Japanese Nintendo files for N64 trademark...

[Flojomojo]

Oh snap, I forgot PILOTWINGS, which doesn't emulate perfectly, and isn't on all the re-re-re-release platforms. The 3DS version doesn't count, because it doesn't have TinyUSA!

[derFunkenstein]

It's quite possible, but rumors of an N64 Mini have been ongoing for some time. This is quite possibly the N64 Mini, although time will tell.

Rumor or just wishful thinking on the part of Nintendo fans? I would go with the latter.

[Pixelboy]

Rumor or just wishful thinking on the part of Nintendo fans? I would go with the latter.

I would expect Nintendo to give the original Game Boy the "Mini treatment" before they do the N64.

[ubersaurus]

The NES and SNES sold better than the N64 and have bigger followings and loads of third party games to choose from.

 

I don't know how much an N64 will resonate in comparison with those other two systems, especially when Rare games will probably not appear at all on the system.

N64 is a pretty hot system right now though - there's a lot of nostalgia for it from people born in the late 80s/early 90s. Nintendo would be foolish not to pursue a Mini console for that market alone.

 

Even without the Rare games there's plenty that could get on there though. Just based off of Nintendo's partnering with Konami and Capcom on the previous minis I could see:

 

Mario 64

Mario Kart

Mario Tennis

Mario Golf

Some kinda Mario Party

Paper Mario

Yoshi's Story

Kirby

Pilotwings

F-Zero X (maybe with DD64 track editor?)

Zelda Ocarina of Time (with master quest?)

Zelda Majora's Mask

Wave Race

Donkey Kong 64

Super Smash Bros

The two Goemon games

Mega Man Legends

Resident Evil 2

Sin and Punishment

Some Bomberman?

Pokemon Snap

Pokemon Puzzle League

Star Fox 64

1080 Snowboarding

 

Other potential 3rd party games, especially if they get into western developers:

Ogre Battle 64

Mischief Makers

Bangai O

Harvest Moon 64

Doom 64

San Francisco Rush

Rogue Squadron

Indiana Jones (hey, if they could get star wars, Disney owns it too)

 

 

And of course assuming Microsoft wants to play ball (and why not, free money) stuff like Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong racing all seem doable. Goldeneye would be worth unraveling the licensing web for, but if it didn't happen, eh. Still a real good lineup.

Edited May 23, 2018 by ubersaurus

[Tanooki]

Yes Star Fox 64 is improved on 3DS, have it, wouldn't give it up, same with the updates on the Zelda games though I only have or recognize the first of those.

 

Hard to argue against 9-10 of those 12 games on that fantasy DIY list there. I just wonder if they're just covering themselves or going to bother given the hard limitations of games the system had plus how many times licenses of that systems library has been bought and sold as it makes it hard. They'd be far wiser doing a GB one one year, a GBC another as you can easily squeeze 30+ games onto both for closed up fun portable gaming.

[AtticGamer]

I'd rather have portable NES and SNES, like what Atari did with the Flashback.

 

Not really excited for an N64 Mini. I got suckered into buying one back then because we came from the SNES, and I later bought a Gamecube to keep the tradition. Now that I know the PlayStation 1&2 libraries, I regret buying those two systems, had my share already .

Edited May 24, 2018 by AtticGamer

[Tanooki]

I'd never concede regretting the Cube because half it's life it did get ports unlike other Nintendo stuff post-SNES until Switch, and the non-ports but unique things were pretty high bar nice quality games. GC was the awesome supplemental system if you used a PC or PS2. N64 I'd give you as like the others, aged poorly fast as it was like a learning era which Sony partners mostly grasped better. I'd probably get the N64 depending on the game list, but I'd be disappointed they didn't do the almighty Game Boy line instead. The potential there for far much better stuff is very obvious.

[godslabrat]

I really can't accept the argument that the N64's library has been bought and re-sold to death. The NES ans SNES Classics have done gangbusters, and those games were old news when the orgininal N64 was rolling off the assembly lines. SMB is second only to Combat as the game that's been sold to everyone on earth, and if it can still move a mini console, so can the N64's library.

 

Even without the Rare and Star Wars games, I see the potential library as being worthwhile. The only game that will REALLY sting for not being included is, of course, Goldeneye. What I wonder is... how will they handle the four-player aspect of the system? Is it really worth including four N64 controllers? How much will that jack up the price?

[Tanooki]

Well thinking about it I can't see them releasing it under $100, they'd have to include 2 controllers as it was a party box, then they'd need to sell quite a few extras on the side so people can have it easy enough to get into 4player Mario Kart among others. I would imagine a system with 2 controllers and 20 games.

Excluding the obvious 1st party stuff you need to try and figure out what works after that. Midway did Doom and own the code to that, and Midway was gobbled by Warner Bros which is fine doing digital as they've been pandering the MK trilogy through ATGames on the Genesis. WB would also control the various other MIdway arcade conversions (Hydro Thunder, MKT or MK4, and Gauntlet being fair, R2R would fall victim to Michael Buffer licensing conflicts.)

 

Konami could pop out Mystical Ninja 1 and 2, also Castlevania Legacy of Darkness as they'd fit the existing pattern on SNES (JP/US.) Konami also owns Hudson now so expect at least either Bomberman Hero or Bomberman 64. Capcom didn't play nice with Nintendo then, but Mega Man 64 would be very acceptable while I think RE2 would get bypassed most likely. Tecmo which backed NES/SNES CE didn't do the N64 so that's a dead road. I don't know who owns the rights to what Acclaim put out in the day, but whoever does would open a lot of stuff up.

 

The wrestling games would be entirely out over licensing and deaths, just as Rare likely would due to MS ownership unless they decided to grow up and take a free royalty paycheck (doubtful) which would get you at least Banjo and Perfect Dark.

[Flojomojo]

The RARE games (minus Kong and 007) are on RARE REPLAY for Xbone and are worth your time if you liked them the first time around. I have no clue if they'd license them back, but anything seems possible.

 

I agree that a GameBoy remake seems more likely than N64.

 

I miss Virtual Console and wish it got regular releases.

[Flojomojo]

This guy rounds up all the issues we raised in one brief article: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/05/soapbox_why_a_nintendo_64_classic_edition_might_not_be_such_a_good_idea

[AtticGamer]

Talking about the controller...that's a major issue. The original N64 pad is enormous and would greatly increase the size of the box because it isn't flat like the NES and SNES ones especially if they put two or more. A smaller controller with a better analog stick would be a worthwhile compromise on accuracy.

 

Another thing that would be good is for the games to render at 480 lines like they did on Virtual Console, maybe even 720p, but purists may find issue with that.

[pacman000]

The basic tech needed for an N64 Mini's been around for over a decade: http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg00-ique.htm

 

Weird note: Apparently, the official iQue website is still up. Can you still buy them? http://www.ique.com/products/M_Player.htm

[Video]

Yeah, various game boy iterations would make more sense than n64. Various metroids, marios, zeldas, and if course all those pokemon games.

 

Not that id be against a 64, you haters can kiss my fat white dump deck.

[Flojomojo]

The basic tech needed for an N64 Mini's been around for over a decade: http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg00-ique.htm

 

Weird note: Apparently, the official iQue website is still up. Can you still buy them? http://www.ique.com/products/M_Player.htm

Is that the same thing that used to be in hotels? I've seen them in pay-by-the-hour setups (for the games, not the hotel room)

[icemanxp300]

I think there is a misconception about nes vs snes vs n64 in terms of sales. Does nes and snes have more games, absolutely. Does that mean in todays Market nes and snes are more desirable, not really. Here is the thing nes and snes are purchased to sit on shelves and collect dust, that's just a fact. N64 on the other hand have more people actually wanting to play it.

 

Whenever I get an N64 and decent games for sale they are gone instantly, meanwhile nes and snes sits around for awhile. All they need is to toss Mario party 1 2 3 on this thing and instant seller. Add in both Zelda's, DK64, Mario 64, and Smash Bros and you will have a hit. Then I can imagine you will see maybe F-Zero and a few other choice titles.

 

I hope they do maybe I can buy back my Mario parties I sold LOL. Maybe people will get lucky and see Worms Armageddon.... not likely though lol.

[omegadot]

On one hand I think the library might end up being weaker with some of the third party hits in licensing hell and a lot of that era's polygonal games didn't age very well. On the other hand it also would probably benefit the most from some modern up-scaling or whatever magic on a modern display and It was a fantastic local multiplayer machine. I passed on the first two because playing a lot of the SNES / NES games I like was already easy and looked fine. I could see myself pick this one up for the HDMI-ness of it all. I didn't love the N64 controller but I also didn't mind it so that's a non-issue for me.

[pacman000]

"Is that the same thing that used to be in hotels?"

 

No, not as far as I know. The iQue was an N64-on-a-chip built into a controller. Nintendo partnered with another company to make it for the Chineese market. It didn't use standard N64 carts; games were stored on flash cards which could be rewritten at kiosks. The 1st pic on that page is a kiosk, I think.

[Flojomojo]

I found a page with internal pictures of the LodgeNet setup. Looks like a somewhat consolidated N64 board. Agreed, different from iQue.

http://hexigon.blogspot.com/2011/10/very-rare-nintendo-64-lodgenet-system.html

 

I don't pretend to know the popularity of the N64 system Vs. NES or SNES other than Nintendo will sell as many as they make (And they will keep the numbers to themselves).

[Tanooki]

Yeah they're entirely different but a basic level of concept is there to cross over. That iQue was as pacman said, a China only device. Around that time China finally was relaxing at the communist government level enough to allow outside countries to begin to peddle officially their stuff inside their country. But given over a decade worth of outright spitting at copyright and theft with all those nice famiclone carts, consoles, etc Nintendo had paranoia to no end over it. They knew if they just did the hardware it would get ripped off hardcore anyway so it would be a waste. So they did the iQue instead building the n64 into the pad itself and allowed those re-writable closed format modules to throw the game onto and for a very very cheap price negating for many the value in buying bootlegs. In the end it didn't take off and from 2003-2006 only sold into the tens of thousands and bombed hard only having a dozen or so games out for it.

 

But if you think about it they condensed a N64 into something that fit into a N64 controller shell basically, just a little more xbox controller fat with a jack in back for the 64MB memory card for the games where the rumble/mempak would have gone in a stock N64 controller. With the fact people back shortly after the NES CE came out proved you could use an existing free android emulator and tweak certain settings on it manually to get it to run whatever N64 game you wanted in HDMI at 60fps. I don't remember how many videos were done but I know you could watch stuff like Mario 64 and Mario kart running very beautifully. So the existing board would be fine and they could even just borrow the iQue line up of games if they wanted to be extra lazy. It was all first party with 14 games, and the rest they could just line up with some third party titles and a couple swap outs since the US/EU never got Custom Robo or Animal Crossing on N64. The full list is at the bottom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQue_Player