18 Best N64 Sports Games

FIFA 99 is the sixth FIFA, made by EA Canada and released on Windows, PlayStation and N64 in 1998. The indoor mode was gone, but the play got smoother and more responsive. It adds an elite European Dream League, where 20 top teams from across Europe battle it out.

It was also the first FIFA with a block of teams outside the main leagues, filed under Rest of Europe. Most of those teams played in the 1998-99 UEFA Cup or Champions League. It is the only FIFA here, because FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 came out on PC first. Players who want a FIFA on the N64 point to this one. Its leagues are all European club football, which gives it a flavour the other football games here lack.

Angel Studios made it for Nintendo as a follow-up to Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run. Every MLB team of the day is in it, with all 30 stadiums, and up to four players can enter a Home Run Derby. Pitchers get special pitches too, from the super fastball to the knuckleball. The first pitch you throw with the A button is always a fastball.

You can track stats in over 30 categories, make trades and pick up free agents. It was due in the third quarter of 1997 but slipped to 1998. It played faster and more like an arcade game than its realistic rival, All-Star Baseball '99. A sequel, Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest, followed in 1999. Players still recommend it for baseball on the console.

Midway brought it to the Dreamcast, PlayStation, N64 and Game Boy Color in 2000, and it added instant replay and five mini-games. Like every Blitz, it cuts football down to a high-scoring seven-on-seven game. You pick from all 31 NFL teams and play either Season or Arcade mode.

Season mode runs a 16-game season, then the playoffs and a shot at the Super Bowl. It is the only Blitz here: the first NFL Blitz started in arcades, and NFL Blitz 2000 came out on the PlayStation first. Players who want Blitz on the N64 point to this one. It is also the only American football game on this list. That is about as far from a realistic simulation as you can get, which is exactly why friends loved it.

WrestleMania 2000 was THQ's first WWF game, after the WWF ended its long relationship with Acclaim. It came out five months before the event it is named after, so it uses the stage from WrestleMania XV. It runs on the same engine as WCW/nWo Revenge, with a cage match and a First Blood mode added. The blurb promises 15 of the brightest WWF stars, with Steve Austin and The Rock leading the list.

There are arenas based on each WWF show, such as Sunday Night Heat and Raw is War. It was also the first THQ game on the N64 with a Create a Wrestler mode. It is the only THQ WWF game where Droz, Chaz, Thrasher and Jeff Jarrett are playable. No Mercy improved on it a year later, but some players still love this one most.

NBA Live 2000 was the second and last NBA Live on the N64, and the first in the series with an official Michael Jordan. Tim Duncan is on the cover. It also brought in All-Star teams of legends from five decades, from the fifties to the nineties. You can use the legends teams right away, but to play those players on regular teams you have to unlock them.

Don Poier and Reggie Theus did the commentary, in their one and only game together. A Game Boy Color version was planned at Handheld Games for THQ, but it was scrapped during testing. Players still pick this one as a favourite for basketball on the console.

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98 followed the original 3D Hockey a year later. That first game was the first four-player game on the N64, and its arcade hockey lets a goalie turn into a brick wall for a moment. The first game was voted Best Sports Game of 1996. The sequel has all 26 teams, each with 17 players on their real NHL rosters.

You can make trades, change your lines and play a full 82-game season. You can play 3-on-3, 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 on an arcade rink or a regulation one. Critics said the graphics, music and sound effects were largely recycled from the original. The original started in arcades, so only the sequel counts here.

Black Ops Entertainment made it for EA Sports, with 25 boxers, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard among them, and a fighter creator. You can slug it out in an arcade-style match or play a more realistic Exhibition. A Super Punch can put an opponent on the floor instantly. Past greats like Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler are in the ring too, and a review said fans of the first Knockout Kings will definitely enjoy this one as well.

Germany got it as Box Champions 2000. The single "In the Game" by the Los Angeles rapper O was written for it. One letter, one theme song.

ISS 2000 came out in Japan in July 1999 and reached North America in August 2000. Its big addition was a Career Mode, where you bring youngsters up through the ranks. It is the only game in the series with players under their real names, though only in the North American release.

It also supports a high resolution mode through an expansion pack, though the frame rate suffers. The Japanese version has J.League clubs instead of national teams, and different crowd chants for each team that the western releases lost. Every UEFA nation is in it, with a European Championship mode that includes the qualifying round. It is the third ISS game on this list, and players rate the series as the best football on the console.

Left Field Productions made it for Nintendo, and it came out in North America on April 27, 1998. Kobe Bryant was 19 and in his second NBA season, the youngest player to have a game named after him. It plays 5-on-5, and it sold a million copies and earned a Player's Choice label.

Michael Jordan was not in the players' association, so he appears under another name. It uses the 1997-1998 rosters, and it reached Europe on June 10, 1998. A sequel, NBA Courtside 2, followed in 1999. Players still pick it for basketball on the N64.

Konami's Osaka studio made ISS 64, and its teams follow the Super NES game International Superstar Soccer Deluxe, with South Africa in place of Morocco. It has 36 international teams with 16 players each, and over 17,000 motion captured animations. You can trade and create your own players, and the Japanese version has teams the western ones lack, such as Bolivia and Iran.

It was often called one of the best third-party games on the N64. Just months after its North American release, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked it the 24th best console video game of all time. Players who grew up on it still rave about it.

Nintendo made 1080° in nine months, and you pick one of five snowboarders and string tricks together across eight levels. You get three chances to beat the AI before the game ends. Shigeru Miyamoto produced it, and its director had previously directed Tekken 3 for Namco. It won an Interactive Achievement Award and sold over two million units.

Nintendo wanted it out in Japan while there was still snow on the ground, so Europe had to wait until 9 October 1998. Realistic versions of Mario and Luigi stand among the spectators in their colour-coded overalls. It came back on the Wii in 2008 and on Nintendo Classics in 2023. It races as well as it does tricks, so it also makes our list of the best N64 racing games.

EA Canada made NHL 99, the follow-up to NHL 98. The N64 version carries the full NHL and NHLPA licences, with every team and player. It came out in September 1998. A beginner level lets anyone pick up and play, and there are 5 game modes and 18 top international teams. The rosters were updated for 1998 and include the expansion Nashville Predators.

You get coaching strategies from Stanley Cup winner Marc Crawford and commentary by Bill Clement. Players rate it above the arcade-style Gretzky games, especially if they want realism. It was also the last one with Daryl Reaugh as colour commentator.

Konami's Osaka studio made ISS 98 only for the N64, and it came out alongside the PlayStation's ISS Pro 98, a different game from Konami's Tokyo studio. It had no FIFPro licence, so it leaned on cover stars, Carlos Valderrama in North America among them.

It focuses on the 1998 World Cup and has 52 national teams, with over 17,000 new motion captured animations. In the North American version, all teams have lineups from the qualifiers. Six All-Star teams only open up through a cheat code or by winning the World League on level 5. Players who grew up with it call it the best football game of its day, and it ranks above ISS 64 here.

Revenge gained critical praise and tremendous commercial success. It is the sequel to World Tour, made by Asmik Ace and AKI for THQ, with AKI's grappling system and a new championship mode. It has more than 60 wrestlers, and a 40-man Battle Royale mode. It was the best-selling wrestling game on the N64, and at the time the best-selling third-party Nintendo game ever.

It adds wrestler entrances and hidden weapons. It was the last AKI-developed WCW game for the N64, and the next AKI game, WrestleMania 2000, sported THQ's newly acquired World Wrestling Federation license. Some of its music is MIDI versions of real songs by Van Halen and Steve Vai, done to avoid copyright trouble. Van Halen, almost. For plenty of players it is still the favourite, even when they admit No Mercy is the better game.

World Tour was THQ's first N64 wrestling game, released at the peak of WCW's dominance in the Monday Night War. AKI built it to play like puroresu and fighting games, and critics liked how tight and easy to play it was next to Acclaim's WWF War Zone. It has over 40 wrestlers, each with 30 to 40 moves, and five game modes with four-player tag team action.

It won Console Fighting Game of the Year at the inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards. A planned belt creator was dropped before launch. It is the second best-selling wrestling game on the N64, behind its own sequel. Players remember playing it to death.

Camelot made Mario Golf, and it simplifies the sport while keeping character stats and the things that affect each shot. It has four complete 18-hole courses and 11 golfers, and you create your own golfer and build up skill by competing in tournaments. Wind, which a Boo shows you, rain, spin and the slope of the land all change a shot.

Every character has voice samples that comment on opponents' shots. Besides stroke play there are mini golf and skins matches. Metal Mario is unlockable only in the international release. A sequel, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, was released for the GameCube in 2003. Players pair it with Mario Tennis as the best of the Mario sports games, and one summed up its appeal: "Mario golf is one of the sleepers for best game on the system, especially for when you just wanna chill."

Camelot followed Mario Golf with Mario Tennis, the game that introduced Waluigi. Camelot artist Fumihide Aoki created him as a rival for Luigi. He has been sulking in purple ever since. The game also brought back Princess Daisy and Birdo.

The line-up has 14 players. Critics praised its gameplay and depth. Seven types of shot are possible using only the two main buttons. Bowser Stage is a bonus mode where the court tilts based on where the players stand. Switch it on with no controller plugged in and Luigi and Waluigi appear on a joke screen. Players say it still holds up, with more depth than the cartoon look suggests.

No Mercy was the last of the AKI and Asmik Ace wrestling games on the N64, the run that started with World Tour. It improved on WrestleMania 2000 with a Championship mode full of branching storylines and a deeper character creator. You can compete for seven different WWF titles, and each belt gets its own story. Up to four players can fight it out, cage and ladder matches included.

It also shipped with a memory glitch that could wipe all your save data at any moment, and a fixed version came almost a year later. The Big Show was meant to be in it, until his contract ran out. Players broadly agree it is the best wrestling game on the system.