some games that you’d imagine would be considered for a N64 Mini like Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 relied on the Transfer Pak to allow you to use your Game Boy Pokémon rather than use boring Rental ones.

I can’t think of an easy to implement way of including that functionality (perhaps some connectivity with the Pokémon Bank service) but those games would definitely lose something withough it. Mario Golf and Mario Tennis also both used this functionality too though so it would be nice if those features could somehow be kept.

Transfer Pak quirks aside, the systems innate support for four controllers without needing a multitap would also be nice to keep although I can’t imagine Nintendo supplying four out of the box, keeping the support would be a nice touch however.

The Games

This is where the discussion gets interesting as there are some obvious first party entries that would probably be a shoe-in without a second thought:

  • Super Mario 64
  • Pilotwings 64
  • Wave Race 64
  • F-Zero X
  • Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars)
  • Mario Kart 64
  • Super Smash Bros.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

They’d probably also include one or both of Mario Golf and Mario Tennis along with maybe a Mario Party to add some more variety. There are some well-loved and fondly remembered titles from third parties too that would seem obvious but might need some licence wrangling to make happen, notably:

  • Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
  • Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
  • Star Wars: Episode One Racer
  • DOOM 64
  • Body Harvest

But a lot of fondly remembered games were made by Rare; Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing to name just a selection. Whilst at least one of those Donkey Kong 64 still belongs to Nintendo, with Diddy Kong Racing being in a weird limbo due to characters in that game, the others are all Rare/Microsoft property now.

It’s unclear if Microsoft would allow those games to end up on such a device although perhaps a little monetary persuasion could make it happen, most of those titles have appeared on the excellent Rare Replay collection for the Xbox One though and perhaps Microsft would just not be open to the idea.

This ultimately leads us to the question of how many games would end up on the system, the NES Mini had 30 titles, the SNES Mini’s roster dropped that count to 21. The N64 Mini, much like the SNES has a library that could easily hit the 30 titles the NES Mini had depending on third party involvement but I could just as easily see them drop to the 15 game mark and rely mostly on first party output.