Post by: RABicle on November 11, 2005, 03:59:34 AM
ANYWAY
Since Microsoft seem intent on ending this generation a year early with their Xbox High Res™ I figure it's a good time to look back on the Gamecube up to now. Sure theres Zelda coming next year but we'll all be far too elated in the months following it's release to look at anything objectively. Not even Linkin Park could bring us down! Er what? Oh yeah Gamecube. Although I've had endless niggles, which I might get to later in a reply I've had four (4) big let downs with this console and I'm going to cry about them here. They are: online, third parties, market share and incomplete games.
Online
Ok so, Dreamcast showed us it was possible. PC online gaming was becoming commonplace and Nintendo announced two online adaptors. It was all looking very promising. People on IGN were creating Perfect Dark clans, F Zero racing leagues were discussed, MMORPG Pokemon was dreamed about. And what do we get? A crappy Dreamcast port hampered by exorbiant monthly fees and an almost concerted effort from Nintendo to destroy the chances of people obtaining the nessesary adaptors not to mention them maligning the entire concept of online gaming on monetary grounds. I was expecting a lot more and I've always been envious of Xbox Live.
Third Parties
These guys are fuckheads. Again it looked promising at first but it wasn't long before games began to be announced for PS2, Xbox and PC. While we are partly to blame because we refuse to buy their appaling games that sell so well on rival console, when they did bother putting the effort in we rewarded them in sales and what do we get? Oh yeah Nothing While PS2 and Xbox get to enjoy Burnout 3, or Pro Evolution Soccer or Soul Caliber 3. Ubi Soft, Acclaim and EA (to an extent) deserve the full fist for continuing supporting us and Nintendo.
Oh and while we laugh about it now, at the time losing Rare did hurt.
Market Share
**** we got demolished this time round. The Playstation juggernaught got stronger than we could possibly imagine. And while Microsoft may've lost billions of dollars on Xbox, they got what they wanted; our marketshare. Nintendo simply weren't persistent enough and couldn't drop the tiku tiku tiku! tag as fast as they would've liked. While even without cult game turned biggest franchise in gaming (GTA) the PS2 would've still won this generation, Halo carried Xbox far further than it should've even been able to. It's hard to pin exactly where Xbox got the upper hand or all the factors involved but somehow we lost this.
Incomplete Games
I can forgive Luigi's Mansion, it needed to be there for launch. But Eternal Darkness, Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures... What was going on? This isn't the Nintendo that polished and cherished it's games! Eternal Darkness dropped all the really amazing aspects that were planned. Wind Waker dropped countless dungeons and resorted to an elaborate treasure hunt to lengthen the game. Mario Sunshine dengrenated into a blue coin marathon. Star Fox just seemed to veer into a wall mid way through the game and never really recovered. The Gamecube library as a whole seems mared by rush jobs, half games and wasted potential.
Mind you, the games I mentioned all stomped weakness wherever it was found.
Ok I think I've wasted enough of your time now. Tell me what you were dissapointed with or any particular game that shamed it's legacy. Or tell me I'm a wanker.
Post by: Mario on November 11, 2005, 04:17:01 AM
I was initially disappointed with the way Nintendo advertised the GC, I believe it had MASSIVE potential and those 50 million consoles sold by 2005 estimates could have come true, but they made about a million little mistakes. However, once I realised the 50 million systems dream was over I got over it, they were still making great games so I didn't care. I think it made me a better person!
Disappointments... all the games lived up to my expectations except Pokemon Colloseum. Other than that it's been a wonderful ride, i'm looking forward to your happy thread.
Post by: Bill Aurion on November 11, 2005, 04:26:06 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: RABicle
Incomplete Games
I can forgive Luigi's Mansion, it needed to be there for launch. But Eternal Darkness, Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures...
I'm disappointed that I'm going to have to jam my foot up your arse...
Post by: RABicle on November 11, 2005, 04:31:09 AM
Post by: Bill Aurion on November 11, 2005, 04:33:20 AM
Post by: couchmonkey on November 11, 2005, 05:14:03 AM
Third Parties - No way. After the dismal N64, I believe third party support was improved greatly on the Cube. It definitely still needs improving, but I think Nintendo has come a long way from the third party support it had five years ago. I remember when there was literally one game being released each month for the N64. This is way better than that. I hope Nintendo improves support again next generation, but I'd be satisfied with equal support to the GameCube.
Market Share: You know, I often argue that Nintendo needs to do something about market share, and this is a minor disappointment. However, looking at my GameCube library, I have to say, who gives a crap? I had fun with it, and overall I'm satisfied, so I don't care about market share it. I want to see Nintendo improve this in the future, but it doesn't matter to me that much as something the GameCube failed at.
Incomplete Games: I disagree on Eternal Darkness, but I agree that a lot of first-party titles have been incomplete in some sense, and I hope that changes. To be fair, this is partially the price of getting games on time; just about the only first party game to be delayed significantly this generation is Twighlight Princess. I also think Nintendo sees that people don't like this. Look at games like Pikmin 2, Twighlight Princess, and Mario Kart DS: they're putting more effort in again.
As for my personal disappointments, I do miss Rare, and I still like to think they would have done more on Cube than they did on Xbox. I generally think Nintendo has been letting go of second and third parties too easily, and it seems like the company let a lot of its exclusive deals like MGS: Twin Snakes go sour.
Post by: RABicle on November 11, 2005, 05:40:33 AM
Post by: nemo_83 on November 11, 2005, 10:30:45 AM
Nintendo does seem to be trying to ensure there are more people online next gen by attempting to offer the service free, but I have my doubts. Nintendo is going to allow third parties to charge to play their games online which means noone is going to pay to play those third party games which means no third parties are going to do online on Revolution unless Nintendo starts slapping some faces. I believe if Nintendo can make their Revolution games free online then so should SquarEnix, Blizzard, EA, etc. My greatest worry is the lack of ranking systems; if there are no ranking systems then how will one tell the percentage of success of an opponent. I'm not interested in an exact number of wins; I am interested in an individual's overall percentage in specific genres and as a gamer overall on a global scale. I don't want to find myself against someone I just run over and they quit, and I don't want to play some stranger who is going to tear my head off and deficate upon my open throat because I'm not one to quit. As a matter of fact the percentage of times a player has quit a match intentionally should be displayed (noone would have a perfect percentage as everyone has to drop a match every once in a while; but you're not going to want to play someone with a 50% drop out rate).
Nintendo's online should opperate through forums, blogs, and clubs like 1up.com. Nintendo players are pretty used to online communication and communities through forums; it would make best since that Nintendo carry this over as best as possible in their online console plans.
Third parties: Nintendo is addressing this issue at last with new controller hardware which will make their system individualistic from the other consoles. The N64's poor support was due to high costs of development, but the GameCube solved that problem. A new problem arose though in that there was nothing the GameCube controller could that the 360 controller could not. The GameCube lacked several buttons the other console's controllers featured and offered no new facial mechanics to make up for this. Instead they tried to make it look different by hiring Fisher Price to design the asthetics.
This time Nintendo will have a clear advantage built into the hardware of the system which will encourage third parties to create exclusives.
Market Share: Nintendo took no risks; if they had been aggressive then the GameCube would have succeeded. People like Nintendo games, but Nintendo was not willing to sink the money to publish more games or buy exclusives. What happened to the Capcom 5? Where was Konami? Why didn't Nintendo get an exclusive GTA? Why did the next Gouls and Ghost come out on PS2? Why did Nintendo not court Oddworld games? There was plenty of software made on other systems this generation that would have sold well to Nintendo fans and could have helped expand Nintendo's user base, but Nintendo penched their every last penny and that does not speak confidence to consumers. The Revolution seems to come from a far more confident company; but their software choices could piss all over that quickly. Nintendo needs to invest in some serious software next generation; they are obviously avoiding intense HD hardware so to attain basically the same graphics as the other consoles without melting the chip.
Incomplete games: I kind of went for that as a reason market share was abismal. Super Mario Sunshine was of much higher quality than most any game on any console. Metroid 2 and Halo 2 didn't have the kind of advanced controls and physics Sunshine had. Few games this gen even approached water in the way Sunshine did in passing with such elegance and realism. Sunshine's flaw wasn't exactly bad game design; it was misdirected game design. Mario 64 was a departure from Mario Bros games, but Sunshine was barely even a Mario game. What was Sunshine about? Single player collectathon with a water pack. Is this Nintendo? Where are all the things that make a Mario game? Powerups, themed levels, Luigi, multiplayer? They've been hijacked and injected into Mario Party, Tennis, Golf, and Kart.
Accessability: Metroid and Zelda were the slowest starting games I have played in years. I don't want tutorials; it should be a hint things have gotten too complicated when you have to spend an hour telling me how to play a game.
Post by: mantidor on November 11, 2005, 11:07:53 AM
oh yeah, btw, Im replaying Sunshine and loving every minute of it, including collecting two separate pieces of red coins, the game is awesome.
And regarding market share, the numbers are easily comparable with xbox numbers, why is the xbox a success then and the GC a failure? mind boogling.
Post by: odifiend on November 11, 2005, 11:33:58 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
And regarding market share, the numbers are easily comparable with xbox numbers, why is the xbox a success then and the GC a failure? mind boogling.
Without going into the standard long debate (please look at the dozens of threads this comes up), it went from, "do you have a ps2 or a gamecube?" to "do you have a ps2 or an xbox?" in less than 4 years. For a company that has been in the biz for 20 some years, that is pretty bad to actually sell less than the freshman of consoles. Then to add insult to injury, xbox has pushed nintendo's home console from the mind of the general poplulace - really bad when you consider Nintendo used to be a household name.
Post by: Avinash_Tyagi on November 11, 2005, 11:48:47 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: odifiendQuote
Originally posted by: mantidor
And regarding market share, the numbers are easily comparable with xbox numbers, why is the xbox a success then and the GC a failure? mind boogling.
Without going into the standard long debate (please look at the dozens of threads this comes up), it went from, "do you have a ps2 or a gamecube?" to "do you have a ps2 or an xbox?" in less than 4 years. For a company that has been in the biz for 20 some years, that is pretty bad to actually sell less than the freshman of consoles. Then to add insult to injury, xbox has pushed nintendo's home console from the mind of the general poplulace - really bad when you consider Nintendo used to be a household name.
Oh please, MS had billions to throw into the Xbox without concern, there was no doubt they were going to pick up a lot of market share, just because it was was there first console means nothing, in fact only being able to barely nudge out nintendo while losing billions is a failure, especially when Ninty made money every year.
Post by: odifiend on November 11, 2005, 12:12:16 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Avinash_Tyagi
Oh please, MS had billions to throw into the Xbox without concern, there was no doubt they were going to pick up a lot of market share, just because it was was there first console means nothing, in fact only being able to barely nudge out nintendo while losing billions is a failure, especially when Ninty made money every year.
If money is such a huge factor, why is it that xbox hasn't really threatened PS2 standing? I'd agree that Microsoft's advertising blitzes weren't the most cost efficient but they were obviously effective. And in the US anyway we aren't talking about xbox just barely nudging nintendo out of the way. Xbox has made a large enough impact that Ninendo is not even considered a market presence. Mindshare is where xbox has trumped nintendo, and unfortunately that is a stepping stone to market share.
Post by: King of Twitch on November 11, 2005, 01:00:01 PM
Getting MGS1 and not actively trying to get some other important games was stupid.
Reading reviews about 10 year-old ported games having framerate problems is maddening.
The MSM's BS articles about the Cube possibly being their last system helped to propel the XBox.
"Third Parties
These guys are fuckheads"
Couldn't have said it better.
Capcom 5 -- never forget
--
For the happy thread in advance, I'll submit the words Pikmin, most comfortable controller ever made, greatest wireless controller ever made, and best-designed system ever
Post by: kirby_killer_dedede on November 11, 2005, 01:26:54 PM
Post by: Dasmos on November 11, 2005, 01:53:58 PM
Game retailers are stupid, my local EB only stocks about three of each first party game (it occasionally stocks more if asked) but it stocks about seven copies of games like Carmen San Diego which stay on the shelf for years.
Post by: Nosferat2 on November 11, 2005, 04:51:30 PM
I loved my GC. It was allround better than the competitors, aside from the game library which was dominated by PS2.
Nintendo had most of the games i wanted to play even with a smaller library. Games like Metroids Resident evils, eternal darkness, geist, metal gear and f-zero made me very happy with my purchase. Thats not counting the mutlipatform games that i love, Prince of Persia, Call of duty, Spartan, and various EA games.
The thing that killed me on the cube are the absence of Castlevania(i dont do handhelds), Metal gear series, Final fantasy, and the lack of great RPG's. There were a couple decent RPG;s but lets face it GC sucked when it came to RPG's. Thank god for my PC, i would have gotten a PS2 if it wasnt for Wizardry 8 to hold me over. So i can still say im PS2 and Xbox free.
Online capability never, does not, nor will it ever concern me. Id rather play with my friends than getting online and play with strangers. Correction! the only thing that i would like from the online thing is to download old games.
Post by: Hostile Creation on November 11, 2005, 05:24:19 PM
Also, I would have liked Wind Waker to have the dungeons it was supposed to have, but the Triforce quest didn't bother me, as I already had all but two pieces by the time I'd finished the dungeons. I'm glad they're giving themselves time for Twilight Princess, though.
Post by: Dasmos on November 11, 2005, 06:19:42 PM
QuoteI don't often shop on the Internet and anyway that's not the problem here. I can't find the games in shops, that's where I have always shopped for games and probably always will. I shouldn't need to shop online. I know the games are out there. They are just becoming increasingly difficult and tedious to find.
Originally posted by: Nosferat2
Dasmos you cant find a game you want!? In the age of the internet, that is an impossibility. I found discontinued games (beyond good and evil) with little effort online. I even found the long out of print Eternal Darkness soundtrack new and sealed this past summer. Just look around a little.
Post by: Bartman3010 on November 12, 2005, 01:53:42 AM
All they did to support the idea was 3 GCN racing games.
Mario Kart (8 Players)
1080 Avalanche (4 Players)
Kirby Air Ride (4 Players)
So...okay, why did they think the potential wasnt there when the broadband adapters didnt sell? Why did they push the 3rd parties to use it? Midway Arcade Treasures 3 would be so much better, too...
So much potential just gone away...
Post by: mac<censored> on November 13, 2005, 11:40:16 AM
Anyway, the result is that they make crappy or simply too-weird-for-the-mainstream games, and then scream with horror when they don't sell well; I mean, what do they expect??? Even when they make good games, they seem to screw things up, like with Capcom's moronic decision to announce the PS2 port of the previously "exclusive" RE4 -- before the GC version was on sale! What kind of idiot made that decision?!? Even if they felt they needed a PS2 version to recoup their costs, simply waiting a while before announcing it would have made the GC version sell far better, and helped Nintendo quite a bit, and would have given capcom a much better return on the money they invested in developing the GC version.
To some degree, this attitude is understandable: the PS2 is the main system these days, so they can make their money there, and anything else is at best just a sideline or hedge for the future.
What doesn't make much sense is 3rd parties' apparent slavish devotion to the xbox -- especially in Japan, where only about 5 xboxes have been sold. This behavior I can only attribute to greedy (and clueless) management being dazzled by MS's monopoly position in the computer world, and randomly flinging money about as a result.
Post by: Infernal Monkey on November 13, 2005, 04:37:09 PM
Post by: couchmonkey on November 14, 2005, 05:16:48 AM
Rabicle: The situation you mention about having to drive way out of your way to buy games is exactly what I fear happening to Nintendo all over the place, and that's why I do worry about marketshare in general. I'm sorry to hear that, it really sucks.
Post by: Galford on November 14, 2005, 06:17:44 PM
systems. Point, I assume most people here know that the 4MB Expansion Pak
was almost never released. It took Acclaim(of all people)
to get Nintendo to release it.
While Nintendo didn't make any N64 level mistakes, they made dozens of smaller ones.
What makes me sad is I look at Rev, and I think Nintendo hasn't learned a single lesson
from the Gamecube generation.
Post by: IceCold on November 14, 2005, 06:37:39 PM
QuoteUhh, examples please?
Originally posted by: Galford
What makes me sad is I look at Rev, and I think Nintendo hasn't learned a single lesson
from the Gamecube generation.
Post by: Ian Sane on November 15, 2005, 01:38:06 PM
Then MS had that really popular Sega bundle for the Xbox for Christmas and pulled ahead and Nintendo went from half-assing it to panicking. That's when they started getting into this mentality that their franchises were everything and we started getting lots and lots of Mario. They also made really lame third party deals involving third parties making Nintendo games and a remake of MGS and Square "returning" only to give us one game (that I thought sucked) that was "Final Fantasy" in only the loosest sense. I didn't like the overemphasis on franchises and I think that's something Nintendo still hasn't "fixed." On the N64 the third party support sucked but at least when we got a first party game it was 90% of the time the most essential must-play game ever. Neither lazy or panicky Nintendo delivered as frequently sadly. I think the Cube would have done much better if Nintendo didn't really change their game making strategy from the N64. Initially they had regained quite a bit of third party support back and that could have padded the "one exceptionally awesome first party game every few months" release schedule. In theory if the first party games were as consistently amazing as the N64's they probably could have sold more consoles and thus kept more third party support.
The online thing though pissed me off because it was an outright LIE. People were always bugging them about online plans and they kept telling everyone to wait. Well it turned out they had no plans at all and were just leading us on for over a year. I'm sorry but if you make online adapters and heavily imply future online plans and then don't go online at all then you f*cking lied to your customers. Everyone who bought a Cube within the first year or so assumed the console would go online. Some weren't as crushed by it staying offline as others but we all expected it to be there. Nintendo tricked us and that plays a big part in why I'm so cynical of them today. I don't trust them anymore and it's too bad.
I think Nintendo has learned some lessons from the Cube. Now they learn slowly and also learn the wrong lessons sometimes but they at least look like they're trying with the Rev. I don't really like their strategy but at least it's a strategy. It's more refreshing then the "we're Nintendo so we don't have to try hard" strategy the Cube initially had. Some of the same mistakes are there but they have learned something. Just the fact that the Rev looks cool and hi-tech proves that.
Though there were some AMAZING things about the Cube too and I don't regret buying one (well in retrospect I should have waited for price cuts but still). I'll be sharing those with the good stuff thread that's supposed to come after this one.
Post by: Djunknown on November 15, 2005, 03:57:55 PM
Quote
Square "returning" only to give us one game (that I thought sucked) that was "Final Fantasy" in only the loosest sense.
Square back on friendly terms with Nintendo didn't necessarily equate to flood of titles this time around, but the fact that they're not firmly entrenched with Sony is good thing. Also remember that then Squaresoft was willing to make amends, the Square-Enix merger changed company thinking. But they're making GBA/DS games, and more or less catering to the fan's needs: Some great original content (Kingdom Hearts, FFTA) and ports (FF I-VI.). The Mario Basketball is proof positive of this.
I disagree that Crystal Chronicles was a bad title. It was an enjoyable, experimental title with the right conditions. I will agree that's not the best way to demonstrate that they're back on the Nintendo saddle. Hopefully Crystal Chronicles revolution will be more accessible.
The MGS remake issue is sticky. Nintendo desperately wanted a metal gear game, but Konami wasn't willing. They wanted it so badly, they let one of their 'idle' studios SK work on it(Dyack mentioned they were just toying around with Too Human after Eternal Darkness). My educated guess is that they thought that a MGS remake would make more returns than some tripped-out futuristic game about a cop replacing limbs. ED bombed retail-wise, how would Too Human be any different? Dyack and co. probably didn't feel so hot after seeing years of toil and delay not being reciprocated with dividends. Why not work with MGS and get some tips from gaming's mad scientist Hideo Kojima as well as input from Shiggy? Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 as they say...
My own personal dissapointment is the porting of 3rd party 'exclusives.' The Capcom 5 pretty much proves the former statement, so I won't waste too many words on it. It better not/ should happen with the Rev. Other than that, I'm more or less a satisfied Gamecube customer. The fact that NOA was very responsive when my first 'Cube went out (During the holiday season no less), keeps me interested in Nintendo. That and the unexpected success of DS, and positive rumblings of the Rev so far.
Bring on the postive thread!
Post by: Galford on November 15, 2005, 05:57:58 PM
1.)Marketing - while it has gotten better, the only time I see a commercial for a GC game
is on G4 at 11:30pm. When MS or Sony had a big game coming out, I couldn't stop
seeing advertisements for it(Halo 2 and GTA:SA.) Most Nintendo ads are for either DS or GBA.
2.)2nd Party Support - Nintendo went into the GC era with great 1st and 2nd party support.
During the GC era it fell apart. Tell me where are the replacements for Rare, Silicon Knights,
Left Field, and Factor 5? Maybe at E3 2006 I will have to eat foot, but these companies are
making games for everyone but Nintendo.
3.)Overall cheapness - from everything that has been released about Rev's hardware, Nintendo
refuses to spend any of it's$6 billion dollars to lose a little short term to be in a better
place long term.
These are just a couple, but these reasons are good enough for now...
Post by: IceCold on November 15, 2005, 06:22:06 PM
1) Marketing - I agree, the little there has been horrible a lot of the time. However, look at some of the recent DS ads (no not the Nintendogs one) - they are really improving. With a bit more gameplay, a clearer message and more exposure, the Revolution will be fine. I quite liked the ads in the theatres for the DS launch, as well as the Wi-Fi connection ones.
I've seen quite a few GameCube ads, and the Canada Too Much Fun campaign is actually pretty funny). If there are less of them on the shows you watch, maybe it's because the DS is a budding system and it needs to be promoted, while the Gamecube is on its last legs.
2) Second Party Support - To be honest, the developers you listed there weren't doing much for Nintendo... they made great games, I can't deny, but it seemed like they had stalled, and Nintendo axed them. They are being replaced though; Retro is one of the newer additions, and I'm sure Nintendo is looking for other small developers they can take under their wing.
3) Being Stingy - Yes, Nintendo doesn't like using their money. But to develop the NRC, it took quite a bit of the R&D funds (granted, it was licenced from Gyration). And I think that we still don't have all the pieces to the Revolution puzzle. Iwata, among others, has hinted that there is still more to come, and I'm reminded of the quote where he says that something about the Revolution will have no effect on gameplay. This would surely cost them even more.
And really, sure Nintendo is cutting down costs of their console. But they're doing it to lower the cost (always a good thing), while the console itself will be extremely efficient. It will not have many of the IMO unnecessary features of the X360 and the PS3. The result will be a powerful, efficient console that is cheap. What more can you ask for?
So I don't think Nintendo is making the same mistakes as they did with the Cube. You can see that they're genuinely trying to improve, and they have made quite a few strides in the right direction.
Post by: animecyberrat on November 16, 2005, 05:28:14 PM
Now I want to list all the disspointments I had with the GC and explain why to me these really hurt my perception of the system.
First off I agree that the online strategy sucked. Back when there was still talks of online games, when teh adaptor was still being sold and Phantasy Star Online just came out, I have several freinds who were interested in X-box just because Rainbow 6 was gonan be onit and online. I showed them how Nintendo was going to be onlione soon and they would most likely get Rainbow 6 cuz it was on N64. Then out of the blue they drop online suport and my friends trade thier Cubes for Xboxes. I had high hopes of playing against my freinds online and was squashed cuz nintendo screwed up.
Second I was dissapointed that the system was lauinched without a Mario platformer and was even more dissaponted when Sunshine came out (I know a lot of people liekd it but I personaly hated the game)
I bought my cube and my first 2 games were Star Fox Adventures and MK Deadly Allience. Now at first I was impressed with SF Adventures, it was my favorite game in the serious and to me was far better than Wind Waker ( another dissapointment for me) then I got ot teh end and was let down, I was expecting this awsome boss fight with General Scales and a cool cinematic showing how I saved the planet and instead I got a cheap-half ass way too short boss fight with General Scales and a crappy ending that killed teh rest of the game.
Mk DA was AWESOME though and more than made up for most early disapointments.
Then when I heard Soul Caliber II was coming to Cube and Link was gonna be playable I had hopes that woudl trun things around, it would sell millions of copies and then more great fighitng games would come to the cube.
Then teh game was WAY TO EASY, sold far less than should have, and prascticaly disapoeard within a few months. Seeing that fighitng games werent selling on Cube 3rd party devs decided not to make any for the system. We managded to get a couple DBZ games ported, long after they had had thier run on ps2, and that was pretty much it. As a fighitn game fan this sucked for me.
Then There came teh news that Lucas Arts was dropping support for the system and there went those great Star Wars games I was looking forward to. This hurt cuz I ama huge SW fan and have severaly felt thier absense this gen.
Then Nintendo promieses a follow up to Mario 64, supposedly multi player and is gearing up support and then it magicaly fades into obscurity and somehow is forgotten by everyone who works for teh company.
Metroid Prime comes out and I regain some confidence in the system.
Then Nintendo decides that Racing games arent meant to be fun nor realistic and misses a golden opportunity to make Crusin USA or some other great racing game and instead we get a hand full of EA games (all good but stil not enough) and Nintendo, when questiond can only repsond with there are currently no plans to make any racing games.
Then They go and promise fantastic Final Fantasy that will not only be on par with FFX but supposedly blow it out of teh watter. Exstatic I race to Game Stop and reserve my copy and even get a GBA and the link cables to play it with. Upon playing I will say I was severly disspointed. I thought it was a decent game in its own right, but i woudl never blaspheme the bame Final fansty by labeling CC that. They game was sucha disspointemnt not just for me but all my friends who held off just for that game,well seeing every freind of mine finaly jump ship and get a ps2 or xbox i felt left out and alone.
This pissed me off cuz when igo into a game store and ask for a Nintendo game I get wierd looks., anmd clerks who alwasy say wouldnt you be happioer with an xbox? and having to ARGUE why I chose GC without soudning like a blind fanboy, cuz I'm not, but I wanted a Cube, at first cuz all my freinds had them and cuz I thoughtit would be better than N64, which we all had instead of ps1.
Then Mk 6 was cancelled then delayed then it was suposed to have online cz nintendo was just gearing up to implenemt their own online strategy and then once again nothing.
Then midway announces they are dropping Cube support and only because of high demand agree to port, belatedly, 2 more games to teh system.
Overall 3rd party suport increase several times over n64, but most 3rd party games are Either EA Sports or T*HQ Nicktoons games,
So far there have been far mroe disspointements than satisfasctions bt nonethe less I stuck it out because it had enough games to keep my satisfied, sure theones it didnt get thatit was promised to get caused me to get a ps2 and xbox but I am content with my GC nonetheless. Rememebr these are my personal disspointemtns feel free to disagree but please dont try and agrue why i didnt like a game, cuz thats my personal taste verses yours.
Post by: Dasmos on November 16, 2005, 05:54:33 PM
Post by: Galford on November 16, 2005, 07:39:53 PM
About marketing, I specificly stated the GC b/c all Nintendo pimps during primetime is DS and GBA. While Nintendo's actual commericals have gotten better(Look at the ads for Battalion Wars and Fire Emblem), the last time I remember seeing a GC game pimped at 6:00pm on any big network was Metroid Prime.
Nintendo can say what it likes about new games and innovation, but does anyone find it ironic that the first two games that we have info for are sequals???(Metroid Prime 3 and SSB:Revolution)
Post by: King of Twitch on November 16, 2005, 08:51:35 PM
Post by: jpturner on November 17, 2005, 09:00:41 AM
Nintendo needs to make deals with EB Games/Target/Best Buy to guaranty – for a price no doubt – product space devoted to their products. Likewise, I don’t care if N’s got to send strippers to Lucas Arts to give out free hummers, Nintendo needs to get Star Wars / large mindshare games on its next console. Lego Star Wars is a great example – the Gamecube gets it, with no bonus features, 9 months later than PS2 and Xbox. When the Nintendo console misses out on best selling games on other consoles (GTA/Star Wars), it really marginalizes its products. If they need to pay for these products they should do so. I don’t care if the games suck, they are the games many, many gamers want to play. It is a chicken egg thing. But I think paying for product development will build more unit sales to defray the cost of the bribe, thus increasing Nintendo’s profits for its own software because of hardware sales.
It looks like Nintendo’s heading for niche status, and it’s a shame. On the other hand if Xbox 1.5 (360) fails to sell well, Micro$oft could lose patience and decide it can’t make money in this industry, and pull the plug. I’ve been in two different game stores running 360 demo games, and have heard at least 4-5 people say it looks the same as the original Xbox. I question whether this will happen though, because the Xbox platform looks like a way to get a Micro$oft “on demand” box next to your TV.
Hopefully, N will learn some lessons from this generation. Hope they read these boards! LOL.
Post by: animecyberrat on November 17, 2005, 06:48:21 PM
All in all I agree that what killed nintendo was thier half ass attitude towards the game cube. It also didnt help any when they reported that tehy had to stop manufactoring the system half way threw its second year and then pick up again witha huge price drop and a free exclusive just to pick up enough slaes to even stay in the race for third. Thats when 3rd party Devs jumped ship cuz they saw GC as finished and gave up back then.
I also think a big part of what hurt them was the fact they didnt do any thing to build up thier image. They used to have giveaways in magazines, Fox Kids and Nickelodeon used to give away Nintendo systems for prizes, Pepsi and even Shasta used to run promos for Nintendo games, there were countless movies where kids were shown, at least 1 shot, playing a Nintendo game. when I was in school we always woudl ask peopel if they played Nintendo games, I never nor did any one I know, use teh term video games, it was always Nintendo games. That didnt change until Sega but even then it was Do you play Nintendo or Sega, now no matter who you are talking to you get eithe rlaughed at, wierd looks, or argued with, if you say you play Nintendo games. unless your specificaly refering to "the nintendo" which is commonly referencing the NES.
I even rememeber when Super Mario Bros came out and how much of an impact that game had, no game has had an impact like that in a long ass time. Mario 64 came awefully close but still not the same.
So as a Nintendo fan from bakc when Nintendo was all there was I mostly wish they would get thier former glory back just for "old times sake" if you know what I mean. Im gonna be to old to be playing video games soon and unless I have kids or my sister lets me by games for her kids, teh Revolution will most likely be my last system, my primary reason for even wanting oen is the old games, I honestly have no faith in Nintendos current game makers to support a system based on thier weirdo controller, among other things. I will say that as a grown adult, I do not have much desire to play pretend with a remote control for my video games. I currently play my old systems the most anyways and most likely will just focus on Revs DL features and maybe geta few select new games if the are interesting enough.
Nintendo says they want to reach non gamers or old school gamers and I can say I think tehy will succeed with Rev mostly cuz of the Dl feature. But I still have hopes that they will make a Mario game that can take me back to when I was a kid again like they keep promising.
Post by: Dasmos on November 17, 2005, 08:01:31 PM
Post by: animecyberrat on November 20, 2005, 03:06:42 PM
All in all I am getting mroe satisfation from my Cube now more than ever, plus I am going to go back and try Sunshine and WW again just in case the are more fun now.
Post by: trip1eX on November 20, 2005, 03:21:58 PM
WW was about 1000x better. A true classic. A masterpiece. Same with Mario Sunshine.
