Retro SNES vs N64 franchises (Mario, Zelda, Pilot Wings, Fzero, Starfox, Mario Kart) your picks?

[Kreese]

My picks:

Mario 64 >>> Super Mario World (this one is close, SMW may have aged better but I'm picking 64 because of how mindblowing it was at the time)
Zelda OOT >>> LTTP (same as above)
Pilot Wings 64 >>> Pilot Wings SNES
Fzero SNES >>> Fzero X
Starfox >>> Starfox 64
Mario Kart >>> Mario Kart 64

 

[Pineapple Pizza]

Super Mario World trumps Mario 64 for me. I like Mario 64 but the controls aren't nearly as tight, you've got the early 3D awkward camera angles, and some frustrating stars to collect because of these issues. SMW is 2D Mario polished to perfection.

LttP is more replayable to me, and it's pixel art has aged more gracefully than OoT's 3D assets. But I'm torn on this one as OoT still holds up well and has a great "atmosphere". Tie.

I'm not familiar enough with the rest to make an informed choice.

 

[codacious]

For the ones I'm familiar with (DK, Zelda, and Mario), I'd go...SNES for DK, N64 for Zelda, and SNES for Mario.

I admit, I haven't played DK 64, but from what I've seen/heard, I doubt I'd be into it. I'm not really into collectathons, and it seems like DK 64 is basically, the most collectathon of all collectathons (lol). The SNES DKC games on the other hand, are a really solid platforming trilogy, so my vote goes to them.

I used to be really into Zelda, it was one of my favorite series for a few years. Tbh, I'm not really into it in the same way anymore. I think a big part of why I liked these games was their universe, but actually trying to replay them, being somebody who mostly plays platformers, I don't think the movement/mobility is that great. But that being said, I think OoT and MM still have great atmosphere. I think LttP has pretty good atmosphere too, but idk, I think OoT especially has more of a magical sense to it.

For Mario, I'll admit, I'm really not into Mario 64, for reasons maybe I won't go deep into here. Super Mario World on the other hand, is one of the best platformers ever imo, and probably my favorite Mario game. Great atmosphere, really imaginative environments/worlds/enemies, fun movement, and the introduction of Yoshi. Def going to give this one to SMW.

I guess that's 2 points for the SNES, 1 for N64. I think the N64 has a great sense of atmosphere to some of its games, but I think SNES just has the better games overall in this comparison. If it was a comparison between all of their games though, Rayman 2 would also be included on the N64 side, which would make things interesting.

 

[PixelKnight]

Super Mario World > SM64 for me, I love the instantaneous kinetic energy of the 2D games more than the expansive nature of the 3D ones.
LTTP > OOT for similar reasons. It still looks great over 30 years later, there’s always something to do on each screen, backtracking is fast as the world just isn’t that big.
SM64 > Mario Kart. I feel like 3D added a lot to Mario Kart, in that it made it a lot easier to see what was ahead and made for more interesting courses.
Lylat Wars/SF64 > Starfox. Given Starfox’s nature as an arcadey 3D rail shooter, the N64 just feels like a natural fit for it. It’s one of barely a handful of N64 games I still return to, for the most part I’d prefer to play SNES games over N64 ones.

I think for me the difference is that Starfox and Mario Kart are arcadey titles full of instant action, just realised better in 3D as by their nature the SNES was trying to imply it. Whereas with Mario and Zelda, I largely prefer the 2D games as the early 3D incarnations of 2D series making the jump feel like they have a lot of empty space, even though OOT is still captivating as an adventure game and it’s story and 3D puzzles are still really creative and engaging.

 

[Red Monster]

My picks:

Mario 64 >>> Super Mario World (this one is close, SMW may have aged better but I'm picking 64 because of how mindblowing it was at the time)
Zelda OOT >>> LTTP (same as above)
Pilot Wings 64 >>> Pilot Wings SNES
Fzero SNES >>> Fzero X
Starfox >>> Starfox 64
Mario Kart >>> Mario Kart 64

Of these franchises, I think I prefer the N64 games for every single one. No shade to the SNES releases! Some of those are masterpieces. It's just that the N64 games do more to establish a lot of these genres in 3D and I think that's a more important accomplishment.

 

[PixelKnight]

Of these franchises, I think I prefer the N64 games for every single one. No shade to the SNES releases! Some of those are masterpieces. It's just that the N64 games do more to establish a lot of these genres in 3D and I think that's a more important accomplishment.

It’s a tough one when most of Nintendo’s first party games are pretty good at what they are trying to do, and made the jump to 3D really well on the N64, so it’s harder to delineate between what exactly is better out of the 2D and 3D iterations for me.

Other series like Castlevania or Megaman, or even Legend of the Mystical Ninja, are a more interesting question for me as they were a lot more clunky in the move to the N64 generation from arcadey 2D games. Gauntlet was an interesting one too, in comparing what it lost to what it gained.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Mario World < Mario 64
Yoshi's Island > Yoshi's Story
Link to the Past > Ocarina of Time
Star Fox < Star Fox 64
Donkey Kong Country > Donkey Kong 64
Mario Kart > Mario Kart 64

I feel like my picks are kinda all over the place

 

[freedomseekr]

I never had a SNES when it was supported with games, so I'm naturally leaning towards the N64, but for the most part, I'd say that all Nintendo properties that made the jump from SNES to N64 are better on N64.

In detail though, I'd say the following are better without any caveats:

• F-Zero
• Star Fox
• Mario Kart
• The Legend of Zelda
• Yoshi

Now, I don't think I need to elaborate on WHY I think the first three are better - Mode 7 looks nifty, but even the N64's rudimentary 3D graphics give both F-Zero X and Mario Kart 64 a solid edge over the SNES versions. The same goes for Star Fox - the SuperFX chip is a really cool piece of tech, but the rendering capabilities and the controls of SF64 make it a much more playable experience in my book. With Zelda, I like ALttP a lot, but for one, it's one game against two, for two, one of these two is Majora's Mask, and for three, I think Zelda's 3D entries are often better than the 2D entries - the combat is more refined, the third dimension adds some nice exploration and to the puzzles and the presentation in both OoT and MM is just stellar. And with Yoshi there's one deciding factor: No Baby Mario.

The following are about even:

• Super Mario

... and I think this boils down to the fact that both of these games respectively are very different. Super Mario World is a traditional platformer where the goal is to get through the level, Super Mario 64 focuses more on exploration and puzzle solving. So this is more of a "which flavour do you prefer" question than a question of "which is actually better"

And this last one comes with a caveat:

• Donkey Kong

I don't dislike Donkey Kong Country... but my preferences when it comes to platformers make me enjoy DK64 more, as bloated as it occasionally can be.


And I don't have an opinion on Paper Mario vs. Legend of the Seven Stars because I haven't played the latter.

 

[Buried In Time]

Kirby Super Star or Kirby's Dream Land 3 > Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars < Paper Mario
A Link To The Past > Ocarina Of Time or Majora's Mask
Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 or 3 > Donkey Kong 64
Super Mario World > Super Mario 64
Super Mario Kart < Mario Kart 64
Star Fox 1 or 2 < Star Fox 64
Yoshi's Island > Yoshi's Story
Pilotwings < Pilotwings 64
F-Zero < F-Zero X