Game Rader's top 7 nintendo failures

[+remowilliams]

nor the anti nintendo-fan comments. Yawn....

Note the difference between "self congratulating Nintendo apologists" and "Nintendo fans"

 

This place seems to have far more of the former (which I really don't get) than the latter (which I would expect from a forum focusing on classic gaming).

[misspent_youth]

3.) Nintendo double crossing Sony, thus causing the playstation to be created.

4.) The N64 not using CD. (Was this a legal issue due to number 3?)

 

No, Nintendo was concerned about CD load times since CD-Rom tech was in it's infancy as far as consoles were concerned. Since there is no load times with carts, they went with carts.

[AtariJr]

nor the anti nintendo-fan comments. Yawn....

Note the difference between "self congratulating Nintendo apologists" and "Nintendo fans"

 

This place seems to have far more of the former (which I really don't get) than the latter (which I would expect from a forum focusing on classic gaming).

 

is there a problem with being a nintendo fan? technically if you talk in favor of anything from any company you could be said as being a fan. fanboy is a diffeernt story (which the term is often misused),but fan is from what i see perfectly fine. what people dont understand is that you can be a fan of many systems, which most are. me for instance, im a fan of nintendo, sega, ps2, and the first xbox to name a few (and atari of course ).

 

i think its sad that you cant say a bad or a good thing just to say you like or dont liek something without being called a hater or a fanboy. i do think people can take it too far though, but i think saying you find entertainment in a product is pefectly fine lol

[JB]

3.) Nintendo double crossing Sony, thus causing the playstation to be created.

4.) The N64 not using CD. (Was this a legal issue due to number 3?)

 

No, Nintendo was concerned about CD load times since CD-Rom tech was in it's infancy as far as consoles were concerned. Since there is no load times with carts, they went with carts.

That's the party line. One of them, anyways. Along with piracy deterrent(right, because NO ONE pirated NES, SNES, or Gameboy games...), and a few other excuses.

CD not offering any real advantages was my favorite Nintendo excuse for canning the SNES CD. Or, as Nintendo America put it "Super Mario World with a googol levels is not our idea of an improvement."

 

 

 

 

The best explanation I've heard for all the mess surrounding the SNESCD and N64 is as follows...

 

The SNES sound hardware was licensed from Sony(this is easily verified, probably the only part of the theory that is, which is sadly true for most SNESCD theories).

 

As part of the license, Sony got publication rights for any CD-based games Nintendo may do.

 

Then Sony started making it known that they intended to issue a license to any and every game that came to them, regardless of the image Nintendo WANTED on their system. And Nintendo would get very little of the profits for each game.

And there was nothing Nintendo could do about it! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

So, after a few hardware revisions(Sony's original design, attempting to ditch Sony for Philips, then the final 3-way Nintendo/Sony/Philips project), Nintendo bailed on the SNES CD, made the N64 use ROM, planned a magneto-optic disk expansion for the N64(MO being more expensive, less reliable, and far smaller than CD, while STILL featuring load time), and jumped straight to DVD for the GameCube.

 

 

 

It's insane, but it makes more sense than some other stories I've seen.

[nester]

Hmm, well maybe the author could only think of 6 but he needed 7, and that's why he put the Wii on here. Oh well, it is a good excuse for some heated message board debates. Where would our lives be without them?

[AtariJr]

Hmm, well maybe the author could only think of 6 but he needed 7, and that's why he put the Wii on here. Oh well, it is a good excuse for some heated message board debates. Where would our lives be without them?

 

doing something productive? Dear Lord NO!

[bretthorror]

My two cents would be, yeah the N64 games were expensive... but at least they work today (and I hate load times, especially back in those days when it was 9 years). That's a plus for the gamer who doesn't skip to the next big thing the second it comes out and anything that came out before it is inferior. The Wii... a failure. Maybe they should research which company out there is actually making money.

 

Sure, Nintendo were dicks and all that, but every company is. Six-Axis anyone?

 

Lastly, the importance of online gaming. I remember being confused as to why the Wii wasn't gonna have online shit from the get-go, but truth be told, I personally don't really care. Unless there's a headset and a decent person on the other end of it, I'd rather play the computer. To me, multiplayer is all about interaction. The DS online stuff, I thought I'd be on there all the time after hearing about the wonders of online gaming. But, really, I never go online to play. Sure, console gaming with a headset could be better than this and probably is, but online gaming just isn't what it's cracked up to be by the 13 year olds out there.

Edited April 12, 2007 by bretthorror

[misspent_youth]

I thought that the CD publication rights clause was in the agreement for Sony to produce Nintendo's CD system, not the sound hardware in the snes. Either way, I had forgot about that part. I believe (my opinion only) that is the real reason why Nintendo went with carts. It also makes sense as to why Nintendo purposely embarassed Sony by cancelling the play station project after Sony had already announced it. Thanks for reminding me, JB.

[Video]

I don't know why the hell 64 is always bought up as such a failure. Sure, it didn't sell a hundred million systems like Playstation, but it did quiet good, and at the time (and even now looking back) the system I liked and played the most was the 64. The controller was poorly designed to be sure, or at least the stick was, but the fact that they stuck with carts is one of the few reasons I stuck with Nintendo back then.

 

The Virtual Boy ranks as the #1 worst failure of Nintendo. Fortunately this disaster only lasted a few years in the market. At that time, I was more interested in wanting to play Doom or Quake in 3D, rather than what the Virtual Boy had to offer.

 

Anyway, it's too early to call the Wii a failure, since it basically needs a year or so to really prove itself as a proven game system or one with an annoying fad of a novelty controller.

 

Actually, had Nintendo actually tried to support the Virtual Boy, instead of sweeping it under the carpet as fast as they could, I can guarantee you would have seen some version of at least Doom on it. The virtual boy was a really revolutionary system of it's time (look at the double d pad, which Sony ripped of in the Dual shock controllers) And being able to actually view things in 3D was really awesome. For me, that was far more impressive than any of the touch screen arm flinging things they are doing now. but eh...whatever. I was just one of the few nuts that actually liked the VB, instead of taking every opportunity to diss it. Again, it has problems, but hindsight is 20/20 (of course, not being a headgear even at the time sent up a red flag in many people) Had Nintendo tried, this could have been the new gameboy, and they could have worried about the problems in a revision, or next gen version of the console anyways.

[AtticGamer]

I think the biggest failure for Nintendo was the virtual boy, it was simply too primitive even by 1995's standards, the black and red visuals didn't seem like a good graphic experience. I see it as a N64 prototype.

 

Many people don't care much about it but I think standard DVD discs being absent from the Gamecube made the system inferior to it's competitors because larger games couldn't fit in one disc and couldn't play movies, but at least the load times were faster.

And the online play, while not very important in the last generation, could have helped Nintendo a little bit but I understand them wanting to do a proper online service in a new system.

 

I think Nintendo sould be a little more open minded and listen to what people care about (not want). Being conservative hasn't helped them much, SEGA made fun of their censorship, first comer Microsoft sold more than them by having an excellent online service (not the only reason but a a significant part of its success).

Edited April 14, 2007 by Atari_kid

[Atari Master]

The virtual boy was Nintendo's biggest failure. This is followed by lackluster support for the Gamecube, being dicks to third parties (especially Squaresoft), and some others.

 

BUT, I do think Nintendo is turning around under the leadership of Satru Iwata. While he may be a great buisness man, he was also a developer for HAL labs, and (I believe) created Kirby, and worked on Earthbound.

 

I don't think the Wii's technology will hamper it much. If there is money to be made, developers will do whatever they possibly can to port their games over. This, and the fact that the Wii's support grows everyday.

 

The Wii has the momentum right now. In fact, it's momentum is a lot bigger than most system's I've ever seen. And if it keeps going like it is, it'll likely surpass the 360 before the year ends.