25 years ago, Nintendo was at something of a crossroads. 1995 saw the company in a dominant position in its homeland, where the Super Famicom was still the most popular video game console with over 90 per cent of the domestic market. However, the launch of the 32-bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn at the conclusion of the previous year served as a reminder that the games industry is constantly evolving, and although Nintendo could count on titles like Donkey Kong Country and Seiken Densetsu 3 to shift units, its 16-bit powerhouse was coming to the end of its lifespan – not that NCL PR manager Hiroshi Imanishi would have admitted that back in '95.
One of the company's longest-served employees, Imanishi joined Nintendo from Doshisha University of Law and would prove instrumental in turning the firm into one of the world's biggest entertainment companies. He began his career with Nintendo in various admin, planning and finance roles before being assigned the task of creating a 'Games' department in 1969 after the breakthrough success of Gunpei Yokoi's iconic Ultra Hand, which sold over a million units and is credited with turning Nintendo from a playing card company to one more focused on innovative toys and gadgets. He was responsible for recruiting the likes of Yokoi, Genyo Takeda (who is credited as being Nintendo's first games designer) and Masayuki Uemura, the father of the Famicom.
Imanishi – who retired from the firm in 2002 – was seen as Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi's right-hand man and most trusted aide; he was intimately involved with Nintendo's draconian but ultimately successful licencing policies during the Famicom era and even masterminded the midnight launch of the Super Famicom in 1990 – an attempt to thwart Yakuza gangs intent on stealing stock before it reached stores.
Imanishi's name might not be as famous as that of Yamauchi and Shigeru Miyamoto, but his contribution to making Nintendo the company it is today cannot be understated – and, as head of the firm's PR machine, his word was taken very seriously in the '90s. A rare English-language interview with the Jason Brookes-era EDGE magazine in September 1995 reveals he was in a particularly bullish mood – something which could be said of Nintendo as a whole:
According to the mass media, the 32-bit war began last year in Japan... but in fact, there is no war at all. In Japan, the only platform to have more than 11 million units on the market is the Super Famicom. Forthcoming games such as Seiken Densetsu 3, which is going to be released in September, will surely achieve sales of more than two million cartridges. Donkey Kong Country had sold 2.6 million as of March, and Dragon Quest and a new Mario game [Yoshi's Island] are going to be released this year. This year, the Super Famicom market is unique.
When pressed on whether or not he considered Sega or Sony to be the more dangerous rival, Imanishi was dismissive:
You could say that because 64 is bigger than 32, the Ultra 64 will have no rival hardware! [Laughs.] In Japan, with 90 per cent of the current market, Nintendo does not have any rivals. At any rate, Nintendo does not have any rivals for the hardware, but as far as software is concerned, our rivals are the licensees.
He also dismissed CD-ROM out of hand, stating that it's "not the future", but interestingly, he cannily predicted the arrival of games like Minecraft, Roblox and Super Mario Maker many years ahead of time:
In the future we would like to see gameworlds being created not just by programmers. The player should be able to determine his own setting and participate in the world creation. It will be more than interactive!
In so many ways, Imanishi is indicative of the hubris that seemed to permeate all the way through Nintendo in the middle of the '90s; the company stuck with cartridges despite clear evidence that optical media was the way forward, and it even decided to launch its N64 console with minimal third-party support (as Imanishi says during the EDGE interview, "Nintendo won't be inviting third-parties to produce games. First we have to prove the Ultra 64's capabilities with in-house software"). The company was also about to launch the Virtual Boy, arguably the firm's biggest hardware flop.
Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to pick holes in Nintendo's strategy, and history certainly seems to suggest it fumbled its chances of winning the console war of the late '90s. The Sony PlayStation sold 102.49 million units globally while the N64 could only muster 32.93 million – still better than Sega's Saturn (less than 10 million) but a far cry from the glory days of the NES (61.91 million) and SNES (49.10 million).
Nintendo has, of course, seen its fortunes rise, fall and rise again since the days of the N64, and it's currently enjoying a period of particularly sustained success with Switch. One would imagine that having weathered the storms of the N64, GameCube and Wii U, Nintendo is smart enough to make the next hardware transition with a little more humility and wisdom than it did back in 1995 – but again, hindsight is everything, and the video game industry is anything but predictable.
Just ask Hiroshi Imanishi.
Comments 144
1990's were the best decade ever for gaming.
I also lived 80'of s gaming, but 1990's had huge upgrades every year on hardware and game tech. Stagnated after 2000.
Consoles today is just way more powerful GameCube/Dreamcast consoles.
Last ever console with a WOW factor for me were Dreamcast in 1998 during prime time of N64.
I mean, we've come full circle and we are back to cartridges, nobody even wants to use disk anymore soo...
@Kalmaro Even SSD kinda works like carts. Next-Gen consoles even have swappable NVMe.
@Ventilator It turns out Nintendo was right to use cartridges on the N64 all along!
I grew up by PlayStation games when i was Junior High School grade 9 student on year 1998.
The first PlayStation game i played was Magical Drop III. Even my Mom likes to play that puzzle game used to be.
And if i compare between N64 and PS1, I still choose PS1 over than N64 for DDR 3rd Mix (The BEST DDR on PlayStation 1 and my DDR mentor), Final Fantasy 8 & 9, Final Fantasy Tactics, Bishi Bashi Special, Chocobo Racing, Chocobo Mystery Dungeon 2, Punky Skunk, etc.
"Nintendo Was Arrogant"
Was or is?
Nintendo have always done things their way and it often feels like they pay zero attention to others as they follow their path. This is both frustrating and admirable at the same time imo.
They did totally underestimate the impact CD Roms had on gaming though...
It's an interesting one. Nintendo's insistence on cartridges was from the designers like Miyamoto who didn't want loading times (they also, rightly, thought anything with moving parts was likely to break down in the longer term). So in that way they've been proven right in terms of gamers' preferences, but I wouldn't necessarily give them credit by saying they forsaw SSDs or even the mass use of HDDs in gaming 30 years out.
@Ventilator Yeah each generation was a huge upgrade and each platform was distinctive with it's style of graphics.
NOTE FOR NINTENDO LIFE: You should do an article on what Nvidia's recent press release of the RTX3000 series might mean for the next Switch? They are getting a lot of praise with it's performance / price and couldn't help but wonder what they could have in store for the Switch 2.
@BlueOcean "Is" I would say. Not as bad as before but they do have a habit of doing things the Nintendo way.
Who knows where the industry would be now if Nintendo and Sony never had a fall out?! I like to think things are better now for it as Nintendo could've continued their dominance if not for the fall out.
@Judgedean By now, Nintendo is in an almost "too good to be true" position with Nvidia on their side.
The Switch 2 is gonna be bonkers in 2023 (I guess).
@Judgedean The RTX3000 will sadly have very little impact on the 'next Switch' as Switch is based on Tegra mobile chips and not PC graphics cards. Of course, the fact that Nvidia is leading the next-gen charge when it comes to graphics cards is great news for Nintendo's relationship with them, but I wouldn't hold your breath for RTX3000-like performance on any portable system for a good while yet.
1995 Nintendo also gave me an unwanted neck rub while I was using a urinal in a Shibuya nightclub
For me the GBA and DS were the Everest of the Nintendo.
I love those consoles so much!
Great read - really enjoyed it. The business practices of Nintendo in the 80's and 90's were very draconian in their approach and it worked well but really did foster a lot of bad will in the industry. In a lot of ways, you create that which destroys you. Still very different times.
To be honest, I am quite glad that Sony came with the PS1 because I would credit Sony more than any other company for changing the perception and demographic of gaming
@BlueOcean Is. Not as bad as they were before, but they still barely listen to fans anymore. Seeing a company slowly get better instead of getting worse is rare.
Sony are a bunch of backstabbers.
@Ventilator
Incredible to think we went from SNES to PS1/Saturn/N64 to Dreamcast in less than a decade.
At the same time, arcade and PC technology was constantly evolving.
What a time for the industry.
@BlueOcean Always arrogant, except for only during Wii U period.
Wii U is the only time ever Nintendo weren't greedy, sloppy etc.
@RushDawg Yes. SNES to Dreamcast in 7 years. Now thats what you call quick evolving in hardware and gaming.
SNES to Saturn too. Back then Arcade machines were always ahead of anything.
I had Amiga, PC, and consoles in 90's so i didn't miss out out.
@BulkSlash They were, because they skipped CD as it were too slow at loading.
PS1 loading were extremly slow because of CD.
@BlueOcean They do seem to be becoming arrogant once again unfortunately 🙁
@Ventilator Agree, some of Nintendo's best sortware output and basic value to the consumer were produced over the Wii U period...
@Judgedean Good point as GPU's were so different back then that same games didn't look the same on systems with similar specs.
As for Switch.. Tegra inside came on the market in 2015, and almost aged before Switch were even launched.
NVIDIA stopped making handhelds after K1, so is guess all focus is on Nintendo now on portable as it were big money for them already first year.
For years, I questioned Nintendo's decision to stick with the cartridge format but, looking back, I think they did the right thing. Could you imagine playing Mario 64 with the load times that were common in that era? How long has it been since you have played games from the era on the original hardware? The load times were absolutely awful. Also, even though most of the games from that era have aged like crap, N64 games still look clean compared to games on the Playstation.
@BlueOcean I'd say was, because now, they're at least willing to work with former and current rivals (Sega and Microsoft, respectively). In the case of the latter, we now have cross-platform gameplay for certain games.
Sony, on the other hand, I'd say is arrogant, because of their refusal to work with the other companies and adopt cross-platform gameplay, only doing so after significant backlash.
@BANJO Yep. Nintendo didn't use fixed 50/60 bucks tag on Wii U games. Games like Captain Toad, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong TF and others were sold at a lower price. These old ports is sold for 60 on Switch...Wii U were also bundled with a game. Nintendo Land.
Wii U console itself supported cheap PC HDD's for games, Backup to SD, Supported cheap generic LAN Cards, Backwards with Wii hardware and games and more.
Wii U itself had way more features and programs than Switch will ever have.
I think Wii U were perhaps their most wallet friendly console ever.
@AstroTheGamosian I agree with that but...
@BANJO ...I also think that they're becoming arrogant again because of Switch's success with this weird stratagems (Super Mario 3D All-Stars availability), overpriced Wii U ports with no cross-buy option, no Wii U controller support, no free save backup, etc. They're squeezing long-term fans dry. @Ventilator Wii U was very consumer-friendly, indeed.
@Apportal I agree, it's rare to see a company getting worse like this and disrespecting their fans so much.
1995 is Yoshi island . No more needs to be said. I didn’t play it til 2012 mind, but still xxxxxx
You mean they aren't, now? Nintendo has always had a huge ego. Just look at how they price their merchandise and old games; Nothing has changed.
@BlueOcean @Ventilator Wii U was certainly consumer friendly..
As you say they are now squeezing long-term fans dry...
This recent article seems to sum alot of it up..
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techradar.com/amp/news/nintendo-switch-continues-to-be-a-slap-in-the-face-to-all-wii-u-owners
@BulkSlash Had they chosen the CD format, the N64 library would be much richer and they would have been able to do a lot more with it, some of the DD software would have certainly got a release outside of Japan as they coukd have used CDs instead.
Nintendo sticking to cartridges meant Sony could eclipse them in that generation and that began people only buying Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games. The Gamecube would have benefited too if it was able to play N64 discs!
Every gaming company is guilty of what Nintendo thought in the 90s. Sony did it with the PS3, Microsoft did it with the Xbox One. These companies just get a good thing and they think they are untouchable when they are not.
@BANJO "Is that a new Nintendo Switch game on the horizon? Nope, it's just another Wii U port".
LOL
"I was now left with the choice to stump up full price to experience déjà vu, or have nothing to play. It’s about time Nintendo starts catering to those who backed it when no one else would". This sums it up.
How the world would've been if Nintendo and Sony actually went through with releasing the PlayStation. Nintendo in the mid-late 90s was basically them just touching themselves with vanity after they secured complete control over the games industry. The PlayStation doing as well as it did in addition to the N64 losing out on major titles like FFVII-IX, Metal Gear Solid, Mega Man X4-6 and especially the mainline Persona games after MegaTen had been firmly established as a marquee Nintendo third party exclusive give or take a few odd titles, really worked as a way to snap them back to the harsh reality of things. They got way too over their heads at this time.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and I can now look back and say that even though PS1 had some great RPGs, Nintendo was moving gaming forward in ways I didn't realize. From the rumble attachment, the first great analog joystick on the N64, to Z targeting. They may not be #1 anymore but they are in my book and I have had hot takes with them in the past only to be proven wrong. I don't doubt their direction anymore as they now just do what they like and make great and fun games. I know now that my future will always have a Nintendo console in it.
1995 was when these masterpieces came out for Super NES, the Sega 32X and 3DO never stood a chance.
The N64 wasn't that important to me until Ocarina of Time came out so these were the prime games for me at the time. Nintendo also made the right choice not to use disc as games like Super Mario 64, F-Zero X, Star Fox 64, and Ocarina of Time wouldn't had run smooth using it.
As my first console was the Atari 2600, I remember when the NES came out...it was incredible! I got my parents to finally get one, and I loved everything about it...it was a major step up in graphics and had so much support from other companies, the games were pouring out. Next generation, I fell in love with Sonic for it's speed and graphics, purchasing the Genesis (my cousin had the Super NES, so we were able to flip back and forth). I loved the genesis better, but the sound on the Super was excellent. Next consoles, I got the Nintendo 64 after falling in love with Mario Golf...however, I ended up loving the Dreamcast more (granted it became very short lived). Wasn't a fan of Playstation at the time. Next...definitely went with Gamecube and still my favorite of that generation. Got a Playstation 2 and started to love some of their games, but still went with gamecube. Then, the next ones...sorry to say, I bought the Wii first, but it got old rather quickly, so on came the Playstation 3. Sorry, fell in love with the PS3 more...same went with the current, PS4 all the way with the Switch in second place. Also had the various X-boxes and the Wii U and handhelds too.
I really hope nintendo doesn't let the Switch's success go to their heads and just release a new one thinking that everyone will flock to it (like their strategy on the Wii U). Hopefully, they pack the power into it, giving everyone a chance to play everything, and FINALLY PUT THEMES ON IT!!!! Other than that, every company had their bad moments. Sony messed up with the Vita, Playstation TV and the PS3's launch (until they lowered the cost). Microsoft messed up completely with the XBONE, Atari had plenty, Sega had plenty of mistakes and nintendo has had theirs. For right now, I'd say it's Nintendo and Sony going head to head for domination, with nintendo winning due to other items (toys, etc). I love both companies, but anymore, it seems I wait on both. Both have excellent IP's, but nintendo can hopefully start making new IP's and start bringing back many of their classics from the NES era. I was always awaiting an updated Duck Hunt game for the Wii (would have been a perfect console for it) and for some reason, always awaiting an updated Ice Climber. Here's to seeing what nintendo has in store for the next console, and I'm sure it's being manufactured and kept hidden...Switch is going to look outdated when the PS5 and Series Next comes out, and they're going to have to up their game plan. The Wii U proved that they cannot just release a console with just their own IP's.
@Averagewriter While I do agree that Nintendo has let up a bit, I’m afraid the old dinosaurs at Nintendo haven’t changed. Case in point being Miyamoto’s lack of open-mindedness
Nintendo has never been arrogant. Always humble in the direct and public appearances. What is it that people have to make up things and talk crap about others these days with just "because someone said so" as a reason?
@datamonkey CD Rom was still very slow and the tech to run it was still very weak at the time. Had Nintendo use it Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 would be loaded with load times and required tons of data spread across multiple disc. Not only that since Nintendo doesn't own the disc format they'll lose money on every disc manufactured so a no for them at the time make sense. For GameCube it make sense for them to finally embrace disc as DVD and next-gen tech made the disc at least more reliable.
@Cia "Nintendo has never been arrogant"
Yes, the same company that decided to backhand Sony at the very last minute, go behind their backs and team up with Philips, causing Sony to retaliate by releasing the PlayStation, and causing Nintendo to lose out on the biggest third party exclusives of the 5th console generation. The same company that were petty in regards to how they viewed the benefits of switching to game discs as a media format, causing the N64 to lose out on pretty much every large scale RPG title on the N64. The same company that literally just recently decided to sell a full priced collection of games at a limited quantity, causing it to become a scalper's wet dream only a day or two later due to how valuable the game was. Absolutely humble indeed.
Yep, Nintendo are right back at this same point. I seem to enjoy their experimental wackiness more than the safe, by the numbers entries they’ve been putting out recently. They’ve become yet another corporate entity instead of being the toy company we all know and love.
@TheFrenchiestFry
It was just a bad business decision. How is that arrogant? And why is it always that same story people use as an example when they want to talk crap about the company? Was it the only "bad" thing they ever did?
@Ventilator Despite loving the 1990’s I’d still have to say the 2000’s.
We went into the new Millennium with the Dreamcast blazing a trail with Phantasy Star Online and then we got the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube a year later. 2005 saw the launch of the DS and PSP, redefining portable entertainment. 2005 also saw the Xbox 360 ushering in HD gaming.
The Wii in 2006 saw gaming accepted firmly as a hobby for all generations.
2008 saw the launch of the App Store for iOS devices and with it a whole new market of curious indie titles.
By January 2010 gaming had gone from finding its feet into a medium anyone could enjoy with a plethora of devices to suit all tastes.
@Cia "It was a bad business decision"
A business decision that again, stemmed from how arrogant and full of themselves the company was once they secured complete control over the games industry with the Super NES' success. Keep in mind this is also the same company that's done stuff like forcing third party publishers and developers to sign complicated contracts that actively limited their games from going to other platforms
@TheFrenchiestFry Persona wasn't even a mainline title, it was a spinoff that happens to keep going just like the Mana series, same goes for Metal Gear Solid, it's a spinoff series of the Metal Gear series that just happens to keep going. Nintendo did the same for Metroid Prime. Konami could always make a Metal Gear 3 and retcon the entire series if they want, same for Atlus. Nintendo backing out of the deal was for their own good though, after all once they use Sony's format for their games it would be Sony receiving royalty from it and not Nintendo.
@Averagewriter
I wonder how Nintendo was the underdog despite Wii selling so well back then. People's perceptions must've been twisted somehow...
@TheFrenchiestFry
Other publishers do the same with some game series, so why is it a problem only when it's Nintendo?
N64 is my favorite system, but the cartridges were a dumb move. They should have made the system accept minidiscs or something. I will say I do think the n64 cartridges are the most aesthetic.
@Retro_Player_77 Metal Gear Solid isn't a spinoff of Metal Gear. It's a proper continuation of the story set up in Metal Gear and MG2: Solid Snake that happened to be under its own moniker entirely. It can basically be considered Metal Gear 3 with how the MSX games and the first Solid game are connected in terms of plot.
@nessisonett So Labo, Nintendo Amiibos, Mario Kart Live, and Ring Fit Adventure doesn't exist?
@Cia Yeah other game publishers do it now, but don't act like Nintendo was exempt from any of this. They have been shown to be just as arrogant and manipulative as a company as much as Microsoft in the 7th generation or Sony in the 8th generation. Nintendo is far from a humble company whatsoever. Nintendo practically fully encouraged all these practices that their competitors would follow suit with.
@Averagewriter Like I said because it's under a different name Konami could always make another sequel and retconned the entire Metal Gear Solid series (even if originally Kojima plan them all as sequels to Metal Gear 2). After all it really depends on if Konami would continue with the main name or the spinoff name.
@TheFrenchiestFry It could be retconned, even if Kojima plan it as a continuation a proper Metal Gear 3 would continue way after it like none of that ever existed.
@Retro_Player_77 I’m not talking about overpriced garbage loved by scalpers. Amiibo and Labo are the most obvious business oriented products released by Nintendo to date, designed to make as much money as possible from unsuspecting parents. Wii Music might be a mess but there’s heart and soul put into it at the same price as normal games. Mario Kart is £100 without a cartridge and with one kart. It’s all about the bottom dollar now.
@Averagewriter I'm correct and we already seen such a franchise does this already. Brave Default II is a continuation of the orignal Bravely Default despite Bravely Second's existence. It could happen to Metal Gear just that Konami hadn't made it happen yet.
@nessisonett Overpriced garbage are the toys you know and love, you just don't want to admit it.
@TheFrenchiestFry
At least you admit the other big names have not been flawless either.
@Retro_Player_77 The reason it was titled Solid was likely due to the fact that the MSX games at that point never recieved international releases, and the NES versions of those games weren't part of the story Kojima wanted to develop. Solid is the proper continuation that acts like Metal Gear NES and Snake's Revenge never happened, only adding onto the MSX games. Literally every title excluding Survive are developing off of that main story, so no, Solid is literally just a moniker but they're all part of the same story and was never meant to be a spinoff.
@TheFrenchiestFry if Persona was on Nintendo, we would never have gotten it in the west.
@TheFrenchiestFry @Averagewriter It was the third and main series according only to that era up til Guns of the Patriot but like all good series it could be retconned meaning things could change and a new main series could continue thus keeping the Metal Gear name without the Solid. It could star a new protagonist and even a new story. Long story short Konami could always make a Metal Gear 3 without newer fans having to revisit the MGS series. They could even remake Metal Gear 1 & 2 and make a new MG3 after it.
@Retro_Player_77 Yep you caught me. I’m just lying in order to have some sort of mental breakdown. It’s almost as if we’re allowed to have opinions. You can’t compare Labo and Amiibo to the Balance Board or Wii Music, Amiibo even went into gatcha nonsense with the cards. Wii had experiments with the tech, Switch has 1-2 Switch and Ring Fit. Ring Fit is the only decent experiment we’ve seen this gen from Nintendo.
@JLPick Wow, your gaming history sounds exactly like mine. Nice to meet someone who also started playing on the Atari 2600. Except for Dreamcast adoption. I was so burnt out on watching the Saturn, Sega CD, and 32X flop that I stupidly passed on it. I'm trying to make up for lost time by playing a lot of the rereleases.
@Retro_Player_77 No? The story is done. It doesn't need to be rebooted. Metal Gear Solid is literally Metal Gear 3 in everything but name. Everything from MG-MGSV in addition to the portable entries like Peace Walker and Portable Ops make one major continuity. It doesn't need to be redone just so the title can be different. People who've followed Metal Gear for as long as the Kojima-produced entries have been around know that the Solid games just carry that moniker, but they're all not spinoffs in the slightest. If Solid was a spinoff, then why would games like Snake Eater, Phantom Pain, Portable Ops and Peace Walker basically serve as prequels to Metal Gear on the MSX, and better yet why would these spinoffs have the literal exact same gameplay as the MSX entries? The only games in the series that are actual spinoffs are Acid, Ghost Babel, Rising and Survive. Metal Gear Solid is part of main Metal Gear.
@Trajan That is true. We still have yet to recieve proper console versions of SMT I and II in the West so in a sense PlayStation actually did the West a major solid in that regard. They even brought mainline over with Nocturne on PS2.
@Averagewriter Kyyuaku Megami Tensei and Majin Tensei are the series I really want to see properly translated and localized. That also includes the Saturn title Ronde. I'd also love to see the original Devil Summoner finally get an English translation since Soul Hackers got the worldwide release treatment on 3DS. It'd also be nice if Eternal Punishment PSP got a PS4/PS5 localization for once.
Nintendo makes the WORST decisions when it is arrogant.
I think it's a little much to say Nintendo are "mistreating" Wii U owners by continuing to port its games to the Switch. While I agree that the full $60 price point for some of these rereleases is neither here nor there, it is imperative that they bring their Wii U titles to the Switch, as only 13.5 million consumers ever actually had the opportunity to play these games on the Wii U (compared to the Switch's 61.44+ million). I have been a lifelong Zelda fan, and the GameCube Zelda titles are some of my favorites, and I still have yet to play either of their HD remasters because they were only released on the Wii U (for reference, Wind Waker HD released seven years ago, Twilight Princess HD released four years ago; that is nearly a decade in which a Zelda fan hasn't spent $120 on products they want to purchase. If anything, they aren't porting their Wii U titles fast enough). I agree that certain ports shouldn't be full price, Pikmin 3 Deluxe stands out as a title more appropriately-priced at $49.99 for example, but there is great value in many of the games they produced for the Wii U, and many of these games are new to many Switch players. It's hard to say that the Switch doesn't offer enough value to Wii U owners, it's not like the Wii U ports are the only games on this system.
@Retro_Player_77 yes but CD Rom enabled Sony just to walk into the market and grab Nintendo’s lead. It had added benefits over cartridge for example storage enabling CGI cut scenes etc to fit on disc.
If Nintendo had taken that route, yes loading times would have been longer but Mario, Goldeneye and Zelda etc would have easily fit on one CD due to the low res textures and assets of the N64. The file sizes are actually very small and most are under 64Mb!
@datamonkey most were under 32mb.
Yeah I’d love to see n64 games without that size limit. Perhaps some of those mods we see for emulators. I don’t have an ever drive, but I wonder if they would work on actual hardware.
I sensed Nintendo's arrogance even back then when I lived through that era. When I saw Sony and Sega going with discs and Nintendo sticking with carts, I was like 'what are they doing?' Hence while my friends had N64s, I never wanted one, and I was content with enjoying the very few good games on that system over their houses. I kind of saw the writing on the wall when my favorite game series at the time, Final Fantasy, migrated from Nintendo to Sony. That's what made me get a PlayStation and while I continue to support Nintendo to this day, I became much more cautious of blindly picking up everything they put out.
And now I shed a few nostalgia tears because I loved the hell out of my Sega Saturn too.
Nintendo have always been prone to Corporate Arrogance.
Bullying third parties during the NES days and trying to do the same during the early SNES era. Cartridges in the N64, misreading the imminent success of Discs. The constant bad treatment of anywhere that wasn’t Japan or the USA.
Iwata disastrously dismissing Online gaming. Region locking the Wii/Wii U/3DS when other Platform Holders were going region free. 2010-12 with Xenoblade/the 3DS launch/the Wii U launch.
They’ll probably do it again now Bryce had another success. Their refusal to provide a half decent Online service and the cretinous ‘limited run’ BS with Mario All Stars are bad signs.
That said, every Platform Holder is susceptible to it when they do well. Atari, Sega, Sony (the PSP/PS3 early periods and the dismissal of Cross Play), Microsoft (the Xbox One launch being one of the worst examples of virulent Corporate Arrogance). It seems to be an unavoidable fact of Games Industry life.
@Menardi
“ I think it's a little much to say Nintendo are "mistreating" Wii U owners by continuing to port its games to the Switch”
Totally agree. It’s absolutely baffling. I own both and I don’t feel slighted when they port Wii U games to the Switch. I’m just not that precious I suppose.
@nessisonett
“ It’s all about the bottom dollar now.”
It always has been. They exist to make money. They’re very good at it.
@electrolite77 Things like Wii Music will always be more interesting than Amiibo card lootboxes. There are ways to make money through being interesting.
@nessisonett
I thought both them things were awful 😀
Well I never bought any Amiibo cards but you know what I mean
@BANJO Ah yes, this article sums it up when Nintendo released much more new games than Wii U ports. Amazing.
The Snes was and still is a powerhouse in my eyes. In some ways there arrogance was justified, just such an amazing period of gaming, that was the 16 Bit era:)
As they say pride comes before the fall, and Nintendo was too proud of themselves to consider Sony real competition.
I really hope Nintendo is going to begin investing in AI. DLSS 2.0 is the tip of the iceberg of what AI can do in video gaming. AI crunching billions of data points to generate assets for pennies on the processing dollar is the future of technology, and Nintendo could continue getting away with "weaker" hardware if they invest in AI chips and technology to upscale their engines and generate assets on the fly. Their collaboration with Nvidia would be perfect for this, and perhaps they already could be co-engineering custom chipsets for AI integration for the next generation.
Think the games industry as a whole can be arrogant many a time tbh with you.
@Judgedean @Damo
The Ampere architecture, DLSS, and GPUDirect all seem like technologies that could be integrated into the Switch 2 provided that it releases in 2023 or later when those technologies have matured and cheapened.
But don't expect it to have 10-30 TFLOPs of native GPU compute performance or a desktop CPU.
The N64 was a fun console, but I always rate it lower on the list of consoles. I don't revisit it often and I find the NES and SNES more fun to replay. The library was small and it hasn't aged well at all. The decision to backstab Sony and stick with cartridges hurt Nintendo for decades. They lost both FF VII and Metal Gear Solid for the N64 with these bad decisions. In fact, you could even make the argument that the Switch is the first console since the SNES where third party support has actually been pretty solid (still behind PS4 and XBox) and I think when it's over it will be up there with NES and SNES as the best consoles ever for the company.
He had just seen the psx come out and what CD audio could sell on the Sega CD even with trash graphics. They were scared and trying not to show it as they had thrown Sony out the door.
@Retro_Player_77 earthworm Jim 2 had a higher resolution on genesis and came out with CD audio on Saturn. The earthworm Jim games were always geared toward Sega with the first ones best edition being on Sega CD.
@LEGEND_MARIOID Yeah that's for sure, and we are definitely still seeing the effects of that to this day. I mean take a look at the "live services" schemes and the way 2K is trying to charge an extra $10 for their next gen games. Arrogance is always a thing in this industry.
You know the proverb: pride comes before a fall
@BlueOcean Well the N64 and Gamecube while not flops, were not that succesfull and the WiiU was a massive flop so while their Handheld game remained strong dispite being opposed by Sony's efforts and mobile gaming, they still dominated the mainstream market in that regard.
They do have some reason to be proud, a 35 year legacy this strong always comes with some (deserved) hubris.
@kingbk Gamecube had good 3rd party support as well. They had cross platform games like NFSU games, PoP, and a lot of Capcom games but they did lost out on FF and most MGS titles.
Nintendo might at times act like a corporation because maybe... they are a corporation?
Also, as a Wii U owner, I really don't care that they are porting these games over to the Switch. Only 13.5 million bought a Wii U and 62 million (likely more) have bought a Switch, so you have about 50 million Switch owners who are playing these for the first time. I like these games, but not enough to double dip, and my Wii U is still hooked up, so I can play them that way if I care to.
The amount of whining sometimes by people is a bit much.
The CD thing in the 90s.....yeah they could make games bigger, for cheaper....but I never owned a 32-bit machine because of the CD media. My friends had Playstations and I hated the slow load times.
Nice just forget about the portable market....
@Ventilator agree that Dreamcast was the last one with the WOW factor. It was the first one where an NFL game looked JUST LIKE THE ONE ON TV! Looking back now, it didn't, but it blew me away. I worked at Toys R Us when it came out, and played it every time I got.
I love playing my switch now, and had the Wii U as well, and both were cool and unique, but Dreamcast blew me away being online, having VMU, and the biggest graphical leap since I started playing in '83.
Here's a oxymoron reviews if I have to say so:
the company stuck with cartridges despite clear evidence that optical media was the way forward
The Clear evidence is Streaming assuming you have a good internet and can afford the internet. Optical media wasn't the way forward it was SSD/HDD and USB media that was the way forward. Nintendo sticking to Carts - benefit was Access/Load time and Space saving something OP can never do.
@khululy They should be proud of some of their games but not of the way they treat loyal fans. The problem with Nintendo is their attitude.
Not only some Nintendo games are awesome but they have also innovated in the past, especially the controllers: D-pad, LR bumpers, stick, rumble...
@BANJO Great article and a great stab at Nintendo. It's also all true that Nintendo keeps punishing Wii U owners.
@SoIDecidedTo That NFL Game on Dreamcast used to be highest rated game ever on average for any system. Soul Calibur 1 were equally high rated. Kinda funny that gfx in Soul Calibur 6 isn't much better than SC 1, and have far less content and modes vs SC 1.
Consoles stopped evolving much after Dreamcast. If you upgrade textures and resolution on Dreamcast games, you basically have today's games. Can't say the same for N64 which still had some games with filled vector gfx.
Another thing with Dreamcast is that it were a powerful arcade machine for home usage. It weren't much less than the best arcades.
Nintendo were right and wrong then. They were right that CD was simply a storage medium and added nothing in performance to a game. It was wrong that buyers cared about that so much, as CD was seen as futuristic whereas were Nintendo stuck in the past with cartridges. On a secondary level, Nintendo were worried about piracy, which was again both being right and wrong. While piracy was rampant with PS games, it didn't really hit Sony's profit line that much. That's because of the false assumption is a pirated game is a sale lost. In truth, most people that pirate games would never have bought them in the first place, and most mainstream consumers still bought in a store.
@RadioHedgeFund
I think 2000's is mostly recycling what were made in 1980's and 90's, and is why i never liked 2000's as much for gaming as there is mostly been there, done that games. I also played in 1980's on Commodore 64, Oric, NES, Amiga, VIC-20, C128, Game & Watch, Arcade etc. Didn't help that Simulators and advanced games etc. died out because of the casual market.
Great with a bigger gaming market, but it came at a cost. Less innovation, more sequels and recycling.
Let's hope Flight Simulator 2020 resurrects the AAA simulator market.
Tecnically CD32 from 1993 were the first console ever to be on internet in 1995. CD32 were also the first ever console with a modern OS. A big step up from CDTV. CD32 could also play multiplayer games over phone. Also supported keyboard and mouse like CDTV.
CDTV from 1991 were the first ever CD and HDD consoles. CDTV were years ahead of it's time. CDTV console also had full multitasking OS.
I were the first on the planet to start the CD32 scene in year 2000 btw. I shocked people worldwide when i made the first ever homemade CD's for it and could have over 100 games on one CD.
Atari Lynx from 1989 were by far the most impressive handheld ever made. It had 3D games and the power of home computers in a handheld. Nothing is even close to Lynx. It had the biggest leap ever in handheld gaming already in 1989. I still have my Lynx on shelve here.
Nintendo refused to publish Atari Lynx, and released Gameboy 1990 instead.
Another thing. Atari Lynx with all it's power had same battery time in 1989 as Nintendo Switch in 2017.
Then in 2003 came Nokia N-Gage handheld. First portable ever to run Half-Life, Quake, Doom, Counter Strike, Strike +++
First handheld ever to work online with ADSL too. N-Gage also had 1000's of apps because of the big homebrew scene.
I think PS2 made gaming more accepted. If you played games in 1980's and 90's you were automatically a nerd. lol
Wii took another step as it were installed on retirement homes, so 90 year old people started gaming too.
Some retirement homes today have expensive gaming rigs with gaming PC, VR, Racing seats etc.
2008 saw the launch of the App Store for iOS devices and with it a whole new market of curious indie titles.
App store in 2008 wasn't anything special, because Windows phones and Symbian phones had stores years before Apple had it. Apple were just late in the game. Nokia and HTC (QTEC) pawed the way for apps on phones. Palm Pilot pawed the way for tablets and smart phones.
2010 Sure were the time when phone gaming became a big thing, but also became a true pocket PC.
Kinda funny that phones today now have the power of PS4 and Xbox one.
I wonder how long it will take for phones to catch up on PS5 and XB SX.
In 2-3 more years, you can probably emulate Nintendo Switch on a phone.
Phones could already emulate Wii for years at full speed.
"In the future we would like to see gameworlds being created not just by programmers. The player should be able to determine his own setting and participate in the world creation. It will be more than interactive!"
Already existed for over 20 years on PC.
As kid we predicted that nintendo will lose the console war because it lacks cd-rom.
But i always understood why nintendo never choosed cd-rom. The CDI flopped, same as 3do, and amiga cdtv.
But they never looked at the rising gaming pc market.
Still say, that if they made the n64 cd based, and its architecture ofcourse, took 3th party serious it would have become nintendo's bigest succes.
@RadioHedgeFund Don't forget that the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii ushered in the online gaming revolution.
Sega destroyed the Saturn's chances probably more than anyone else did but I'd still argue it has a far better library of games than the N64, which has some true greats but very few top quality titles. The reality is Sony came along and stole everyone's lunch money, with Nintendo holding firm on the back of their strong ip's whilst Sega largely ignored their own for some strange reason.
Overall the 90's were the best time for gaming
@Ventilator loading isnt that bad and not to slow.age of calamity takes longer to load then most ps1 games
@Ventilator
The Wii is just a Gamecube? The Switch?
I'd argue yeah, we've just been increasing specs and not play styles when it comes to MS and Sony, but Nintendo has been innovating different ways of playing games and while the Wii was just a GameCube inside, it was what was on the outside (the Wiimote) that counted. And similarly, it's the Switch's versatility that has changed console gaming.
Arrogance mode still activated regarding joy cons!
@andyg1412 the joy cons are an absolute joke and the fact that Nintendo has done nothing about it is a disgrace. I've been fairly lucky in this regard but a friend has 3 sets that he's sent of for repair and I tried my nephews Switch recently and it was basically unplayable after 6 months from new
@carlos82 1990's sure were the best time and had most innovation in gaming ever in every way.
Consoles from 1990 vs Dreamcast 1998 were like a leap from Earth to Mars.
Fantastic article @Damo! Thankful for the reposting as I missed it the first time.
Its funny to read about Nintendo's arrogance in 1995. They surely didn't feel Sega was a threat because of Sega's missteps with the Sega CD and, especially, with the 32X leading into a bad launch of the Saturn.
But I wonder how honestly blindsided they were with the PlayStation.
@Ventilator exactly, new console launches back then were exciting and had brand new and much better looking games and even completely new gameplay mechanics and ideas. Whereas with the PS5 it basically looked the same (and most were the same) as PS4 Pro, just at a higher framerate and the most excitement I had was seeing if the Amazon driver left it in its box and if it would turn on from rest mode
@carlos82 Yeah. Exciting times every year back then.
And there is the 3DFX Voodoo card for PC which were a huge leap.
First VR headsets came in early 1990's, and for home use around 1996/7 for PC and Amiga.
First VR headset ran on dual Amiga 3000 i think. Amiga had worlds first motion control in 1985.
Amiga were also legendary because of high-end CGI in Babylon 5 TV Series among other things.
Dreamcast were the last console ever with a WOW factor as it came during N64 prime time. A huge leap over N64.
Everything since 1998 is basically a Dreamcast with better hardware and higher resolution.
Nothing exciting happened on console hardware since Dreamcast.
The standout consoles since 1998 were basically Wii U, Switch and Wii which did something extra.
Xbox and PS were only hardware upgrades mostly with nothing special added.
@BlueOcean
I wouldn’t exactly say Wii U was very consumer friendly. They were charging upgrade fees for VC games for those who bought the same games on the Wii and forcing them to move all the Wii VC games to Wii U as well.
This article gets some things wrong. The SNES (or Super Famicom) was not nearing the end of its lifespan in 1995. If Nintendo had continued to support it with great software like a new Super Mario Brothers game, it would have held strong against the competition. So what if 32-bit systems were soon coming from Sony and Sega? The NES had 8-bit graphics when it was released and its competition was the computer game industry which was making games with 16-bit graphics. Despite this graphical inferiority, the NES won and disrupted PC gaming in the process. Unfortunately, Nintendo had an obsession with 3D which continues to this day, so they abandoned 2D as fast as they could with disastrous results. Also, the Nintendo 64 didn't lose third party support to the PlayStation because of cartridges. It was because Nintendo failed to update its licensing agreements. These agreements restricted the number of games that a publisher could release in any given year, and the game industry hated them. Sony did away with these licensing agreements completely, and that was why third parties overwhelming supported the PlayStation. But lack of third party support wasn't why the N64 lost to the PlayStation as no Nintendo console has ever succeeded because of third party support. Every Nintendo console that succeeded did so because of Nintendo's quality games. The actual reason the N64 failed was because Nintendo failed to make quality games for it. The N64’s flagship game, Super Mario 64, was the first 3D Mario game and it was nowhere near as good as Super Mario Brothers. Almost every Nintendo game was now in 3D and this made the games a lot less fun to play. Ultimately, the N64 failed because of Nintendo’s games. Period.
@datamonkey Nintendo was not stupid: the truth is that they did not underestimate the impact of CD ROMs, or else they wouldn’t have tried to make a CD add-on for the SNES with Sony. But they knew CD- ROM games were easily pirate-able so they went with cartridges, which may have saved them a lot of piracy of their games but cost them significant third-party support on the N64.
@Ventilator Dreamcast also was the first (reasonably-priced, i.e., not a Neo-Geo) home console where you got arcade perfect ports, which pretty much sealed the fate of local arcades, at least here in the United States.
@Don but these days I can only dream of getting paid upgrades of my VC collection on Switch
@Ventilator Dreamcast was certainly the last exciting new console for me, I still like modern gaming but retro and 90's is definitely where my passion is. This year I started really collecting for the Saturn and recently got the MODE to play all those US and Japanese games I missed out on (and can't afford) and next year I'll be looking to get many of the others from that era, I even got an Atari Jaguar recently
@Kalmaro yeah that's kinda funny but many analysts at the time predicted that disks would be phased out again and we'd return to cartridges.
Disks at the time could fit more in but thats no longer the case, cartridges can now do just as well, but the difference now is the drivers that run them.
Cartridge drives slots can be 1/10th the size of even the smallest disk drive, imagine if the Switch used disks... it would be too heavy to hold in handheld mode and frankly too big so it wouldn't be possible.
We can actually blame mobile phones for the return of cartridges, because people needed a way to increase the data on their phones and it wouldn't be possible to store everything on a disk - in comes Micro SD cards, as phone technology advanced, so did the need for storage and so did the need to increase cartridge capacity.
Hence why cartridges have made a come back.
@Razer Didn't the psp use disks? It manages to be not too massive, iirc.
@Kalmaro it was a similar type of disk to the one the GameCube used (similar in that they were mini disks), which wasn't really that common and stored much less information.
Nintendo has the greatest story in video game history
@Ventilator I wholeheartedly agree. The 90s were an amazing time for gaming, especially the when a new generation came out. Next gen was always a huge leap with a major WOW factor.
Now, it's just meh when a new generation launches.
@Ventilator What are you talking about? Nintendo was so greedy that they refused to sell GamePads by themselves. They forced consumers to rebuy the entire console.
@Lordd_G Not entirely true. The PS one had arcade perfect ports of Marvel Superheroes and several Konami and Namco games.
Interesting little read.
@KillerBOB Whuh? ...
@Ventilator
You are absolutly right.
Even with new Technologies like raytracing there is now wow Factor in it, because they had similiar Visuals before acomplished with other Tricks.
It's growing since years Step by Step.
But the last real wow Factor for me was Doom 3.
The Lights and Shadow Effects and how the Level Structure wasn't anything pure Static (bending Pipes and Walls for Exemple) was astounishing.
Even today with some HD-Texture Packs the Game looks brutal up to date.
It was also Doom VFR that got me another last wow Moment.
VR never got me really into it's World, but beeing stressed out in the middle of the Action got me immersed into it.
Shooting natural and moving hectic around to kill those Demons and standing than infront of Mancubus to jump and punch it with my Fist into the Face is something special.
When i put the Headset down i had no Idea where i was in my Room haha.
@Retro_Player_77 "CD Rom was still very slow and the tech to run it was still very weak at the time. Had Nintendo use it Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 would be loaded with load times and required tons of data spread across multiple disc."
Finally a decent explanation. I've seriously spent many occasions trying to figure out how Capcom managed to cram 2 discs worth of content onto one cartridge when they released the N64 version of Resident Evil 2 lol
@Lordd_G my local Walmart still has an arcade center, but in the 20 years that I've lived here, I've never seen anybody play any of the games in there...
seeing a saturn with a memory card in it gave me a halfy
Love how reviews say this but if NIN didn't come out with the NES in the late 80's I doubt we see the gaming become as it was now. Remember Atari crashed and NES came at the heels to restart the gaming console industry with newer graphics and getting more gamers to come back. This is the part the article missed out on telling the story if NES didn't come about we would still be playing Atari games. Those were revolutionary jump to gaming but not til the NES upgraded those graphics did more and more people get excited to buy consoles.
Not sure if terrible gamepad designs, choice of using outdated cartridge-based media instead of optical technology, and turning third-parties away in droves is "ahead of its time," but I guess I kind of see what you're trying to-- no, I don't.
@Lordd_G Thats true.
@carlos82 Consoles today is basically Dreamcast on Steroids, and is why no console ever impressed me again after that one.
I wanted Atari Jaguar, but it were never launched here as Atari went downhill and then later bancrupt.
Sega closed office here before Saturn launched, so i never bought that either. Same for Commodore. Gone around same period.
@Shadowthrone Same here, but i think Nintendo 64 had wow factor too as it ran 3D much better than other consoles, but giant leap came with Dreamcast.
One thing that always bothered me with Dreamcast game ports, is that the color palette never matched the original one especially in Crazy Taxi. Even today i think these games is best played on a real DC.
@NTELLIGENTMAN I know Nintendo were greedy. They also got fined for keeping game prices high after years in a few EU countries. Nintendo still keep game prices high, but only their own games nowadays.
@Azuris
Yeah. Ray tracing were done in Amiga and PC demoes in early 1990's. As you say, they used tricks to get RT effects in old 3D games.
"The Elder Scrolls - Oblivion" on PC looked impressive too when released around 2005.
2 launch games on Xbox 360 actually were maybe the last WOW factor games for me.
Kameo - Elements of Power and Ace Combat 6. Visuals in these 2, 15 year old games looks good even today. Kameo even got a free 4K upgrade 2-3 years ago.
Doom level structure is cool especially in Doom 1 and 2, and they were not linear at all the first time you played them due the maze design of the levels, backtracking etc. to get door keys.
I recently got the new AI upscaled textures for Quake 4, and they sure look much sharper and better than the original ones.
I haven't bought any VFR headset yet, but if i do it will be for PC.
Humility is not a word I'd ever associate with Nintendo.
@Ventilator series X has a true swappable NvMe but the ps5 not so, first off the ps5 storage requires you to dissasemble the console and once you have the card in your hand its not like you can just shove it in your pocket...the Series X/S works and looks like a memory card from the Gamecube or PS2 and works exactly the same way...i loaded mine with family co op games for christmas like you dont know jack and brought it to my parents house and with in 1 min i was playing my games on his console with my account...ps5 would have taken much longer and chances arer i would have ruined the chip in my pocket on the drive to the house....point is MS external storage solution is far superior.
Well, I think not using CDs hurt nintendo, but the most hurtful part of this was the high price point Nintendo was charging 3rd parties to develop on a cartridge. From what I remember, the carts cost $25 to $30, whereas CD were a few bucks. This left little margin on the table, and in some cases caused games to launch in the $79 range. Pretty unheard of up until the N64 era. Some companies like square couldn't bring their games as well due to the size limitations.
But long term, cartridges have proven some key advantages, and they have a lot more resale value now, whereas a lot of the ps1 games are now unplayable due to scratches, and the tech failing.
@Almighty-Koz
External Storage is not much of a thing on Sony consoles, because the Sony boss keeps telling he never hear anyone asking for it even on PS5 with small internal space.
Xbox One and even Xbox 360 supported hot swap of external HDD's.
PS4 only supported one external HDD, and if you unplugged it the console crashed.
When i upgraded from 2 to 4.TB externally on PS4, i had to re-download all 2.TB as it doesen't support 2 HDD's.
Even Wii U and Xbox 360 supported USB HDD to USB Copy...
The only reason why Switch doesn't support external HDD, is because of all the people who would unplug Switch while running games from HDD. Will obviously crash games.
Nintendo should have had a secret hidden option on Switch to enable external HDD for people who know how it really works with a portable console.
As for portability of external Storage. Sony tends to lock it to hardware.
On Xbox Consoles you could just unplug them on old console and plug it right into Series S/X.
Noone did this this better than Microsoft since Xbox 360.
Not only that. Xbox One 2013 model supports 16.TB x 3 = 48.TB in USB. Meanwhile PS4 supported only 8.TB.
When that's said, i have 11.TB on my Xbox One X, and is 95% filled. Even then i have 480 games on my ready to install list. If i validated loads of 360 discs, the list would be even longer.
Point is. Xbox consoles basically have possibility for "unlimited" Storage.
Series X can run last gen Xbox One games from standard USB 3.0 HDD too.
PS5 can only run everything from the tiny internal space as far as i know.
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