The Nintendo 64 was the console where adventure games learned to walk around in 3D. Before it, you mostly explored a world from above or clicked your way through still pictures. On the N64 you could stand in a field, swing the camera around and pick where to go next. That felt like magic in the late 90s.
Konami sent Goemon into a 3D feudal Japan full of towns and giant robots. Acclaim Studios Teesside built a voodoo world of the dead, and Factor 5 helped bring Indiana Jones over in a version only North America got. Even Shadowgate traded its still screens for full 3D roaming. Here are the 7 best N64 adventure games.
7. Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers (2000)
Classic Creep Capers is an adventure game published by THQ and based on the cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. Terraglyph Interactive Studios made the N64 version, which came out in November 2000. The first three levels retell three episodes of the show, and the fourth is an original mystery. You play Shaggy and Scooby as they find clues and trap pieces. The developers watched dozens of old episodes to get the style right, and a PlayStation version was in the works before it was cancelled.
Critics were rough on it. IGN gave the N64 version 4.8 out of 10, and one magazine called it "devoid of gameplay". Players who grew up with it remember it more kindly. For a fan of the show, walking around inside those old episodes was the whole point, and that still works today.
6. Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers (1999)
Shadowgate 64 is a sequel to the original Shadowgate, set centuries after Lord Jair defeated the Warlock and took his place on the throne. It keeps the first-person view of the first game, but the static screens of the original were replaced by full 3D roaming, a bit like a first-person shooter with nothing to shoot. The long menu of actions is gone as well. One button acts and the other uses items. The warden and the dwarf-like guards are the only enemies, and they have to be avoided.
This is a slow game about exploring and working out puzzles. Players say the atmosphere is what stays with them, a lonely castle that early 3D somehow made eerier. They are just as fond of the music. If you like puzzles more than combat, this is your castle.
5. Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999)
The Infernal Machine was the first 3D game in the Indiana Jones series, and its play is mostly puzzle solving with platforming in between. Indy races to find a mythological Babylonian power source, joins forces with the CIA and collects four pieces of the Infernal Machine, an ancient device that may open a portal to another dimension. Hal Barwood wrote and directed it. It started on PC, and the enhanced N64 port was made with Factor 5 and released only in North America.
Critics praised the detailed story and the level design but not the controls, and the N64's twitchy analog stick did not help. Players still compare it well with Tomb Raider, and they say it gets forgotten far too often. Bring patience, and maybe a hat.
4. Shadow Man (1999)
Shadow Man came out on the N64 on August 31, 1999, the same day as on PC and PlayStation, with a Dreamcast version that December. You play Michael, who travels between Liveside and Deadside. Inside the Dark Engine he finds his long-dead brother Luke, and along the way he picks up Jack the Ripper's diary. The villain Legion turns out to have pushed Michael into collecting all of the Dark Souls for him. Acclaim Studios Teesside built the engine first, with no specific concept in mind.
Reviews praised the graphics and the story. Players remember it as one of the creepiest and darkest games on the console, and they also say it is hard, with levels that get confusing fast. It feels like a big, grim Metroid world in 3D. A remaster with restored content came out in 2021.
3. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (1997)
Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka made it, and it was the second Ganbare Goemon game released in North America and Europe. Goemon and his friends try to stop the Peach Mountain Shoguns, a gang of dancers in a peach-shaped spaceship who want to turn Japan into a giant stage. You walk across a 3D feudal Japan, stopping in towns to eat and sleep at inns between dungeons. Beat a boss and you may get to pilot Impact, a giant robot friend, in a fight that opens with a music video.
Critics praised the graphics and the humour but not the camera, which makes some jumps very hard. Players love the soundtrack more than anything, and the Impact theme is the one they still hum. Where else does a robot fight start with a sing-along?
2. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)
Majora's Mask is the sequel to Ocarina of Time, and it was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Skull Kid has stolen a mask, and the moon is falling on Termina on a three-day cycle. The clock at the bottom of the screen shows the time. When it runs low, Link plays the Song of Time and goes back to 6:00 am on the first day. Most quests reset, but he keeps his masks and songs. The Inverted Song of Time slows things down when you need room to breathe.
It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time, and some critics put it on par with Ocarina of Time or above it. It also grew a cult following for its dark tone. The clock is still what players argue about, and plenty struggled with the time limit. Players also remind newcomers that it needs the Expansion Pak. Get one, then get lost in Termina.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
Ocarina of Time was the first Legend of Zelda game with 3D graphics. It came out in Japan and North America in November 1998 and in PAL regions the following month. Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development division made it with five directors, including Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Shigeru Miyamoto producing. Koji Kondo wrote its soundtrack. It set a record for video game pre-orders in the US and sold more than seven million copies worldwide.
Critics praised its visuals and its writing, and it is the highest-rated game on Metacritic and GameRankings. Players still call it the greatest game ever made, or at least put it in that conversation. Hyrule Field felt endless in 1998. A second remake, for the Switch 2, is due on November 5, 2026. Players recommend it more than any other N64 adventure game.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of the best N64 adventure games. The top two are as good as the genre has ever been on any console.
If you are not sure where to start, play Ocarina of Time. If you already know it by heart, Majora's Mask is the stranger, sadder follow-up. For something funny, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is the one. If you like dark worlds and do not mind getting lost, pick Shadow Man. Puzzle fans who would rather sneak than fight should try Shadowgate 64. And for a hidden pick, try Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, the N64 version only North America got.
