Many often question why there were so few Nintendo developed titles on the Nintendo 64. Most pundits claim that titles developed by external second party teams such as Rare and Left Field don't count as Nintendo games. Then there are other cases where Nintendo will team up with a third party developer and co-develop titles such as Mario Party and Sin and Punishment. People often fall into the myth that this means Nintendo has nothing to do with these kinds of titles. The above statement is actually quite false.

Nintendo indeed did co-developed titles with Hudson, Camelot, and Treasure, as well as producing its second party titles. Mario Party, Mario Tennis, and Sin and Punishment all have Nintendo EAD and Nintendo R&D1 (Intelligent Systems) programmers, designers, and producers listed in the credits. While with second party teams, NCL and NOA designers, testers and producers are always dispatched to design, assist, and produce any Nintendo published title, Ken Lobb, Kenji Miki, Hiro Yamada, and Shigeru Miyamoto are a few of the Nintendo employees you might spot working with second and third party teams.

Besides that, there are misconceptions about certain developer studios and their relation to Nintendo. Obvious examples would include Intelligent Systems, which is in actuality Nintendo's R&D1 team, and HAL Labs, which is a development team inside Nintendo's HQ, assist NCL in game development. HAL Labs has actually co-developed every title with another Nintendo R&D team; the firm was placed within Nintendo to operate in this manner rather than to independently make games. Nintendo also spawned new first party teams in America like Nintendo Software Technology Corporation and Nintendo Software Canada Inc. NSTC developed two Nintendo 64 games in 2000, while NSC is skipping the 64-bit era due to its late conception.

Second party developed titles aside; the following is a brief look at some of the Nintendo first party titles that did grace the Nintendo 64.

Super Mario 64
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka
Released: 1996

Nintendo's biggest franchise set the standard of how 3D games were to be played. If this was any other company, the pressure and difficulty of translating such a refined game to 3D might be too big a task. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and his right hand man, Takashi Tezuka, took a significant portion of EAD's R&D to test and experiment with ideas for a 3D adventure title.

Eventually, the game would become Mario's 3D debut to the world. Behind the scenes, EAD was constantly analyzing the direction Super Mario 64 needed to take. The pressure was clearly on Nintendo, after announcing Project: Reality back in August of 1993, they still had no actual N64 software to show the public two years later.

Although most of Nintendo's other launch games were delayed at the time of the Nintendo 64's release, Nintendo was so confident with Super Mario 64 that it released the system with only two other titles. Breaking launch records at the time and making international news, Super Mario 64 helped catapult the Nintendo 64 into early success. The game was so popular that even movie-maestro Steven Spielberg had a hard time hunting down a Nintendo 64 system during the 1996 holiday rush.

Wave Race 64
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Genyo Takeda
Released: 1996

Wave Race 64 initially started as a water racer spin-off to F-Zero. Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda decided to recreate their classic simulation flyer Pilotwings, only with jetskis and salt water. Originally intended to be a launch game, it followed the Nintendo 64 launch by a couple of months. The attention to water physics and AI are unmatched by any other racer to this day. The game is proof that anything Nintendo touches turns into gold.

Mario Kart 64
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto
Released: 1996

Hideki Konno, director of the original Mario Kart and producer Shigeru Miyamoto wasted no time in updating one of Nintendo's biggest hits on the Super Nintendo. The great achievements of this title are its variety of intricately designed tracks and introducing the Nintendo 64, and most of the gaming world, to the marvels of four-player gaming. To put more emphasis on the game's four-player mode, Nintendo even went as far as packaging an extra N64 controller with the game for its Japanese release. It is to this day the highest selling Nintendo 64 game in Japan.

Star Fox 64
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Takao Shimizu, Shigeru Miyamoto
Released: 1997

Takao Shimizu, who was one of the designers on the original Star Fox, was given the role of director for this title. The first Star Fox title for the SNES was programmed by Argonaut and overseen by EAD, but for its 64-bit sequel, Nintendo decided to hand the reign over entirely to its famous Japanese internal studio. In turn, Shimizu and Miyamoto succeeded in developing the first cinematic game on the Nintendo 64. At the time of its release, Star Fox 64 had an unprecedented amount of speech and real-time 3D cinemas for a cartridge game.

Other additions to the 64-bit sequel included multiplayer dogfights, and the ability to control hover tanks, submarines, and foot soldiers. Star Fox 64 was also the first Nintendo 64 game to use the rumble pack. The rumble feedback introduced to console gamers with Star Fox 64 would soon become an industry standard. Star Fox 64 is still one of the best shooters on the Nintendo 64, sharing the spotlight with Jet Force Gemini and Sin and Punishment.

Yoshi's Story
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Director: Takashi Tezuka
Released: 1997

Takashi Tezuka's sequel to the 16-bit masterpiece Yoshi's Island was released to mixed reviews. Although technically the game's visuals and control were tweaked to perfection, the title's short length and lack of difficulty dubbed it as below Nintendo quality. Still it is a game that can be enjoyed by children and die-hard fans of the original.

1080 Snowboarding
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Hiro Yamada, Masamichi Abe
Released: 1998

By 1993, former Argonaut programmers Collin Reed and Giles Goddard had actually moved over to EAD, after working with Miyamoto and company on Star Fox. Miyamoto and Goddard have collaborated together on several other occasions such as Stunt Race FX and Super Mario 64. The team always manages to create something totally original for Nintendo. 1080 Snowboarding stood above all other snowboarding titles as soon as it was released. Mixing EAD's "arcade meets simulation" touch, the title was an instant hit. Even more impressive was the fact that 1080 Snowboarding was completed in nine months of development.

F-Zero X
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Tadashi Sugiyama, Shigeru Miyamoto, Yasuyuki Oyagi
Released: 1998

Perhaps the ultimate proof that Nintendo is all about innovation, mechanics and game play. Instead of following the standard structure of having two cars on screen, frame rate drops, and focusing on flashy backgrounds, Nintendo EAD completely rewrote the rules with F-Zero X. The SNES sequel boasted hover crafts racing at 60 frames per second through corkscrews, with 30 visible cars on screen, 30 different cars and pilots, 24 tracks, and even a random track generator. Tadashi Sugiyama, co-director of the original Super Mario Kart, made his greatest contribution to the Nintendo 64 with this vastly underrated classic.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Directors: Takashi Tezuka, Shigeru Miyamoto
Released: 1998

This was the game that was going to significantly change Nintendo's user base. In terms of R&D staff this game was just below Super Mario 64 and Pokmon Stadium. Takashi Tezuka and Shigeru Miyamoto spent two and a half years designing the game. When it was finally released late 1998, the game received a flood of perfect 10 scores, and was christened the best game ever. The new Zelda epic also went on to sell over 7 million units world wide in a year and a half.

Super Smash Brothers
Developers: Nintendo EAD and HAL Labs, Inc
Directors: Masahiro Sakurai, Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, Kenji Miki
Released: 1999

Smash Brothers was mostly programmed by experienced HAL Labs programmers, and created and designed jointly with Nintendo EAD. NCL's board of directors apparently came up with the idea of continuing the revolutionary Mario Kart take on things and implementing it into what Miyamoto affectionately referred to as a "sumo-fighter." Smash Brothers proved to be a welcome breath of fresh air, emphasizing fun, speed, mayhem, and multiplayer rather than flashy graphics and combos.

Ridge Racer 64
Developer: Nintendo Software Technology Corporation
Director: AJ Redmer
Released: 2000

NSTC's first title on the Nintendo 64, it was loosely modeled after Namco's Ridge Racer. Basically NST remixed the original tracks found in Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution, and added an original track. AJ Redmer produced this title, amongst other NST N64 and GBC titles. Ridge Racer 64 proved Nintendo of America's in-house teams developed games with the same philosophy that Nintendo of Japan had been doing for years.

Pokmon Stadium (Pokmon Stadium 2 in Japan)
Developers: Nintendo EAD and HAL Labs Inc
Directors: Takao Shimizu, Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata
Released: 2000

Nintendo EAD primarily developed the two Japanese Pokmon Stadium titles. The international release was a slight variation of the Japanese Pokmon Stadium 2. Star Fox 64 director Takao Shimizu teamed up with Super Mario 64 lead programmer Yasunari Nishida to develop the title for Nintendo. NCL development team HAL Labs assisted in the character modeling of the 150 or so pokmon characters, which required dozens of 3D artists. Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Miki of EAD and Satoru Iwada of HAL Labs were the chief producers of Pokmon Stadium.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Developer: HAL Labs
Directors: Shinichi Shimomura , Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
Released: 2000

A small R&D team at HAL Labs developed this title in roughly 14 months. Nintendo's Kirby 64 proved the character's popularity, especially in Japan, was still there. Kirby's road to the N64 was an interesting one, as Kirby Bowl was supposed to be the first N64 title starring the puffy dynamo. In fact, Kirby Bowl was the first playable N64 game shown to the public alongside Super Mario 64 during 1995's Shoshinkai show. The game was to offer some interesting features such as randomly generated "arenas" and a proposed multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, development did not run too smoothly and Nintendo reworked the game into a new title called Kirby's Air Ride. Whether it was because of design difficulties or an over-abundance of N64 racing games, Kirby's Air Ride also got the axe. Finally, HAL opted to bring Kirby back to his roots in a side-scrolling platformer. Kirby 64 was actually produced by the same trio that developed the Famicom (NES) original years ago -- Miyamoto, Iwata, and Shimomura.

Pokmon Puzzle League
Developers: NSTC and Intelligent Systems
Director: AJ Redmer
Released: 2000

NSTC's second Nintendo 64 game. NSTC, mostly responsible for the game programming, did a fantastic job in squeezing the opening Full Motion Video sequence, beautiful music, speech samples, and background and character art. Intelligent Systems, who developed the original Tetris Attack, closely produced the title.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Director: Eiji Aonomu
Released: 2000

Nintendo EAD director Eiji Aonomu's first full-fledged game. Working prior as one of Shigeru Miyamoto's apprentices, he is the first of a group of young up and coming EAD directors. Taking the basic Zelda 64 engine, and changing the objectives, as well as introducing many side quests, Aonomu and his team allowed this spinoff to feel familiar while adding some freshness at the same time. Thanks to the great sales and high praise, Eiji Aonomu has proven he can develop great games for Nintendo.

Mario Story
Developer: Intelligent Systems (R&D1)
Directors: Satoru Okada, Shigeru Miyamoto
Released: 2000

The sequel to the Nintendo/Square developed Super Mario RPG, this time being developed by Nintendo's Intelligent Systems. The quirky cartoon-like RPG drew some initial criticism for its departure from the Nintendo/Square developed original. However, the game is already a big hit in Japan, and Nintendo is preparing for a worldwide release. Mario Story is one of Nintendo's final internal N64 titles.

Conclusion

In retrospect, I think we would all love to see more first party Nintendo titles. However, it has become apparent to me that many people take for granted Nintendo's contribution, as well as underestimate Nintendo's involvement in certain games. Let's hope Shigeru Miyamoto's promises of easier game development, bigger R&D, and experience with 3D can maximize Nintendo's game release output.