27 Years Ago, Nintendo Released Divisive RPG 'Quest 64'

On June 1, 1998, Nintendo released an RPG title that would go on to become one of the company's most polarizing games ever.

Quest 64 was originally released on the Nintendo 64 and is widely credited as the first role-playing game released in North America for that console. The Nintendo 64 had been released two years prior, and was generally known for its popular Super Mario games, such as Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.

The console's unique controller and increased gameplay capabilities made it a perfect fit for these innovative Super Mario titles, and that became a huge part of Nintendo's marketing for the console. However, by 1998, the company was ready to branch out and release some new, original titles on the Nintendo 64.

Quest 64 was one of these games; in many ways, it was something of an experiment for the publisher. Nintendo hadn't released any RPGs on the console yet in North America, and they already had Mario Party scheduled to come out later that year, so they needed an original title.

The game was a moderate financial success, with plenty of fans purchasing it just to test out the new console's RPG capabilities, but critics were surprisingly harsh on the title. It received a score of 54% on popular review aggregator GameRankings, with critics generally praising the graphics but calling the story and gameplay mechanics underwhelming.

In their review, GameSpot wrote: "Quest 64's individual puzzles and challenges are similarly straightforward. Go to Town #1. Converse with townspeople. Discover that there's a villain scaring everyone and making it impossible to get through Forest #1 to Town #2. To boot, he's stolen Unique Elemental Magic Item #1 from Lord #1."

The general consensus was that Quest 64 checked all the boxes for a successful RPG but lacked the ambition and creativity to make it stand out among the rest. Perhaps audiences' expectations were simply too high, given the massive success of Nintendo 64's prior successes, but Quest 64 quickly became irrelevant.

Nintendo had even considered making a sequel following the game's financial success, but Quest 64's reputation quickly soured to the extent that a follow-up just didn't make any sense. There has been a strong effort to reevaluate Quest 64 in recent years, with modern audiences claiming that it was misunderstood by contemporary critics, but fans' opinions still remain split.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 6:49 AM.