There is a large number of game genres out there, and that number becomes truly staggering when factoring in things like sub-genres and incorporating elements from entirely different genres. Each of these types has a different expectation when it comes to how long a game might be.
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The Nintendo 64 may have come out a long time ago, but it still saw some pretty long completion times for a lot of its games. This is not limited to just getting through the main story, as some games offer plenty of collectibles, post-story content, and incentives for replaying the game under different conditions than before.
10Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense
Time To Complete The Main Story:20 Hours
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense was an incredibly fun and creative vehicular combat simulator that treated the game less like a racer, and more like a large arena fighting game — similar to how a lot of modern anime fighting games are structured. The game featured combos and a form of “finishing move” style mechanic that let you total your opponents using your special weapon, or a combo with a regular one.
Ironically, this might be at the bottom of this list in terms of the time in takes to complete the game’s main story — clocking in at 20 hours. However, it has the highest completionist time out of any N64 game ever made with a phenomenal 112 hours.
Main Story
Main + Extras
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Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense
9The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Time To Complete The Main Story:20.5 Hours
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Maskis one of themany games in the Legend of Zelda franchise. After the defeat of Ganon, Link is on a whole new journey to a whole new land. The story takes place in the land of Termina, which is at risk of complete destruction due to the impending impact of its moon — a plot orchestrated by the one known as Skull Kid.
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The game’s main story may clock in at 20.5 hours in length, but there is plenty for players to do on the sidelines. Doing absolutely everything there is to do in the game can extend a player’s time up to 32 hours.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
8SimCity 2000
Time To Complete The Main Story:22 Hours
This game builds off the originalSimCity, adding plenty of new features and facilities — such as the addition of hospitals, schools, prisons, and many different forms of infrastructure. Having so much versatility in one’s hands can greatly add to the enjoyment of discovering how things work and what approach would be the most successful. Deciding on what your tax rates will be and working out effective budgets are other factors that can cause fluctuations in how long you can expect to complete this simulator.
Completing the main campaign mode sees players tackling around 22 hours. However, due to the scale of what the game offers players, those who wish to complete everything the game has in store will need to set aside 94 hours to get it all done.
SimCity 2000
7Paper Mario
Time To Complete The Main Story:23 Hours
The legendary icon that isMarioneeds no introduction when it comes to any of Nintendo’s consoles.Paper Mariowas a whole other beast to thevarious traditional 2D Mario games— as well as the 3D ones that were on the rise. Paper Mario served as one of the manyRPG games revolving around Mario, which goes to show just how vast the variety of genres the franchise covers.
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WhileSuper Mario 64, the most well-known and beloved Mario game on the N64, clocks in at 16 hours to complete, Paper Mario pushed past this by an additional 6 hours. However, when it comes to doing everything in the game, it boasts 13.5 hours more than Super Mario 64 does.
Paper Mario
6Donkey Kong 64
Time To Complete The Main Story:26.5 Hours
Donkey Kongis one of Nintendo’s oldest, as well as one of their most well-known game IPs. It has spawned countless spin-offs and is even the game that Mario made his debut. Donkey Kong 64 originally started as a 2.5D sidescrolling game much like the previous Donkey Kong Country games. However, it would evolve into something more akin to 3D platformers of the time.
The game features plenty of collectibles, puzzles, mini-games, and all the other staples that will captivate fans of the genre for a very enjoyable experience. There are many different characters to play as, and each has its own unique abilities to encourage switching between them to progress.
Donkey Kong 64
5The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Time To Complete The Main Story:27 Hours
The Lend of Zelda: Ocarina of TIme has seen many re-releases and is heralded by many fans as one of the greatest entries in the franchise. The game has link switching between different points in time, as well as featuring some of thehardest of bosses— such as Shadow Link, and somevery challenging of dungeons— such as the infamous Water Temple.
Playing through the main story of the game will also mean playing through the bulk of the game itself, as completionists will only have around 12 hours of additional time on their hands from the main story’s 27-hour mark. The game never overstays its welcome by providing a large amount of cleanup, and players feel rewarded with each element they can check off their list.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4Gauntlet Legends
Time To Complete The Main Story:29 Hours
Gauntlet Legends may seem very Diablo-like to a lot of players. However, the two games feel drastically different from one another. TheDiablogames may also feature character-defining stats such as Strength and Speed. However, Gauntlet Legends has very few RPG elements by comparison, and instead focuses on being much more action-driven. The most noteworthy element introduced in Gauntlet Legends was leveling up, making it a lot more RPG-like than any of the previous games.
Playing through the entirety of the game’s main story will have players working their way through 29 hours worth of gameplay, but in order to get through everything the game has to offer, the players will need to put in a total of 49.5 hours.
Gauntlet Legends
3Harvest Moon 64
Time To Complete The Main Story:41 Hours
Coming in at 41 hours is Harvest Moon 64. This is quite a leap from the previous 29 hours to completing Gauntlet Legends' main story, but that is to be expected with the nature of the Harvest Moon games. The story sees the central protagonist inheriting an old and run-down farm from a grandparent of theirs. They will need to restore the farm to greatness, but also have many other side activities to engage in.
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While focusing on just reaching the end of the game will have players sinking 41 hours into the game, those that wish to accept any and every task available in the game should prepare for a journey that will require 100 hours of their time.
Harvest Moon 64
2Ogre Battle 64: Person Of Lordly Caliber
Time To Complete The Main Story:44.5 Hours
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is a mix of RPG gaming elements, as well as Real Time Strategy gaming elements. The player will control a massive number of units to achieve victory throughout the game and progress through the 44.5 hour long central story.
As is the nature of any game calling itself an RPG, the game will have plenty of side activities for players. Making your way to the end of each chapter is the central goal, but there is plenty more on players' plates if they wish to spend 104 hours engrossed in Ogre Battle 64.
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
1StarCraft 64
Time To Complete The Main Story:50 Hours
Starcraft 64 is a port of the well-knownBlizzardgameStarcraft. The game has been criticized harshly for how clunky it feels on a controller compared to how it plays on the PC — as it was originally designed. However, the game came at great value when it released, as it included the original base game and its expansion set.
This game has the longest main story to complete out of any other Nintendo 64 title, with a solid 50 hours of gameplay. The game does not feature any completionist time, as once you complete a mission in whatever manner you choose, it is considered completed. Completing all the extra content from the expansion set will help raise this to 87.5 hours.
StarCraft 64
10 Strangest Games Released On The Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 was a transitional console with lots of experimental titles. Here are our favorite weird N64 games.
