Yeah for a system with middling sales it had the lion's share of that generation's greatest games, to me anyway.

The problem was that third party support was sparse, so there wasn't a whole lot to play in between the heavy hitters from Nintendo and Rare. Cartridges also made its game more expensive than on competing consoles.

Nintendo's because they invented the wheel, while Rare only refined it.

This reminds me that we really ought to see Rare Replay on Switch 2 soon. What is MS waiting on? :/

This is a close call to be honest. The N64 is the only Nintendo console where another developer pushes them for the greatest library of games on that system.

I give a slight edge to Nintendo due to how revolutionary their big hitters were. It's also hard to look past the fact Rare used the Nintendo model on games like Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing which took the template laid out before them. The exception was Goldeneye which they crafted themselves from the ground up which was an incredible game for its time.

Yeah it'd be a great addition given that several of the collection's games were iconic N64 titles.

Some of them are already available on Switch 1/2 via NSO like Banjo and Goldeneye, but it'd be great to get the likes of Jet Force Gemini, Blast Corps, and Conker too.

This really is a tough one. "Objectively" and in hindsight I think you have to give it to Nintendo, but as much as I loved Mario 64 and Ocarina, at the time I felt that it was Rare providing the best overall lineup for my N64.

Rare did very good work on the N64 and deserve to be applauded for that, but Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time all sit above anything Rare put out on the console IMO so it's a very easy choice for me.

I'll give it to Rare only cause I got into Banjo and DK64 way more as a kid than Mario 64. Over time I did give Mario 64 its flowers, but in terms of playability, I spent far more time on the Rare games

Also to get them in higher quality. I replayed banjo again on Xbox360 widescreen 720p60fps and it's an amazing upgrade.

I do think GoldenEye 007 in a lot of ways saved the system.

Nintendo had their entire "fall 1997" slate delayed into 1998 practically ... Rare saved their ass with GoldenEye 007 and Diddy Kong Racing, otherwise I think the system would have in large part collapsed due to software droughts. 

There was a laaaaaaarge gap between Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Rare carried the system for a big part of that.