I still create a plane and make models from that. For almost all my modeling needs. Just search for lowpoly modelling and you'll find plenty of attempts on how to create geometry. Pick your favorite
Fundamentally, polygon modeling hasn't changed much since the SM64 days. Perhaps the thing that caught your eye is the fact that N64 and PC game models back then were either segmented, or continuous but extremely lowpoly. You can find old tutorials by appending "before:2010" to a youtube search.…