GRcade

Herdanos wrote:As I'm dead in the latest AYAW, and apparently because my itch to investigate and analyse wasn't sufficiently scratched (particularly when it comes to alphabetised lists)...

rinks wrote:Has this been covered here?

Likely forthcoming additions - “37 is Majora, 32 is Smash, 33 is Wave Race, 14-16 is Mario Party”.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021 ... -n64-games

It has now.

I've spent some time trying to figure out what the remaining games could be.

For reference, the original 'list', with gaps, is here:

twitter.com/Mondo_Mega/status/1452826364990480386

FWIW: the bad news for for Rare fans is that many of their games begin with letters at the top end of the alphabet, where there aren't as many available spaces. When you factor in games that are likely to appear on NSO due to them holding the rights / the games having previously been included on Virtual Console, it makes it basically impossible that we'll see Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing, or Conker. Mickey's Speedway has more chance given the gaps on the list but I'd wager that licensing issues will put a stop to that.

The good news for Rare fans is that there's a huge gap between Mario Tennis and Sin & Punishment. Even if you add in the games confirmed so far, Pilotwings, and all the Pokemons, you've still got several spaces. So looking potentially good for Perfect Dark! Which would of course soften the blow of missing Goldeneye.

Also, game #35 is a real puzzler. Many of the games that fit alphabetically between Winback and Yoshi's Story are licensed (World Cup 98, WWF, Xena, TWINE - presuming "The" is disregarded - World Driver Championship). WipeOut 64 would fit (as would Wonder Project)...

So having done a bit of thinking and tinkering, I reckon the gaps - once you add the obvious Nintendo games to their places in the order - can all be filled by one likely third-party contributor:

Konami.

And no, I'm not just saying this because I'm hoping for Mystical Ninja!

twitter.com/shulk72/status/1453154724849586182

Take away Konami's licensed games (well, most of them) and most of their other N64 releases fit neatly into the ordering.

So therefore, my best guess at the final list, at this point, is:

1080 Snowboarding
Banjo Kazooie
Castlevania 64 / Legacy of Darkness
Cruis'n USA
Custom Robo
Custom Robo v2
Dr Mario 64
Excitebike 64
F Zero X
Hybrid Heaven
Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Mario Tennis
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon 2
Ogre Battle 64
Paper Mario
Perfect Dark
Pilotwings
Pokemon Puzzle League
Pokemon Snap
Pokemon Stadium
Pokemon Stadium 2
RakugaKids
Sin & Punishment
Star Fox 64
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros
Wave Race 64
Win Back: Covert Operations
Winter Olympics 98 (Konami)
Yoshi's Story
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Further thoughts:

Yes Winter Olympics 98 is a stretch!
But I'm really not sure what else it could be.
My thinking here is that the boxart for the game doesn't feature the Olympic logo. So either it'll be easy to remove the licensing from the game (I am presuming - very possibly incorrectly - that the word "Olympics" isn't trademarked!) or there's some kind of legal whataboutery where Konami sought the license from the 1998 Nagano Olympic Committee (whose logo IS featured on the boxart - but I am guessing this Committee no longer exists).

Also the game was released as Nagano Winter Olympics anyway so this is probably wrong. But I didn't want to put Wonder Project!

If not Castlevania it could be a Rare game, or Bomberman.

If not Hybrid Heaven it could be Harvest Moon, or Hey You Pikachu, or Doshin the Giant 64DD release.

If the Konami games between M and S are missing... I'm really none the wiser! It can't be any Star Wars games as Star Fox is already bookended alphabetically.