Nintendo 64 Came Out 20 Years Ago. Here's How a Teenaged Me Reviewed It

Today is the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo 64 in the United States. I could try to think back and remember what it was like to play the groundbreaking Nintendo console, with its 3-D graphics and analog stick controller, for the first time. But why rely on hazy memories, when I could just dig up what I wrote about it at the time? September 29, 1996 was the official launch date of the Nintendo 64 game console in the United States, not to mention Super Mario 64, the first 3-D Mario adventure (and one of the earliest free-roaming, polygon-based 3-D action games period). With the concept of a "launch date" not yet fully ingrained into the gaming industry, more than one store started selling their Nintendo 64 machines the second the shipments arrived, as early as September 26.