In 1994 Nintendo had the idea to repackage and rerelease some of their hit Super Nintendo games with a price drop. This practice was later passed onto the N64. To achieve player's choice status, a game had to sell 1 million copies. Games that were rereleased as Player's Choice were given a new Player's Choice emblem on the front of the box in the top right corner, as well as it being a lighter colour on the right side of the front, instead of red. Game cartridge's usually had a Player's Choice emblem on the front artwork, but there were a few exceptions. The most important part was that the price of the game was dropped to $39.95.
There do exist a few changes and exceptions with some games. Starfox 64 was no longer packaged with a rumble pak and came in a standard sized box. Turok 2 did not have a player's choice emblem on the cartrdige label. Instead the colour of the cartrdige was changed. The black cartridge Turok 2 is the original with the grey one being player's choice release. Perfect Dark was also lazily made a Player's Choice game. Instead of getting a redesigned box, a player's choice sticker was put on all the boxes. Perfect Dark was over-printed though so it wouldn't make any sense to make more copies.
The following is a complete list of all Nintendo 64 Player's Choice games released in North America. There are many lists online of all the Player's Choice games but many contain inaccuracies. You need to remember that you had to sell 1 million copies to be able to achieve Player's Choice status. There are plenty of good games that didn't sell 1 million copies.
- 1080º Snowboarding
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Bomberman 64
- Bomberman Hero
- Cruis'n USA
- Diddy Kong Racing
- Donkey Kong 64
- F-1 World Grand Prix
- F-Zero X
- GoldenEye 007
- Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Mario Kart 64
- Perfect Dark
- Pokemon Snap
- Pokemon Stadium
- Star Fox 64
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
- Super Mario 64
- Super Smash Brothers
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
- Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
- Waialae Country Club
- Wave Race 64
- WCW vs. NWO: World Tour
- Yoshi's Story
Written by Kevin Ames
April 28 2012
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