Messages

601

Reader Reviews / The Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker : My personal review

« on: June 19, 2003, 08:37:56 PM »

"The dungeons should have been as difficult as the water Temple was in The Ocarina of Time."

I don't think the Water Temple was difficult for any legitimate reason.
It was just difficult because you had to CONSTANTLY switch boots and SLOWLY sink and SLOWLY walk around underwater and SLOWLY rise to the top again. It was so tedious it frustrated people and broke their concentration. If it wasn't for how infuriating it was to navigate the water, the dungone would have been as easy as the others if not easier.

As for Wind Waker. The problem is, so many people played through the Master Quest immediately before it. Of course the game is going to seem really easy after that.
I'm sure the game would be difficult enough for people who either hadn't played Oot at all or played it very little and not recently.

602

Nintendo Gaming / Square Enix's Beginning and End at once?

« on: June 19, 2003, 08:08:09 PM »

I think Square and Enix will just want to make 2D games with no FMV for the handheld market so there's no reason they wouldn't stay with the GBA. I don't think Square has any real loyalty to Sony and Enix has already stated its policy is to develope for the system with the largest userbase. In the handheld market, that's the GBA by a long-shot. But, honestly, even if Square-Enix did end up PSP exclusive somehow, it would still be a long ways from competing with the GBA. Even if every single person who's ever bought a FF or DQ game bought a PSP, it still wouldn't have anything close to the kind of userbase the GBA will have when the PSP is released over a year from now.
The only way the PSP could defeat the GBA would be if it somehow got all third-parties to abandone Nintendo like they did with the PSX and N64. That's just not going to happen. If anything, developers are apt to like the PSP less than the GBA because, with its superior hardware, there will be higher expectations for graphics which means longer dev-times.
Developers act like it's SO much trouble to develope for the GBA and its huge userbase. Now Sony has the nerve to ask them to put more effort into game design for its risky, upstart handheld. I don't see too many of them taking on the challenge.

603

TalkBack / Nintendo Busts Hong Kong Pirates

« on: June 19, 2003, 06:52:31 PM »

Yeah, I think it's almost a sure-bet that the next Gameboy will use the mini-DVDs.
That would allow backwards compatibility with the Gamecube and drastically reduce piracy.
I just hope the new Gameboy is still a long while away. At least a good five years.
Some people seem to think Nintendo will have to put out a new Gameboy to compete with the PSP but I disagree. I think the GBA can crush the PSP on its own with relative ease and Nintendo won't have to do anything. It will be like the Original Gameboy vs The Gamegear all over again.
Nintendo didn't need a color Gameboy to crush the Gamegear and The Gameboy Color didn't arrive until years later. Sega made the mistake of thinking handheld gamers would abandone the Gameboy and flock to its new handheld just because it was more powerful and had color but it was wrong and I think Sony is just making the same mistake.
So I hope Nintendo doesn't jump the gun and cut the GBA's life short just to compete with something it probably doesn't even need to compete with. I think most GBA owners would agree with that sentiment too.

604

Nintendo Gaming / Can Nintendo survive not being #1

« on: June 19, 2003, 06:35:36 PM »

I feel the same way. I just couldn't go back to Oot after Wind Waker.
Wind Waker was so smooth and fluid that Oot is unbearably clunky and awkward in comparison.
The characters in Wind Waker are alive with personality while just about everyone in Oot is like a zombie. Maybe it's not fair to criticize Oot like that since it could only do what the hardware would allow (which, compared to what's possible now, isn't much) but, the thing is, I can still enjoy Nintendo's other technologically out-of-date games. I can go back and play the 2D Zelda games on the NES and SNES and still love them. But I just don't seem capable of enjoying Oot anymore now that I've played Wind Waker.

605

Nintendo Gaming / GC2 and Mario 128 info update

« on: June 19, 2003, 01:05:33 PM »

It's good to hear Nintendo is serious about getting the third-party support back next generation. It's actually already made a lot of progress with third-parties this generation but there's only so much it can do with the existing console. If Nintendo launches its next console on time (FOR ONCE!) with a great line-up of third-party titles that sell well, that will make all the difference. Nintendo just has to make sure the developers it's been close with recently including Capcom, Sega, Namco, Square, and now even Konami have something good for the console's launch. Even if it's just sequels to Gamecube games with updated graphics. Capcom could have Viewtiful Joe 2 for the launch. Sega and Namco could do FZero and Starfox sequels. Square could make FFCC-2. Maybe Konami and SK could do a remake of MGS2.
If it can get these leading developers to fully support the console from the start, the rest of the third-party developers will follow like sheep.

As for Mario 128. My guess is it will be a linear 3D platform game with really unique level design. This would give Nintendo a chance to really concentrate on the classic Mario style gameplay.

606

Nintendo Gaming / Zelda getting milked?

« on: June 16, 2003, 03:16:49 PM »

"Yeah but is that a good thing? In the longrun is it beneficial for Mario to be a genre-busting character? At least if Mario is known as primarily a platform character then people don't get sick of him and he doesn't get a reputation as a washed up character."

I literally couldn't disagree more. I think the exact opposite is true.
People would get sick of Mario if he were confined to just one genre, especially the 3D platform genre which people seem to have really gotten sick of lately.
Someday Nintendo will create a virtual reality console and it will be able to bring the traditional Mario/Zelda formulas (platform jumping, puzzle solving, etc...) to a new level and the resulting games will take the world by storm and sell amazingly well the way Super Mario 64 did but, until then, they have to start breaking with the formulas or risk letting the characters fade away.
People aren't going to want to play traditional Mario/Zelda games over and over again for another generation. It's been breaking away from the traditional Mario gameplay for years and now it's starting to do the same with Zelda. Purists may not like it but it's necessary.
If Nintendo doesn't bring the characters into fresh territory, people will get sick of them.
The games may not sell as well as Mario 64 or the previous Mario games on the NES/SNES which will (and has) lead people to believe Mario is fading away but that's not a fair comparison.
It will be a long time before a Mario title as innovative as Mario 64 is possible (probably Virtual Mario World) and you can't compare anything in the NES/SNES days to today since things are a lot more competitive in the industry and Nintendo has a lot less of the market.

"I remember when Super Mario 64 came out Mario had been out of the spotlight for a while so there was more of a "Mario's back" attitude. At the time Nintendo had been focusing on the DKC series as the big title for the SNES and the last Mario platformer was Yoshi's Island which didn't even have an adult Mario in it. Of course there were other factors like the game being a launch for the much hyped N64 and being a completely different game than anything before it."

I really don't think Mario withdrawl had anything to do with Mario 64's success. I agree that Nintendo should be careful not to over-expose Mario but I don't think having him be cross-genre necessarily has to result in that. I definitly think it would be wise for Nintendo to tell Hudson to make fewer Mario Party titles at least. Like Mario Kart, just one per console would suffice. Also, unless Mario Tennis and Golf have any substantial upgrades, they may not have been needed (though I WILL buy them both). As much as I loved Mario Sunshine, I also kind of think Miyamoto should have gone with his initial instinct and created an entirely unlike-anything-he's-done before kind of Mario game instead. I think releasing one Mario game a year or maybe two if neither is a "big" title would be fine.
Any more than that and over-exposure becomes a risk. Nintendo just has to make sure people see Mario as a character who stars in great games of various genres and not just some special tool it uses to extract money from people's wallets on several occasions each year.

607

Nintendo Gaming / Zelda getting milked?

« on: June 16, 2003, 01:16:17 PM »

"I think a big reason for that was because the average person didn't know that Super Mario Sunshine was the first Mario game since 1996. To the average consumer a Mario game is released every year and therefore they're not going to see Mario Sunshine differently than Mario Party."

I don't think it's fair to say that Mario Sunshine was any more of a "true" Mario game than Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, or any of the other games that featured Mario. At this point, I think Nintendo sees Mario as a cross-genre star. People may have assumed that the 3D platform genre replaced the 2D platform genre as his "main" genre when Mario 64 was released, but the fact that it took so long for the next sequel to be released suggests otherwise. It wasn't even developed as a launch title for the Gamecube and Miyamoto once said (I think this was in the "Dolphin" days) that he wasn't sure if he wanted to develope another 3D Platform Mario title for the new console at all. Recently, he's commented that he thought Mario Sunshine wasn't "new" enough and has said some things that have lead people to believe the upcoming Mario 128 won't be a 3D platform game.

Mario Sunshine didn't sell that well (by Mario standards) for a variety of reasons.
It had really tough competition including a few 3D platform games on the PS2 and other big-name Gamecube titles. Not only did it have competition when it was released, but also the entire year before. It didn't get anywhere near the kind of hype it should have gotten because Zelda and Metroid stole just about all of it.
It also didn't look anything like a Mario game and had the word "Sunshine" in it and the cleaning up element was stressed way too much (it was a minor part of the game) which prevented some insecure people from buying it and had less informed people unaware it was even intended to be a sequel to Mario 64. I can just about guarantee it would have sold a lot better if it were called Mario 64-2.

When Mario Kart Double Dash leaves Mario Sunshine in the dust later this year, it should be clear that Mario is not just a 3D platform game star who has some side-projects. He now transcend genres.  

608

Nintendo Gaming / Interesting Tid bit from a japanese survey.

« on: June 16, 2003, 06:31:04 AM »

"As much as I like Nintendo and would like to see them do well in both the console and handheld markets. I also feel that the portable market is stagnating. Since there is no competition Nintendo can get away with releasing hardware with only minor improvements and still guarantee to sell, i.e. Game Boy Pocket => Game Boy Colour and GBA => GBA SP."

Handheld gamers don't seem to care as much about powerful hardware as console games.
They seem to prefer simplicity and would certainly rather Nintendo keep the hardware standard for as long as possible and (as with the Pocket and SP) only occasionally change the outside design. And the last thing I ever want to see is 3D gaming on handhelds. I like it for consoles, but I want the handheld market to be the haven for 2D gaming. I think most handheld gamers prefer the simplicity of 2D games too.
I wouldn't mind at all if Nintendo kept the GBA going with no significant changes for the next ten years. There's just no need for any upgrade for 2D gaming.

"Hopefully the introduction of the PSP will send a long needed kick in the backside of Nintendo and the companies that develop for the GB and force them to raise the standard of both the hardware and software."

If the GBA didn't force developers to raise their standards, I don't think anything way. The GBA was supposed to force developers to put more effort into their games but instead they just started porting SNES games and constantly b*tching that GBA games were so much more time-consuming and costly to develope than original Gameboy titles which meant smaller profits. Of course, they still put little effort into their games even though they reluctantly had to at least make the graphics at least decent by GBA standards.
Of course, since the GBA became so popular and was instantly accepted as the successor to the Gameboy practically over-night, developers basically had no choice but to develope for it even though many of them would have preffered to stick with the original Gameboy and its simplistic graphics which required such little effort. They'll have the luxury of just completely ignoring the PSP.  

609

Nintendo Gaming / Zelda getting milked?

« on: June 16, 2003, 06:08:01 AM »

The Wind Waker titles are the only true Gamecube Zelda games.
I'm pretty sure Nintendo would consider Four Swords a GCN/GBA game and a lot of people believe Tetra's Trackers won't be released as a stand-alone game, and instead will be a part of Four Swords or as part of a collection of connectivity games.
Master Quest obviously doesn't count.
So I don't think Zelda is being milked. Mario either. He may be in a lot of games but they're all very different and the vast majority of them are great. Look at Mario Kart. Any other developer would release a new addition of the game every two years if not sooner but Nintendo has made it a point to only release one per console. It was SIX years between the two 3D platform Mario titles. The Mario Party series is different but I'd consider it to be the only case where Mario is being milked. That series isn't even made by Nintendo anyway and, since the games are so simplistic in design, I don't think it's that big a deal anyway.  

610

Nintendo Gaming / Gamecube Gameboy Player

« on: June 15, 2003, 03:19:02 PM »

I think the Indigo Cube and Black GBP would look good together.
The colors don't clash and the Indigo Cube already has quite a bit of black on it anyway.

The Gamecube intro screen is actually a mix of Indigo and Black too and it looks damn good.

611

Nintendo Gaming / Gamecube Gameboy Player

« on: June 15, 2003, 03:16:42 PM »

I think the Indigo Cube and Black GBP would look good together.
The colors don't clash and the Indigo Cube already has quite a bit of black on it anyway.

612

Nintendo Gaming / The Gamecube system menu...

« on: June 14, 2003, 07:50:22 AM »

A lot of games already have timers that tell you how long you've played them.
Smash Bros Melee actually does have one.

As for the Gamecube menu. It's nothing new.
The ancient Sega Saturn had one that had all the same features and, if I recall, many more.
So it obviously doesn't require a hard-drive. I think there's just a really small amount of memory storage somewhere in the console or something. I think maybe it's called RAM but, what do I know, I'm not a techie.

613

Nintendo Gaming / Interesting Tid bit from a japanese survey.

« on: June 13, 2003, 09:30:22 PM »

Now that I've looked it over, that survey is kind of weird.
First off, it's not THAT anticipated. Less than half of consumers and game shops are looking forward to it? The question wasn't whether they'd buy or stock it, just whether they were at all looking forward to it. You'd think that just having the name Playstation attached to it would at least get the vast majority interested in it.

The consumers and developers also aren't realistic about the features they want in it.
Sure, a hand-held that plays DVDs, goes online, acts as a phone, and has 3D graphics may sound great to these people when they take the survey but how many of them would actually still want to buy the thing if they found out how expensive it would be?
As for the developers. Many of them aren't even willing to develope 2D titles for the GBA despite its huge user-base, so I doubt they'd be clammoring to develope 3D titles for the PSP. As for online gaming, if the majority of developers aren't even willing to do it on the PS2, I don't see why they'd do it for the PSP.
All these things may sound good in theory but they wouldn't hold up in the reality of the market. Hopefully Sony will follow the advice of these survey-takers and kill any chance of the PSP being even a minor threat to the GBA's dominance

614

Nintendo Gaming / Interesting Tid bit from a japanese survey.

« on: June 13, 2003, 09:08:50 PM »

"The connection is actually a GREAT idea for Sony. The GC/GBA link up hasn't been so hot for Nintendo because it primarily benefits only Cube owners. The link-up sells GBAs to Cube owners. Nintendo needs something that does the opposite and sells Gamecubes to the bigger GBA market."

I disagree. I think the connectivity will mostly benefit the Gamecube sells. Take Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for instance. People who don't own Gamecubes will play it at their Cube-owning friends' houses using their own GBA as a controller which will HOPEFULLY get them interested in buying a Gamecube of their own. The same could be true with just about all the other connectivity titles. I've already experienced something similar with The Preview Disc. A friend brought his GBA over to download the Wario Ware Demo and it got him more interested in the Gamecube. The connectivity might not have played much of a factor in the Gamecube's success as of yet but, in fairness, Nintendo is only just starting to exploit the feature.
Presumably, just about all Gamecube owners already have GBA's so, for that reason alone, I don't see how the connectivity could sell THAT many of them. SOME people might buy multiple GBAs for games like FFCC but I think most people will just invite their GBA-owning friends over. That's obviously what Nintendo is banking on.

But there are really two major reasons why PS3/PSP connectivity just wouldn't catch on.

1) Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Zelda Four Swords, and presumably many future connectivity games require using multiple GBAs as controllers. That's not much of an obstacle since just about everyone already owns a GBA and getting together three other friends with one won't be much of a challenge for many people. You could even buy extra GBAs for yourself if you need them since they're so cheap. With the PSP, it would be different. It won't saturate the market the way the GBA has anytime soon (likely never). If it's really going to be as expensive as people are speculating, that will just be another obstacle. The connectivity features in games like FFCC and ZFS actually accounts for the handheld being FAR more popular than the console.

2) The connectivity isn't like online gaming or DVD playback. It's not some straight-forward addition. It opens up all kinds of new gameplay possibilities for developers that are creative enough to think them up. Sony may be able to copy (probably poorly too) things Nintendo does but Nintendo will be the one thinking up the new ideas for the connectivity. If Sony actually does try to compete in that area, Nintendo will just have to start being even more secretive about the connectivity features in its future games and give Sony as little time as possible to rip them off.

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Nintendo Gaming / New Nintendo mascots?

« on: May 29, 2003, 02:41:59 PM »

"And Mario... his luck luster sales have shown he's getting old"

I don't think it's fair to say Mario's sales have become lackluster. Mario Sunshine's sales may have been lackluster by Mario standards but it still sold really well by normal game standards and is one of Gamecube's best-selling games. The game didn't sell as strongly as expected for a variety of reasons, and I don't think diminishing popularity of the mascot was one of them.
Just look at the Mario Advance titles. They've been some of the GBA's strongest sellers.

"You can't argue they've been milking Pokemon WAY too much, causing the hysteria to nearly die in North America."

The Pokemon hysteria would have died out no matter what. The games still sold really well, though. Most of the Pokemon hysteria was a result of the cartoon, the merchandise, cards, etc... and not the games anyway. The Pokemon fad died out like all fads too but, fortunately, there are still millions who appreciate the games.

616

Nintendo Gaming / New Nintendo mascots?

« on: May 28, 2003, 03:56:42 PM »

I'm glad Iwata sees the need for new Nintendo mascots.
Mario and Pokemon certainly won't be retired but new mascots will join them and may even "replace" them as Nintendo's top franchises.
I'm a little worried about Iwata's obsession with Nintendo retaking control of the console market though. How driven for dominance of the console market is he? Enough to start sacraficing Nintendo's uniqueness and innovation for the sake mainstream appeal. One look at his history makes me think he'd never resort to that but it may very well be the only way Nintendo could ever retake control of the market.
Hopefully Iwata will realize that, though winning the console war would be nice, it's far more important that Nintendo remain Nintendo even if that means it will have to settle for the silver or bronze.

617

Nintendo Gaming / The article that reveals Nintendo´s true nemesis

« on: May 28, 2003, 11:07:56 AM »

I really don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Sure, the fact that Nintendo fans only want Nintendo games may keep the Gamecube from selling as well as the PS2 but it has its share of benefits as well. The real money is in software sales after all. Sony may have sold a lot of PS2's but most of the console's best-selling games are made by third-party developers and all Sony really gets is royalty fees from them. When a Nintendo game sells millions of copies, all that money goes directly to Nintendo. That's why, despite it having a much smaller userbase, Nintendo made a MUCH bigger profit off the N64 than Sony made off the original Playstation.

As for the setbacks the Gamecube has faced, Nintendo has nothing but itself to blame for them.
The Gamecube entered the market over a year later than the PS2 and gave Sony ample time to dominate. With the Gamecube, Nintendo fixed many of the problems the N64 had but, unfortunately, repeated its biggest mistake and entered the race TOO DAMN LATE. If the Gamecube had launched against the PS2, many third-party developers may have jumped ship to it for its ease in development as the PS2 is notoriously difficult to develop for. But, by the time the Gamecube development kits were released, the PS2 had already sold millions and developers were already finished up their AAA system-selling second-generation titles for it.
Maybe the Gamecube's late arrival would have been ok if it had an amazing, innovative, flag-ship launch title that would take the world by storm, but instead it had Luigi's Mansion which was a fun game but not something to launch a console with. If not for Smash Bros Melee which thankfully arrived shortly after the launch, the console would probably only be doing half as well. Of course, shortly after launch came a SIX MONTH DROUGHT where Nintendo didn't release any first/second party games which convinced consumers it was the N64 all over again. That was followed by ED which was released in the dead of Summer when it had no chance of getting any attention. Then came Mario which, though very fun, was nothing we hadn't seen before. As long as it took for the Gamecube to get a true Mario title, people understandably expected MUCH more. By the time it was released, there were plenty of 3D platform games on the PS2 and people were getting bored with the genre. Mario was followed by the incredibly disappointing Starfox Adventures. Metroid Prime and Animal Crossing actually did live up to expectations but, by the time they were released, a ton of damage had already been done. A game Nintendo really should have had ready for the Gamecube's first year was Mario Kart which would have sold a ton of consoles. Mario Kart played a huge role in the early success of Nintendo's previous two consoles and it's just ridiculous that Nintendo didn't have the game ready much sooner. It would have also been very wise for Nintendo to have a Pokemon game ready for the Gamecube's first year as well. At the very least it could have done something to counter-attack the XBox's "free game" offer during the holiday season. I have no doubt the Gamecube could have beaten XBox over the holiday season if Nintendo had been more competitive.
If Nintendo had made better decisions, it could have easily met and greatly surpassed its sales expectations and could be beating the hell out of Sony right now, if not in hardware sales, then certainly in (console) profits.  

618

Nintendo Gaming / Side Scrolling Mario!!

« on: May 27, 2003, 08:00:01 PM »

The problem is you're acting like "realistic" graphics are synonymous with "good" graphics. That's not always the case. Take Wind Waker for instance. Toon-shading is a difficult effect to pull off and actually requires more effort from the hardware than "normal" realistic graphics. Wind Waker isn't realistic at all but it is still one of the most graphically impressive games ever and made great use of the Gamecube's hardware.
Nintendo could take FULL advantage of the Gamecube's power for the next Mario game and have it end up looking less realistic than SMS.

619

Nintendo Gaming / No more GC exclusives from Sega due to poor sales...

« on: May 27, 2003, 11:03:10 AM »

It's got to be a mistranslation. It was probably intended to just refer to the sports titles and not all games in general. Sega's best selling game since going multi-platform is Gamecube exclusive afterall. Sure, a few of Sega's Gamecubes titles have under-performed but, as as far as I know, ALL of its XBox titles have.
I could maybe see Sega stop giving exclusives to both the XBox and PS2 and start making all of its games multiplatform though. Actually, that would probably be the smart thing to do. But Sega tends to not do smart things.

BTW, isn't Cube-Europe the site that once reported Rare had gone third-party and was moving Starfox Adventures to the PS2?

620

Nintendo Gaming / Side Scrolling Mario!!

« on: May 26, 2003, 02:14:29 PM »

"All i want is for super mario games to be more challenging like how they were in the smbworld and more linear. I hate all that freedom that they give you "

Most people who hated Mario 64 for that reason seemed to like Mario Sunshine a lot better.
The game is far more linear. There are even arrows that guide you along each mission and, at the start of the stage, it shows you exactly where you need to go. The greatest part of the game is the "secret levels", though, most of which are entirely linear.
Best of all, the red coins aren't annoyingly scattered everywhere like in Mario 64. They're usually in one distinct section of the levels. The game is definitly more challenging too.

I am hoping the next Mario game will be a side-scroller though.
I think it should be cel-shaded to capture the look of the NES/SNES games but also allow amazing 3D effects.

621

TalkBack / Aonuma Confirms Wind Waker Sequel

« on: May 24, 2003, 02:28:45 PM »

I remember hearing that Wind Waker was in development well before Majora's Mask was finished.
I think something similar will happen this time around.
Hopefully Nintendo's next console will launch with an amazing, innovative Mario title that will take the world by storm followed by an even better Zelda title the year after.

622

TalkBack / Nintendo Sales and Profits Fall Again

« on: May 22, 2003, 11:42:37 AM »

I think Nintendo's main problem was that it just wasn't competetive enough.
It should have done something to match the XBox's bundle deals in the US and Europe DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON. But it didn't do anything. It could have beaten the XBox in both markets if it had.

But maybe Nintendo was right. I'm no business expert. Maybe it was more important for Nintendo to be as profitable as possible over the holiday season and not give away free games despite the consequences. All I know is despite how so many people seem to think Nintendo is a company run by idiots, it's still one of the most consistantly profitable companies in the world and one of few game companies making a profit at all at the moment. So I'm just going to assume Nintendo is smarter than any of us and it knows what it's doing.

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Nintendo Gaming / the GBP/GC bundle to put the nail in xbox coffin?

« on: May 22, 2003, 11:24:09 AM »

I'm sure it will drastically enhance the Gamecube's lead over the XBox world-wide and substantially lessen the gap between them in the US but it won't kill the XBox or anything.
Really, the XBox should already be dead. Most companies would drop a product that is burning away such a ridiculous amount of money. But MS is obviously just using the XBox as its way to break into the industry, hoping the XBox 2 (and 3,4,5, etc..) will make them some money. I doubt it will happen though. The XBox 2 won't stand a chance against the PS3. So unless MS is willing to lose tons of money keeping it alive too, it might just decide the gaming industry isn't even worth breaking into it anymore. When MS decided to throw its hat into the ring, gaming was a gold-mine. Now it seems like just about everyone in the industry except Nintendo is losing millions and facing certain death.

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General Gaming / Anyone else think Nintendo had a lame show?

« on: May 16, 2003, 07:29:22 PM »

"I think another reason that this year's E3 is kind of dull is that the console war for this generation is essentially over. We all know who's going to finish in what place."

What are you talking about? Nintendo and MS are still basically neck-and-neck.
Nintendo is supposably still ahead in worldwide sales and MS has only a relatively small lead in the US and an even smaller lead in Europe. Before MS started its bundle deal, Nintendo was doing better than it in Europe and was very closely tailing it in the US.
There are AT LEAST another two full years (and two holiday seasons) before the new consoles will be released and A LOT of hardware can still be sold in that time.

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Nintendo Gaming / Lack of everything...

« on: May 16, 2003, 06:32:35 PM »

"there was no spaceworld last year..what makes you think there will be one this year....what really pisses me off is hwo Nintendo said there would be some BIG suprises NEXT YEAR and there were none"

It doesn't really bother me. Nintendo has so many unaccounted for resources that we know it has a ton of secret games in development. Whether it reveals them now, at Spaceworld (and I think it's safe to assume there will be one this year), or on some randomn day over the next few months, they'll eventually get here all the same.
I'm already looking forward to more than enough GCN titles as is.

My guess is, since so many of these games are supposably entirely original and not part of existing franchises, Nintendo didn't want to show them out of fear of them being ignored in favor of the franchise games like Mario Kart. That, and it wanted the focus to be mostly on the connectivity games.