N64 Puzzle Games Ranked from Worst to Best

I played through the puzzle games on the N64 that I’m aware of. Overall, these were fun to go through. There were a few things that I noticed while playing them, and some of the games didn’t feel all that different from those on the SNES or NES.

I was expecting more of these to have been party games. While some of them can be, not enough of these games took advantage of the four controller ports. This is a weird collection of games. It will be interesting to see how this stacks up to the other consoles, because it feels like there aren’t very many, even if the N64 has a smaller library.

The number of Tetris games was a little surprising. It is a very popular game, or at least it was in the 1980s and 1990s, but it felt like most of the games here were a variation of Tetris. I’m sure there were more puzzle games that we didn’t get in North America, but I didn’t have access to those.

There really wasn’t a bad game here, which is always nice when I do something like this. The last group of games that I went through was the NFL QB Club games, and those game really awful near the end. That, thankfully, didn’t happen here. Anyway, let’s get into the list.

TLDR: A list of the N64 puzzle games from worst to best.

Disclaimer: These are the North American releases, and I might be missing one or two games.

The New Tetris

This game was a little disappointing. The New Tetris is a good version of Tetris, and it does have a few wrinkles to the gameplay. My biggest issue was a lack of game modes. It felt like a step back from the games that you’d find on the SNES or Genesis.

The New Tetris isn’t a bad game; there just isn’t much to it. The graphics are fine, the controls are good, and I liked the gameplay. Without other people to play with, I couldn’t really try out the multiplayer modes. That could’ve saved this game!

What we have is a competently made game that just doesn’t have what I want from a game like this. It is a nice distraction from the other games on the console, and the name is the only reason I wanted to try it. It is an average game when it comes to puzzle games.

Wetrix

Wetrix is a pretty unique game that feels like it should be more fun than it is. The graphics don’t look all that great, but they do get the job done. This is one of those games where I kept waiting for it to get good, but it just never happened.

The idea of this game is pretty cool. You use the shapes to create valleys for water to go in. You want to create lakes to hold the water, and you lose if too much falls through the playfield. Unfortunately, the game’s graphics really cause the gameplay to fall apart. It isn’t always clear where the pieces are going to land, and the rules feel a little off at times. I do like the gameplay, but the graphics have a negative impact on it.

There also isn’t a lot of gameplay in Wetrix. It is one of those games that I want to enjoy, but just couldn’t. Even after understanding what was going on, I just never had fun with it. If there was a story mode for this game, then I might’ve liked it more than I did.

Tetrisphere

Tetrisphere is another game that I just couldn’t get into. Trying to make a 3D version of Tetris isn’t a bad idea, but I didn’t like the execution of this game. It has more going for it than Wetrix did, but still fell short for me.

You play a game of Tetris where the playfield is on a sphere. This game started as something else, and eventually was turned into a Tetris game. There are some fun twists, like dragging sections to new areas, and the sphere playfield is different. The graphics are decent, but the overall gameplay just wasn’t much fun for me.

I’m glad that a developer tried to do something like this, but it didn’t work as a Tetris game. I never found this game to be fun. There is something about 3D Tetris that sounds like it should work, but it just felt strange to me.

Dr. Mario 64

Dr. Mario 64 has something that the previous games don’t. It has a fun story mode that gives you a reason to keep playing. While the gameplay isn’t as good or as different as the other games, it is a more entertaining game. This is just an update to the NES game, which I don’t mind since the “series” had been largely dormant between entries.

The core gameplay isn’t too different from the NES game. All you’re doing is destroying colored viruses with pills. It is a simple match-four game that gets faster as the game goes on. The story mode makes things a little more fun as several characters are introduced, and there is a fun little plot. Dr. Mario 64 is a bright and colorful game, and it is easy to see what is going on.

I enjoyed this game more than the other games that didn’t have a story mode. This is something that I look for when I play a puzzle game, and the story here is pretty fun. It isn’t like something you’d find in an RPG or Action-Adventure game, but it doesn’t need to be.

Magical Tetris Challenge

Magical Tetris Challenge is a Disney-themed game of Tetris. It is a pretty fun game that was made by Capcom. It was originally released in the arcades before getting an N64 and Game Boy port.

The graphics and gameplay are quite good. This game has a bunch of characters and a fun story mode. This, along with the other game modes, makes this game a bit better than the previous games on this list.

This game had just about everything that I could want from a puzzle game. The battle modes are fun, but what I really enjoy is having a little story to follow. Something like this can really elevate a puzzle game. It helps that Magical Tetris Challenge has good graphics and fun gameplay.

Bust-a-Move 2: The Arcade Edition

I think these should’ve stuck with the Puzzle Bobble name. Bust-a-Move doesn’t really explain what the game is, which might’ve been why I avoided these games when I was younger. Anyway, this is a solid game, but it doesn’t have all the features that the next two games have.

Bust-a-Move 2: The Arcade Edition is a port of an arcade game (duh!). It has good gameplay and graphics. I like that this is different from the other puzzle games on the N64. This game is its own thing and not a rehash of Tetris.

You have to shoot bubbles from the bottom of the screen up at other colored bubbles. When you match four or more, those bubbles burst, and you get points. That is what you’re playing for in this game, much like the other games on this list.

Bust-a-Move ‘99

Bust-a-Move 99 is a big improvement over the previous game. Taito, for some reason, ported these games a few years after they were released in the arcades and on the PS1. I remember the marketing, which didn’t make me want to buy them.

This game is fairly close to the previous game in the series, but with a few more features. The big thing for me was the story/adventure mode. Stuff like this is always fun as it gives me something else to do aside from just the standard mode. It helps the gameplay a lot, especially if you don’t have a few friends to play one of these games with.

The graphics and gameplay aren’t too different from the previous game on this list. There were some more cutscenes, more game modes, and the adventure/story mode. All of these things made this game way better than the previous game. The core gameplay is the same, but it feels more fun here.

Pokemon Puzzle League

This is very similar to Tetris Attack, which is one of the reasons that I love this game. It was my favorite puzzle game on the N64, and one of my favorite games on the system overall. Granted, I haven’t played too many N64 games, but this was a lot of fun.

You have all the standard single-player and multiplayer modes that you’ll find in the other games on this list, but there are more here, and I like the story more. That was the big thing that got me through this game. I really liked the story mode, and how it was a little weird that Ash got roped into another tournament while on vacation.

So, this is based on the anime, which really helps out this game. The developers were also able to get some animations either from the cartoon or made for the game. I haven’t watched every episode of the anime, and I don’t want to, so I’m not too sure where they got the animation. By the time the game came out, developers had figured out how to get cutscenes like this into the N64 cartridges.

I had the most fun with this game. The gameplay was great, the graphics were good, and I really enjoyed the story. There wasn’t really anything in this game that I didn’t like. It is also great that there is a fun update to Tetris Attack.

Reviews at the time

The reviews for these games were rather interesting. There was a heavy focus on the graphics, while the gameplay seemed to be minimized. From time to time, imports were also brought up. It was talked about as if everyone knew about them or had access to imported games.

Not every reviewer brought up graphics, but when they did, it was a negative thing. Puzzle games don’t really need amazing graphics, so I was a little confused by this. A lot of these games did come out at a time when 3D graphics really mattered to some people, and most of these games didn’t need 3D graphics.

Tetris 64 is brought up several times by a few of the publications. I was a little confused by this, because I had no idea the game existed. It has three modes and got mixed reviews. IGN loved the game, but other reviewers weren’t all that impressed. From the way it is described, it sounds like it would be more fun than The New Tetris.

I really didn’t agree with most of the reviewers. At times, it came across like the person reviewing the game didn’t like the genre to begin with. Most of the time, I felt like they put too much weight on the game’s graphics.

Conclusion Lots of Tetris Clones

None of these games were terrible; there were just a few that felt a little generic or lacked some of the features that I enjoy in puzzle games. Each game was perfectly playable, even if I didn’t necessarily enjoy all of them. A couple of them clearly separated themselves.

I was really glad to see versions of Tetris Attack on the N64. There were also a get a few games that I wasn’t expecting to see. When I saw Dr. Mario 64, I was a little worried, but having a story really helped. If there was one game that I wish was on this system, it would have to be Wario’s Woods. That is such a fun game!

I know that I dedicated a section to the reviews, but I felt like they were odd, to say the least. The heavy focus on graphics wasn’t limited to these games; it was something that was focused on in many game reviews. These were just opinion pieces, which is something that people tend to forget. For some reason, the reviews, which are journalism, are just there to tell the reader what one person thinks. I always find it a little odd when some people take them as facts.

There are a bunch of these games on the various retro systems. Not all of them are great, but there are several that are a lot of fun. At some point, I’ll have to go back and take a close look at the other retro consoles that I have games for, and go through their puzzle games.

If you liked this post, check out some of my other posts on N64 Puzzle games. Such as Dr. Mario 64 or Pokémon Puzzle League.