8 Best N64 Horror Games

Quake reached the Nintendo 64 in 1998, two years after id Software released it on PC. You play a soldier who travels through slipgates to find and destroy the source of an invasion. The levels switch between futuristic military bases and medieval, gothic environments, and you fight possessed soldiers and demonic beasts such as ogres. Only the first episode ends with a traditional boss.

What makes it horror is the mood. Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails made the music, and it sounds more like a haunted factory than a rock album. Quake is often cited as one of the best video games ever made. On the N64 it is the plainest port on this list, and it is still a grim place to spend an evening.

Nightmare Creatures is a gothic monster story set in London. In its backstory, a secret society called the Brotherhood tried to develop an elixir that would give them superhuman powers. When they decided to use the creatures it made as an army of conquest, Samuel Pepys set their headquarters on fire, which in the game's story caused the First Great Fire of London. Now the villain Adam Crowley, a mad scientist and occultist based on Aleister Crowley, has all of London in a panic.

The Nintendo 64 version saw a handful of minor changes from the PlayStation one. A sequel, Nightmare Creatures II, was released three years later, and Gameloft made a mobile phone version in 2003. It is the most old-fashioned monster movie on this list, and the foggy London setting does a lot of the work.

Legacy of Darkness came out in North America on November 30, 1999, the same year as the first N64 Castlevania. It is a prequel and an expanded version of that game. The main story follows Cornell, a hero with man-wolf powers, through new levels and redesigned levels from the first game. Cornell was present in early development media and press information for Castlevania, but was ultimately removed before the game's release, so this is where he finally got his turn.

Finish Cornell's quest and Henry's, and you unlock Carrie and Reinhardt's quests as bonus features. Their part adds the Spider Queen and Medusa as villains, plus new versions of levels like the Forest of Silence and the Clock Tower. Not every critic was won over. One review said "Legacy is bigger, but it isn't better." If you liked the first one, bigger is enough.

Hexen is a dark fantasy shooter, and its Nintendo 64 version was developed by Software Creations. It keeps all of the PC game's graphical quality and runs at a consistent frame rate. Because of cartridge space, it is based on the original PC floppy version, so the FMV scenes and CD music are gone. In their place, the levels get new narrative introductions.

The big extra is four-player split-screen in co-op and deathmatch, which was unique to the N64 release. You have to play it in low detail mode, but four friends hacking at monsters in a dark castle is worth the blur. Of all the console ports, the N64 version is the best. Its levels are mazes full of switches, and they ask for patience.

Shadow Man came out on August 31, 1999 for the Nintendo 64, Windows and PlayStation. You play Michael, a man with a voodoo mask in his chest who moves between Liveside and Deadside, the land of the dead. He stalks criminals in the spirit world and the real world to stop an apocalypse. In Deadside he finds the Asylum as well as the Dark Engine which powers it, and later Jack the Ripper's diary, which tells him how to shut that engine down.

It received positive reviews, with praise for its graphics, story and presentation. One owner summed it up: "It truly is remarkable for a 32mb cartridge." The game is grim in a grown-up way that few N64 games tried. Nightdive Studios later remastered it with restored content in 2021.

Castlevania on the N64 is the first 3D game in the series. You pick Reinhardt Schneider, a whip-toting Vampire Killer, or Carrie Fernandez, a young girl with a strong magical presence, and head for Dracula's castle. Both can pick up sub-weapons, though only one can be used at a time. Time of day matters here. Doors with a sun or moon crest can only be opened during the matching time of day, and the strength of certain enemies changes with it.

The Villa is the handsomest part. Its outside is based on the Château d'Azay-le-Rideau in France's Loire Valley, and its hedge maze was inspired by the gardens at the Château de Villandry. A large part of the challenge is jumping from platform to platform with enemies and traps in the way. On easy mode you can only play until the end of the Castle Center level, so pick normal.

Resident Evil 2 was produced by Shinji Mikami, directed by Hideki Kamiya, and developed by a team of approximately 50 across 21 months. Leon S. Kennedy, a police officer on his first day of duty, meets Claire Redfield, a college student looking for her brother Chris. The team wanted to keep the fear of the first game, so both heroes are people without experience of terrifying situations.

The N64 version was a very faithful port. Most of the changes were to cutscene quality, due to storage constraints, and it added a set of EX-Files. Herbs and first aid spray still heal you, and a Tyrant zombie keeps turning up to ruin Leon's day. It is the best survival horror game on the console, and it holds up well.

Doom 64 was developed by Midway Studios San Diego under the supervision of id Software, and it was tentatively titled Doom: The Absolution. It uses a customized Doom engine with new kinds of level geometry and dynamic colored lighting. All visual assets, such as the weapon and monster graphics, are unique to Doom 64. In its story a single demon escaped detection and turned dead carnage back into living tissue, so the Marine is sent in alone to finish the job.

The biggest change is the mood. Composer Aubrey Hodges moved away from rock and metal to focus on ambient noise, and the game is much darker than the original games. Critics praised its graphics, level design, soundtrack and atmosphere, and it gained a cult following and a 2020 remaster from Nightdive Studios. Players recommend it more than any other N64 horror game.