Felipe 64 visual editor opens new doors for Nintendo 64 homebrew games

The Nintendo 64 is remembered for big 3D worlds, analogue control and games that helped define the shape of modern console design. What it is not remembered for is the side-scrolling beat ’em up. While rival systems and arcades had long histories of punch-ups, street fights and co-op brawlers, the N64 library leaned heavily towards platformers, racers, shooters and experimental 3D adventures. That is what makes Felipe 64 so interesting. Created by N64GameBuilder, the tool is designed to help developers build fighting games and brawlers for Nintendo’s 64-bit console with less guesswork and more visual control. Its showcase project, Final Fight 64, feels like a lost piece of console history: a fan-made version of Capcom’s arcade classic running on hardware that never officially received it.

Building a brawler, one frame at a time

Beat ’em ups often look simple from the outside. A character walks across the screen, throws punches, grabs enemies, takes damage and clears the stage. But behind that apparent simplicity is a lot of careful timing. Every punch needs the right range. Every kick needs a recovery window. Every enemy needs to know when it has been hit, when it should fall, and when it is allowed to get back up and attack again.

Felipe 64 gives developers a visual way to manage those details. Instead of burying every interaction inside code, the editor lets creators work directly with character states, animation frames, hitboxes, hurtboxes and combat events. That means a developer can see how an attack works, adjust it, and test whether it feels right. For a genre built on rhythm and impact, that kind of feedback is more than a convenience. It is central to making the game feel good.

What Felipe 64 actually does

Felipe 64 stands for Fighting Editor for Logic, Interactions, Properties, and Events. It is a technical name, but the idea behind it is straightforward. The tool helps creators define how a character behaves during a game, from standing still and walking to jumping, attacking, taking damage or being knocked down.

Those behaviours are connected through a node-based system, allowing developers to see how one action flows into another. In an animation-heavy game, that matters. A broken transition from walking to idle, or from attacking to recovery, can make a character feel awkward before the player even understands why. By showing those relationships visually, Felipe 64 makes problems easier to spot and easier to fix.

Why hitboxes matter

One of Felipe 64’s most useful features is its handling of hitboxes and hurtboxes. In a fighting game, these invisible shapes decide what happens when characters collide. A hitbox shows where an attack can land, while a hurtbox shows where a character can be struck. They are invisible to the player, but they define almost everything about how fair, sharp or clumsy a fight feels.

Felipe 64 makes those boxes visible. A punch that reaches too far can feel cheap. A kick that appears to connect but somehow misses can make the game feel broken. By placing combat boxes directly on animation frames, developers can tune the action with far more precision. It turns a hidden part of game design into something practical, readable and adjustable.

Why Final Fight 64 matters

The use of Final Fight as a demonstration is a clever choice. Capcom’s original arcade game helped define the beat ’em up genre, with its heavy punches, street-level setting and memorable cast. It also carries a particular history for Nintendo fans. The Super Nintendo version was popular, but it was not arcade-perfect. Most famously, it lacked two-player co-op and removed Guy from the original release.

The Nintendo 64 never received its own Final Fight at all, which gives Final Fight 64 a strange appeal. It is not just another fan project or technical demo. It feels like a glimpse into an alternate N64 library, one where arcade brawlers had a bigger place alongside 3D platformers, kart racers and first-person shooters. For anyone who grew up wondering what a proper N64 beat ’em up might have looked like, the project has an immediate hook.

Old hardware, modern workflow

Felipe 64 is not trying to replace the rest of the Nintendo 64 development process. Instead, it works alongside Libdragon, the open-source N64 development environment used by many homebrew creators. Felipe 64 handles the game-design side of the process, while Libdragon helps bring the project to life on emulators and real hardware.

That separation makes sense. Developers still need technical knowledge to build for the N64, but Felipe 64 gives them a friendlier way to shape the parts of a game that depend on feel: movement, attacks, timing, damage and interaction. For artists, designers and smaller homebrew teams, that kind of tool can make the difference between a rough experiment and something that feels like a proper game.

More than nostalgia

The most exciting thing about Felipe 64 is not simply that it can help recreate an old arcade game. It is what it suggests about the future of N64 homebrew. Retro development is no longer limited to small demos, proof-of-concept experiments or technical curiosities. More creators are building serious tools, engines and workflows for consoles that commercial studios left behind decades ago.

Felipe 64 fits neatly into that shift. It shows how old hardware can become newly approachable when developers build the right tools around it. The Nintendo 64 has a reputation for being difficult, unusual and sometimes stubborn, but projects like this prove that there is still room to explore what the machine can do.

Final thought

Final Fight 64 may be the headline attraction, but Felipe 64 is the bigger story. It gives creators a way to build fast, animation-driven action games on a console that was never especially known for them, and it proves that the N64 still has room for surprises. For a machine remembered for pushing games into 3D, it is oddly fitting that one of its most interesting new homebrew tools is helping revive the side-scrolling street fight.

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