Believe it or not, putting together a top 10 list of N64 games with our friends at GameDaily was pretty damn tough...but for reasons I didn't expect.

I was actually discussing top N64 games with the GoNintendo podcast crew a few days back. I thought the list would be quite hard to put together, as I didn't believe there to be many top-tier N64 titles. Nintendo definitely hit a rough patch with the N64 when it came to third-party support, which mean a library that was substantially smaller than the PS1. Taking that into account, the crew and I started naming titles.

As the list went on and on, I realized just how many high-quality games there were. While the overall library size wasn't that huge, the games that managed to wow us did so more than any other platform out there. Nintendo managed to take their established franchises and move them into the realm of 3d, which is no small task. Couple those achievements with some truly outstanding third-party efforts, and you've got quite a list to drool over.

Whether you like wrestling or not, there's no denying that the Nintendo 64 was the king of wrestling games. Many believe to this day that no other console or portable wrestling outings have been able to top what was achieved on the N64. While there were multiple WWF games on the system, it's WWF No Mercy that stands head and shoulders above the rest...right before it piledrives you into the ground.

WWF No Mercy brought us one step closer to matching the real-life world of the WWF. Superstar intros were spot-on, theme songs rocked us into the ring, and the squared-circle grappling was completely different from any other wrestling system at the time. While all those features are great, it's the Create a Wrestler and 4-player modes that secured this game a spot on the list. I know I've spent hours upon hours creating some hilarious wrestlers, and then spent even longer hopping into the ring with friends. I've yet to experience wrestling game fun like WWF No Mercy.

Who knew that Paper Mario would be so successful that it would spawn a series? Talk about a step in the right direction for the N64!

I remember being absolutely blown away by the previews and first screens of Paper Mario. I couldn't believe that Nintendo was really going with this 2d approach to Mario. Such a unique visual style that not only caught your attention, but also played directly into the game. Folding up into a paper airplane just doesn't make sense in any other game! It's this combination of visual and gameplay imagination that really took the Nintendo fans by storm.

Of course, we can't forget that this was Mario's return to the RPG formula! Nintendo showed us that they didn't need help from Squaresoft in order to create an outstanding RPG outing for Mario, complete with its own sense of humor and style. It's these not-so-humble beginnings that have turned the Paper Mario franchise into a long-running staple for the Big N.

Speaking of big franchises, do they come any bigger than Super Smash Bros.? There's only been three entries in the Smash Bros. series, with the N64 giving birth to the game that would sweep the nation. A Nintendo-created fighting game that features characters from all of Nintendo's biggest games? This sounds like a fan's dream come true!

Of course, that's exactly what Super Smash Bros. is. Not only is it great to see Nintendo bring so much fan service into one game, but on top of all that you have an extremely unique fighting mechanic that's unlike anything else out there. It's not just about damaging your opponent, it's about throwing them completely off the screen! Super Smash Bros. quickly established itself as a top-tier fighter, and was subsequently added to tournaments all around the world. Now the franchise is bigger than ever, thanks to the 4-player bash that kicked off on the N64.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Mario Kart 64 has one of the best local multiplayer modes of all-time. I could go on and on about the balloon battle mode in Mario Kart 64. I'm pretty sure that this aspect of the game stole away years of my life, as well as the lives of my friends. I think all of us could sit down and go at the multiplayer mode for hours on end, no matter how tired or bloodshot our eyes became.

What do you do when your done with battle mode? You hope into some circuit races, of course! Mario Kart 64 gave us more tracks and hazards than ever before. Now that we could take 3 other players with us on the tracks, the racing became even more intense than what the SNES provided. Sure, the single-player A.I. on opponents is rubber-banding to the max, but that doesn't matter. No matter how you look at it, Mario Kart 64 is highly regarded as the best entry in the series by many...and for good reason!

While the original StarFox showed us what the FX Chip could do on the SNES, StarFox 64 really took things to the next level. While the game itself is a blast, it's the peripheral that it launched that changed the entire industry.

Without the introduction of the StarFox 64/Rumble Pak bundle, who knows what today's controllers would be like? Nintendo without a doubt made rumble a staple in all game controllers, which is something that lives on to this day. I'll never forget my sheer amazement at taking on the first level in StarFox 64 with the Rumble Pak buzzing away. It may have been bulky and loud, but it was an important step for the game industry when it came to controller immersion.

Oh, and shooting Slippy down is reason enough for any StarFox game to make it onto a top 10 list!

You've read half of what GoNintendo and GameDaily think are the best games on the N64. Click here to read what we came up with for our top 5 choices!