A Brand-New Nintendo 64 Game Is Officially Available Now

Published Sep 28, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT

Sharmila is an engineer-turned-gaming hardware journalist and freelance contributor at ScreenRant who has been covering the gaming and tech industry since 2021. While she first built her expertise writing about video games, she has since pivoted towards gaming hardware, with a focus on PC components, peripherals, handhelds, and performance-driven tech. When she’s not testing gear or writing about the latest hardware trends, she can usually be found diving into competitive shooters or keeping up with the evolving esports scene.

If you’re one of those loyal fans who are always waiting for a chance to boot up their beloved Nintendo console from the 1990s, you’re in for a treat. A new Nintendo 64 game is now up for grabs, and it’s perfect for shooter fans looking to pick up their dusty controllers with tangled cords for the n’th time.

The game in discussion is Xibalba 64, a first-person shooter from PhobosLab, and it’s actually a launch title for ModRetro’s M64, a machine built to recreate the N64 experience. That said, you can boot it up on the original N64 console: all you have to do is put the physical cartridge into the N64. There’s no use of emulation either, so what you get is the real hardware doing the work. It’s important to note that Xibalba 64 isn’t an official Nintendo game. The developer used open-source tools instead of Nintendo’s licensed kit and built the cartridge to the same format the N64 has always read, so the console simply boots it like any other game.

Xibalba 64 Brings a New FPS to Real N64 Hardware

If you’re wondering how the idea came up, Developer Dominic Szablewski has revealed Xibalba 64 grew out of a WebGL demo from 2014, but he’s been clear that this isn’t a lazy port. He describes it as a full rewrite with far more levels, weapons, music, cheats, and secrets. By his own account, getting the old content running on the N64 took about two weeks, and then he spent a few more months expanding the game and tuning the renderer.

According to Szablewski, if you’ve played Wolfenstein 3D before, Xibalba 64 will feel familiar. Expect to fight through high-tech bases, ancient catacombs, and jungle environments, using heavy weapons in maze-like levels packed with hidden paths, traps, and ambushes. The Mayan underworld setting gives it a look of its own, and the low-poly graphics and dark ambient soundtrack are meant to lean into the console’s style.

60 FPS and a Classic Shooter Feel on the N64

Performance is where it gets even more impressive. Despite being an N64 game, Xibalba 64 holds a steady 60 frames per second, which not many titles on the console can say. Anyone who spent the late nineties in a dim living room playing four-player GoldenEye knows how rough the frame rate got. Szablewski points out, in his official blog post, that GoldenEye often dropped into single digits in that mode, while the four-player split-screen experience on Xibalba 64 doesn’t always reach 60 but stays fluid. And all of this reflects in the reviews this game has managed to collect so far: an impressive 4.8 out of 5 rating on Modretro.

Interestingly, Xibalba 64 is only the second physical release of a new N64 game since the console’s commercial life ended. The first was Xeno Crisis in 2023, and before that you’d have to go back to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 in 2002. Twenty-odd years is a long gap, so even a small handful of new cartridges feels like an event.

Besides Xibalba 64, ModRetro launched with three more Nintendo 64 games: Xeno Crisis, Buck Bumble, and Extreme-G: Turbo Fusion. But Xibalba 64 is the one drawing most of the attention, and for good reason. You can grab the shooter for $49.99 or get the full M64 bundle featuring all four games at $179.99.