The main reason I want to do this is because Nintendo 64 was officially the last great cartridge console. It was an major competitor to PlayStation that was the first successful CD console. Thus this plays huge part in which they prefer out of the two consoles. I am not an tech expert but I will bring up many noticeable differences during this blog. Regardless this is my opinion based on my own experience playing both consoles. I am an huge fan of both these consoles since my last child hood to teen years.
For the record it's heavily known the back stories to both consoles. I don't include it simply for that reason. After all I want to be start to the point as possible.
Round 1: Controllers
At first it's hard to get use to N64 controllers. But after playing all kind of games you start getting better with them. Yet I quickly got good with an PlayStation controller. Both controllers has a lot of buttons. PlayStation does an better job nailing where you are likely to press & hold the controllers better. In N64's defense I highly recommend playing games like GoldenEye with one of those. Simply because it nails the experience of playing them better than PlayStation. Both work very well with doing cheat codes. Nintendo 64 came out with an rumble pak that also acts as an extra memory pack. PlayStation did come back with newer controllers having this feature minus saving. But everyone knows PlayStation has all kinds of memory cards. Although there's an great variety of games on both consoles. Even both controllers has several variations. This is one of the categories that could go either way. Personally I'm going with PlayStation mostly due to the fact. They were clever about laying all the buttons & thumb sticks. Your hands are very likely to get use to those much faster than an N64 controller. Thus it actually easier to input cheats or play games faster.Winner: PlayStation
Round 2: Console
This is widely known for putting an 32bit console against an 64bit console. There is surprisingly a lot playing in this category. Both play many games with little to no problems. Nintendo 64 cartridges can hold a lot of data. PlayStation discs can pack massive amount of data. Sadly this hurts Nintendo 64 despite having double the amount of power. Their cartridges doesn't hold as close as much data as an PS1 disc. Thus several games on both consoles are very different because of this. An great example of this is Resident Evil 2. N64 version loss Extreme Battle mini games but added a lot of smaller stuff in place of it. Although because it was directly ported off of PlayStation, many areas of it got reduced. Please keep in mind majority of it is present on both PlayStation discs. What's interesting is how PlayStation counters this issue by making some games like Final Fantasy series multiple discs. Of course both have many accessories especially those to increase multiplayer. Nintendo 64 has four controller ports in comparison to PlayStation's two controller ports. Around this era saving became an huge feature that's heavily present in games today. On Nintendo 64 some games save directly on their cartridges. You could get an memory stick or rumble pak for extra room to save your games. PlayStation had memory cards but contain a lot more data & spaces. Plus PlayStation made managing your memory cards easy. Also sometimes you could lose your save on N64 cartridges. Yes Nintendo 64 can increase it's graphical output by inserting an expansion pak. End of the day PlayStation has an more unique design. Yes you have to buy additional stuff for multiplayer and finding memory cards today is an pain. Yet those aren't as bad as those flaws on Nintendo 64. I should throw out there exist an smaller version of PlayStation you can play on the go.
Winner: PlayStation
Round 3: Graphics
Both these consoles did an amazing job bringing 3D into our bed rooms or living rooms. PlayStation has an great number of 3D games over the years. Nintendo 64 does have impressive 3D games like Banjo series. Both also nailed 2D games even better than Sega Genesis & SNES yes I said that. Now obviously PlayStation 3D models come more off like polygonish while Nintendo 64 has better 3D models. Perfect example of this is Perfect Dark or GoldenEye. Honestly PlayStation nails 2D games better especially Mortal Kombat & Street Fighter games. This is an hard one to pick an winner. I must go with Nintendo 64 because looking at games like Perfect Dark, Majora's Mask & Conker's Bad Fur Day. All of those look amazing for their time, even if I took some time to bring up some of the best on PlayStation. It would still go to Nintendo 64 mostly because of those games plus expansion pak.
Winner: Nintendo 64
Round 4: Games
Without question the single most difficult round for many reasons. There's a lot more PlayStation games than Nintendo 64. But I'm not judging it based on which has the bigger collection. I am judging it on which collection would you rather have with everything considered. Obviously this is which game genres do you prefer. If you're into party, rail shooters and fps games then Nintendo 64 is for you. If you're into fighting, platformer, shoot em up, rpgs and driving then PlayStation is for you. I could go the same route many people go by just comparing same games on both consoles. But no I'm not doing that simply because that's kinda cutting N64 short in that area. I felt the absolute best way is list some of my favorite N64 & PS games not present on each other's consoles. Mostly doing this does help give you an better idea which console is truly better.
PS
1. Resident Evil (three versions)
2. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
3. Metal Gear Solid (2 discs)
4. Final Fantasy VII (3 discs)
5. Mortal Kombat Trilogy
6. Mortal Kombat 4
7. Crash Bandicoot 3
8. Die Hard Trilogy
9. Alien Trilogy
10. Tekken
11. Tekken 2
12. Tekken 3
13. WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game (one of the best ports)
14. MediEvil
15. MediEvil 2
16. Twisted Metal 2
17. Twisted Metal
18. Twisted Metal 4
19. Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
20. Syphon Filter
21. Syphon Filter 2
22. Crash Bandicoot 2
N64
1. Banjo-Kazooie
2. Banjo-Tooie
3. Perfect Dark
4. GoldenEye
5. Mario Party
6. Mario Party 2
7. Mario Party 3
8. Super Mario 64
9. Mario Kart 64
10. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
11. WWF: Wrestlemania 2000
12. WWF: No Mercy
13. Blast Corps
14. Conker's Bad Fur Day
Honestly I could name a lot more PlayStation games I played than Nintendo 64 games. But both are amazing consoles for their time. Mainly due to having more variety of games I must go with PlayStation. Especially Final Fantasy series get multiple discs to fully play out is tough to beat. The closest any developers of N64 came of doing this concept was Rare. I'm not kidding they attempted to find stuff in Banjo-Kazooie to unlock stuff in Banjo-Tooie. Sadly they ran out of time & had to remove such an feature out of those games. More recently Rare finally completed it through Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts with building stuff added to that. Not too long after that they rereleased the first two Banjo games on Xbox 360 to fully complete this feature the way they originally wanted. PlayStation had it's own way of going the extra mile & didn't cost much at all to do it. Also PlayStation was designed by Sony who has an history with electronics. You can use your PlayStation like an stereo. In fact some secrets in games involves that feature making it more interesting to have one. Basically adding discs when needed to, hide some secrets on some discs & an very eye opening collection. PlayStation easily wins this category with some trouble.
Winner: PlayStation
Three of four rounds our winner is Sony's PlayStation. I highly recommend many gamers to own both consoles. Both has it's fair share of amazing games for it's era. End of the day if you had to choose one, chances are you will be picking PlayStation.
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