While the N64 library was small in size, it is known for having a number of legendary titles from both Nintendo themselves, and their partners at the time Rare Ltd.

Of the two, which do you think had the better lineup overall, and why?

Nintendo: Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, Mario Kart 64, Starfox 64, Wave Race 64, Yoshi's Story, 1080 Snowboarding, F-Zero X, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask

Rare: Goldeneye 007, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Perfect Dark, Blast Corps, Diddy Kong Racing, Killer Instinct Gold, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64, Mickey's Speedway USA, Conker's Bad Fur Day

Not ready to weigh in yet, but I still laugh whenever I remember there’s a Nintendo character called Mr. EAD.
Localisation couldn’t be bothered to fight against that one.

While Rare made some very good games during the N64 generation, it was nothing groundbreaking. Mario 64 and Zelda Ocarina of Time are still viewed as being among the greatest, most innovative games ever created.

Mario 64 > everything else there.

So Nintendo.

Nintendo had 2 of the best Zeldas I've ever played, but Rare had Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Which were equally ground breaking in different ways. Rare also had Diddy kong racing and Banjo which were better then Mario Kart 64 and Mario 64.
So I'm going to give it to Rare. Especially since they did all this with less resources then their parent company.

I mean, Rare was at the top of their game at that time, but so was Nintendo themselves. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time are unbeatable. Perfect games. Nintendo easily wins.

Still, they both contributed to what was certainly the greatest generation ever, and the Rare of the day would beat pretty much every other comparison.

I'd argue Goldeneye 007 was quite groundbreaking.

It came out at a time when FPS games on console were in their infancy, and mostly followed the Doom formula of finding colour coded keys and such; Goldeneye did things very differently, with levels that were designed more like real places than just video game levels and the action within them played out in a more open ended fashion. There were multiple objectives, a lot of destructible props, enemies that reacted differently depending on where you hit them with the games free aiming system.

In 1997 there really wasn't anything like it, and it did a lot to popularize the genre in the console space and was something of a phenomenon at the time.

Banjo is way better than Mario 64 imo

Superior music, controls, humour, level design, funner skillet.

My N64 trinity was Ocarina of Time, Banjo and GoldenEye.

Golden Eye was a revolution and the first time split screen fps gameplay dominated the living room 

That list of awesome games is crazy. I love almost all of them 

I wasn't that big a fan of Banjo and while GoldenEye seemed decently fun I haven't completed it, so it's really no competition. Honestly I would place Rare's SNES games above the N64 ones I've played just for DKC.