I’ve been a PlayStation kid since I got an original on my eighth birthday, but I could not get enough of my best friend’s Nintendo 64. The hours of WWF Warzone matches, Mario Kart races and Mario Party games we played at sleepovers were the memories I will always cherish more than anything I played on Sony’s first console.
And when I fired up the Analogue 3D, all those memories came flooding back in 4K 60 FPS — to the point that I look at the newest PS5 titles in my backlog and felt jaded. This is the home console sequel to the Analogue Pocket, and it's easily the best retro gaming revival system I've used in the last few years.
This is a time machine back to my favorite era of gaming, and it's a damn good one at that.
Where to buy Analogue 3D
Breathing new life into my childhood
The Analogue 3D is a complete rebuild of the N64, which supports any original game from any region. But it’s more than that in my mind — it’s a modern reinvention of classic gaming from hardware design to what you see on-screen.
That motif of Nintendo’s original machine is maintained with that middle hump and four controller ports, but it’s been given a sleeker, more minimalistic aesthetic to fit in elegantly with the rest of those boxes underneath your TV.
And firing it up, there’s zero worries about whether your game will work, as Analogue has reached 100% region-free compatibility across the board.
This isn’t software emulation like you see on the many emulators you can find on Amazon — this is pure hardware-level support for any cartridge. The only limitation is if the pins in your cart are dirty after years in the attic, so make sure you use the included pin brush to clean them (a much more hygienic alternative to just blowing on it).
Once you turn it on, you get a delightfully retro UI with access to not only your games when connected, but settings for each game that are pre-saved. This is where you can start to really make the gameplay experience your own, but most of you will be more than happy to be transported back to the CRT TV days with the default picture display mode.
Analogue CRT recreates those subtle lines across the screen and tweaks the color science to boost the vividity slightly while adding a touch of light bloom around bright objects. It’s a true blast from the past that looks glorious in the native 4K output.
But if that’s not necessarily your thing, and if you’re looking for a cleaner presentation to match your 2025 gaming, you can remove those CRT or PVM display effects.
Fixing the N64 controller
If there was one key gripe I had with the original N64, it was the controller. Don’t get me wrong — it looks cool and all (three grips are better than two after all), but the end result was all manner of weird hand contortions for me.
But the 8BitDo 64 controller is a second chance to make things right, and it absolutely does. Framed around the familiar controller form factor you’re used to from the company, the two additional face buttons have been put around the back as extra shoulder buttons.
Those who have gotten used to the traditional N64 pad may need a little time to adjust, but trust me, this is way better.
Couch multiplayer memories
While I can sit here and talk about how good it was to get back into the likes of Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64 (which it was), the true win here is a grand return to couch multiplayer.
Having my friends over and getting a little chip dust on our shirts as we go through a 20-turn Mario Party 2 marathon could not be replicated. Four-player Goldeneye (where someone just has to play as Oddjob…I won’t out him, but he knows who he is) is a real blast from the past that you are unable to really see in many other titles.
As multiplayer moved online, we seemed to forget about the memories made by meeting up and playing games together. I rode so fast on my bicycle to go see my mate whenever the idea of N64 came up, and we’d stay up until the early hours of the morning on Mario Kart 64.
And now, those memories have been preserved. If you want to relive those memories (like me) or you never experienced them and want to see what all the fuss was about back in the 90s, the Analogue 3D is the best way to do so.
Not an emulator, but the N64 remake I’ve always wanted.
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