15 Best Cheap N64 Games

South Park was developed by Iguana Entertainment with a modified version of the engine from Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, and Acclaim released both games on the N64 in December 1998. That engine is the reason it is a first-person shooter at all. On the N64 you can choose between 20 characters and 17 multiplayer levels, far more than the PlayStation version, which was limited to six multiplayer levels. Reception of the N64 version was fairly indifferent, and the voice clips were criticized for repetition.

Loose carts sold for a typical $21 in late summer 2025. Players still remember it fondly, whatever the critics said. Plenty of N64 games took themselves very seriously, and this was not one of them. With that many multiplayer levels, it is best played with friends who laugh at the same jokes you do.

Pilotwings 64 was one of two launch titles for the Nintendo 64 in North America, next to Super Mario 64. It is a sequel to the SNES Pilotwings, and it was co-developed by Nintendo and Paradigm Simulation, a graphics company from Texas. Before each mission you choose one of six pilots, each with their own strengths based on things like weight, and then take tests to earn a license. Points are awarded or taken away for time, damage, fuel usage, accuracy and how softly you land.

Critics praised its visual presentation and its flying controls. Loose carts sold for a typical $20 in fall 2025. Players who name it treat it as a calm, overlooked game, the one to put on when you want to float instead of fight. Nobody is shooting at you, and that is the whole point.

Shadows of the Empire was one part of a whole multimedia project. You play Dash Rendar, a minor character from the book, because the team passed on the movie heroes to get more freedom with the story. Nintendo agreed to grow the cartridge from 8 MB to 12 MB so it could hold roughly 15 minutes of sampled music, which makes it unique among N64 games for using a digitized orchestral soundtrack. Reviews were mixed, but it was the third best-selling N64 game of 1997, with more than one million copies sold.

Loose carts sold for a typical $15 in November 2025. Players admit it is a nostalgia pick, and they pick it anyway. Its snowspeeder level even inspired a whole other game, and that one sits further up this list.

Turok was the first N64 game developed by a third party, and Acclaim was in trouble when it made it. Suffering from cash flow problems and falling sales, the company relied on Turok as its best hope for a turnaround. Iguana pushed the hardware to its limits and had to compress or cut elements to fit everything on an 8 megabyte cartridge, and bugs delayed it from September 1996 to January 1997. It mixes the run-and-gun of Doom with the exploring of Tomb Raider, starting from a hub level with portals to seven other stages.

It sold 1.5 million copies and boosted sales of the Nintendo 64. Loose carts sold for a typical $15 in early 2026. Players still argue about whether this one or its sequel is better, and plenty refuse to choose. Buy both. At these prices you can.

Quest 64 was the first role-playing game released for the N64 in North America, published by THQ in June 1998. Instead of plain levels, it works like Final Fantasy II, and experience goes to specific stats based on how you perform in battle. The North American and PAL releases were considered too short and easy, so Imagineer added new events for the Japanese version. It did well enough that a sequel was considered, but only the sequel's story was ever revealed before it was cancelled.

Loose carts sold for a typical $21 in late summer 2025. Quest 64 has a loyal following among players, and on a console this short on RPGs, that is no surprise. If you have already played the famous ones, this is a gentle place to go next.

1080° Snowboarding was announced in November 1997 and developed over nine months, with Shigeru Miyamoto as producer. One of its leads, Abe, had previously directed Tekken 3 for Namco. You pick one of five snowboarders and use button combinations to jump and pull tricks across eight levels. Nintendo prioritized releasing it in Japan while there was still snow on the ground, and the European release was delayed to line up with winter. It received critical acclaim and won an Interactive Achievement Award.

The GameCube sequel, 1080° Avalanche, got mixed reviews and never matched it. A loose cart of the original sold for a typical $15 at the turn of 2025. Players put it on their lists of fun N64 games to own. Snowboarding games came and went after it, and this one has kept its spot.

Wave Race 64 was first described as "F-Zero on water", with high-speed boats that could transform. Shigeru Miyamoto felt that would not stand out from games on other systems, so the boats became Jet Skis. Critics praised its satisfying controls and its dynamic watery environments, and it is considered one of the best games ever made. A Codemasters producer later cited it as a key influence on Colin McRae Rally, because it is easy to pick up but reveals more depth the longer you play.

Loose carts sold for a typical $15 in April 2026. Players rank it right up with the console's best. The water is still the star, just as it was in 1996, and for the price of a takeout lunch it is one of the best deals on this list.

Racer is based on the podracing sequence in The Phantom Menace, and Jake Lloyd and Lewis MacLeod came back to voice Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba. Your engine heats up while you boost. Push it too long and it catches fire and explodes, and you lose several seconds while you respawn. Winning races earns money, and better finishes pay more. As of 2011, it held the Guinness record as the best-selling sci-fi racing game, with worldwide sales of 3.12 million units.

That is a lot of carts, which is why it is the cheapest game here: loose copies sold for a typical $10 in late summer 2025. Players who love Star Wars games keep naming it. It is also the fastest thing on this list by a long way, and a podrace still feels dangerous.

Seeds of Evil was developed over 21 months. It was first meant for a 12 MB cartridge without multiplayer, but it ended up on a 32MB cartridge. With the Expansion Pak it runs at 640x480. Reviewers praised its detailed graphics and the smart enemies, while the inconsistent frame rate and the distance fog drew criticism. It sold 1.4 million copies by January 1999, and Nightdive Studios later remastered it for PC and modern consoles.

Loose carts sold for a typical $13 in fall 2025, a little less than the first Turok. Players have warm memories of its multiplayer matches, so this is the Turok to pick if you want friends on the couch too. It also adds a third and gorier death animation for enemies, if that is the kind of detail you care about.

Pokémon Snap began as a Nintendo 64DD game and moved to the N64 because of the 64DD's delays. You ride a rail as Todd Snap and photograph Pokémon, many of them rendered in real-time 3D for the first time, and after each round your photos are judged. Apple-shaped food can stun them or draw them closer, and a surfing Pikachu earns extra points. In North America and Japan, you could take the cart to Blockbuster or Lawson stores and print your pictures as stickers. It sold 1.5 million copies by the end of 1999.

Loose carts sold for a typical $19 in early 2026. Players remember it fondly as something different from everything else on the console. The Switch got a sequel in 2021, but the original still has a charm of its own.

Blast Corps was Rare's first Nintendo 64 game, made by a team of four to seven people, many of them recent graduates. Its designer had wanted to make a game about destroying buildings for years, and that idea became a nuclear missile carrier whose path you have to clear. There are 57 levels, and the cheery soundtrack speeds up as the timer runs low. Even the dump truck drifts like a kart, because Mario Kart 64's power slide inspired it. It got Metacritic's second highest N64 ratings of 1997 and sold one million copies, lower than the team expected.

Loose carts sold for a typical $16 in summer 2025. Players call it an underrated game with nothing quite like it since. One player put it best: "Blast Corps had no reason being as fun as it was."

Jet Force Gemini was inspired by 80s arcade games and by newer games like Super Metroid, and it blends shoot 'em up with action-adventure. At first you play the three characters on their own until they reach a meeting point, and choosing the right character for each stage matters. Critics liked the detailed graphics and how long it lasts, but they criticized the confusing controls and having to save every Tribal to fully complete the game. It came back on the Nintendo Classics service in 2023.

Loose carts sold for a typical $15 in summer 2026. It is a favourite of players who go past the obvious N64 picks, and they call it a classic. Rescuing every last Tribal is up to you (and your patience).

Rogue Squadron came out in December 1998, with Factor 5 building the engine and the music and LucasArts handling the story. Its focus on flight combat came straight from the snowspeeder level in Shadows of the Empire. Missions fall into four types: search and destroy, reconnaissance, rescue, and protect. Factor 5 talked Nintendo into selling the Expansion Pak, and Rogue Squadron was one of the first games to use it for a higher resolution. Critics praised the flight controls but criticized the distance fog and the missing multiplayer. It sold more than one million copies by August 1999.

Loose carts sold for a typical $17 in January 2026. Players say it still holds up. There is even a hidden Naboo Starfighter, a ship Factor 5 had to keep secret because the game came out six months before the film.

Diddy Kong Racing started out as an adventure game called Wild Cartoon Kingdom and then became a racer called Pro-Am 64. When Banjo-Kazooie was delayed, Rare wanted a stronger name for Christmas 1997 and built the game around Diddy Kong. You race to beat Wizpig, and you are not stuck in a car, because hovercraft and planes join in. David Wise composed the soundtrack. Critics praised the graphics and the audio, with some criticism of the repetition. It sold 4.8 million copies, the N64's eighth best-selling game.

All those copies are good news for you: loose carts sold for a typical $22 in August 2025. Its fans defend it fiercely, and players recommend it more than twice as often as anything below it on this list.

Perfect Dark came out on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and it is considered a spiritual successor to Rare's 1997 shooter GoldenEye 007. It has a single-player mode where you complete a series of missions under different difficulty settings, plus a range of multiplayer options. It started a whole series. A Game Boy Color game followed shortly after, Perfect Dark Zero came to the Xbox 360 in 2005, and a remaster of the N64 game came to the Xbox 360 in 2010.

Loose carts sold for a typical $23 in April 2026, just under the line. Players often name it right next to GoldenEye, and plenty of them think it improved on it. Players recommend it more than any other cheap game on this list.