What is the Neon Genesis Evangelion Nintendo 64 game?

Neon Genesis Evangelion for Nintendo 64 was developed and published by Bandai and released in Japan in June 1999, during the franchise's peak first era. Rather than retelling the whole story, it selects the confrontations that suit a cartridge action game: thirteen missions built around individual Angels, presented as duels between the Evangelion and a single enormous opponent.

The presentation was the selling point. The game used digitised voices from the anime cast, orchestral cues associated with the series, and between mission sequences in the style of the show's title cards and briefings. Hardware limits are visible everywhere, in fog, simple geometry and slow movement, but in 1999 the proposition of piloting Unit-01 against Sachiel on a home console was enough, and reviews of the era treated it as a fan product first and a game second.

It was never localised, which froze it as a Japan only object. The box art, with Unit-01 against a dark ground, is one of the most recognisable pieces of Evangelion game packaging, and the cartridge sits in the small set of anime Nintendo 64 releases that Western import collectors actively display rather than merely own.

Buying notes: the game is region free in practice only through cartridge shell workarounds or a Japanese console, since Nintendo 64 lockout is physical, so sellers' claims about compatibility deserve a check. Complete copies should include the box and manual, and sun fading on the box spine is the most common condition fault. Playability without Japanese is high for the missions themselves, low for the briefing screens.