Do you think Nintendo considered the N64 a success?

[goldenpp72 | 1,235]

3 minutes ago, wongojack said:

I think contributors to this thread know this, but the "Nintendo is for kids" narrative (right or wrong) started much earlier than N64 or Gamecube.  I guess the media pumped it harder at the Gamecube, but it was there almost from the very beginning.

Sega tried this a bit, so I recall it since I grew up in the 90s, but I wouldn't say they were ever successful in the prime sense. Sega managed to kind of cater to the teen boy group, but Nintendo still outsold both their hardware and their software by significant amounts. The N64 definitely had SOME of the 'kiddy' stuff, but it was offset a bunch by games like Goldeneye, Mario Kart and Smash being very popular with college groups, etc.

There's always been a bit of wiggle room with this, Game Boy was one big for all, kids, adults, whoever, but then when the GBC hit with Pokemon, it definitely was more slanted for kids at that point, then the GBA was just as such with anime game focuses, etc, but then the DS brought it back with a more casual, everyone approach.

The Gamecube is easily the most oppressed they ever were when it came to this topic though, largely because of insecure gamers and media not being able to accept they can still play Nintendo games. 

[G-type | 2,520]

It only launched with 2 games: Mario 64 and Pilotwings... and only manages to get 6 more out by Christmas. Total disaster.

[MegaMan52 | 2,459]

I knew even in the early 2000's that the whole "GameCube is a kiddie system" thing was total crap. That was the first era Nintendo themselves released two M rated games (Eternal Darkness and Geist) and also collaborated with Konami and Silicon Knights on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. I mentioned in my GameCube blog that it was the only console to receive fully uncensored versions of the original Resident Evil 3 and BMX XXX. Ubisoft also gave the GameCube version of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory a collector's edition Steelbook case, like they did with the other versions.

Edited March 23, 2023 by MegaMan52

[Nintegageo | 582]

@Tulpa that IGN article mentions a version in China that'd play N64 and SNES games. Was that a thing or was it the eventual Game Boy Player instead?

[Ankos | 463]

18 minutes ago, Nintegageo said:

@Tulpa that IGN article mentions a version in China that'd play N64 and SNES games. Was that a thing or was it the eventual Game Boy Player instead?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQue_Player

It only did N64 games when it finally came out

[Tanooki | 4,950]

Ique also lived in through a few other hardware pieces too.  
 

damn.  Forgot. WiiU just was a year over year loss not just a quarter.  Hate that thing  

GameCube was horribly maligned by a nexus of other slanted fanboy media, insecure grown babies, developer trolls too. Yet those first three years were great then it finally piled on to basically force a self made prophecy they like cowards wished for with failure. I remember that turning me off a lot to stuff and going more into the past not wanting to put money into babies hands paying into that justification.

 

And now here we are which of that generation is most loved?  Which is the most desired? Which is the most collected?  And as such the most toxic priced?  The so called kiddie box that should have out nintendo into the grave.  Screw them.

[Brickman | 4,012]

9 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

And now here we are which of that generation is most loved?  Which is the most desired? Which is the most collected?  And as such the most toxic priced?  The so called kiddie box that should have out nintendo into the grave.  Screw them.

I do love that the GC has now made a revival and everyone now all of a sudden wants it and the games because they've realised that all those articles and trolls didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

Imo the GC is probably the console they were the most experimental with. Luigi Mansion as a launch title, Mario wearing a water backpack, Metroid Prime, Dinosaur Star Fox game (yeah ok it was technically not meant to be a Star Fox game), all the RE remakes first going to the GC, Eternal Darkness, Wind Waker with cell shaded graphics (remember the fanboys crying about that one?), Rune 1 & 2 (sorry forgot the English name), MGS remake, Wavebird, GBA player, Animal Crossing essentially having a mini virtual console to test what people thought of bringing back NES games and the list goes on.

[Tabonga | 2,332]

19 minutes ago, Brickman said:

I do love that the GC has now made a revival and everyone now all of a sudden wants it and the games because they've realised that all those articles and trolls didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

Imo the GC is probably the console they were the most experimental with. Luigi Mansion as a launch title, Mario wearing a water backpack, Metroid Prime, Dinosaur Star Fox game (yeah ok it was technically not meant to be a Star Fox game), all the RE remakes first going to the GC, Eternal Darkness, Wind Waker with cell shaded graphics (remember the fanboys crying about that one?), Rune 1 & 2 (sorry forgot the English name), MGS remake, Wavebird, GBA player, Animal Crossing essentially having a mini virtual console to test what people thought of bringing back NES games and the list goes on.

The Rune games were Lost Kingdoms in the west.

While I have few Gamecube games, the attraction for me was always the Gameboy Player which gaves me access to the Gameboy/Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance libraries on a tv monitor.

 

[goldenpp72 | 1,235]

51 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Ique also lived in through a few other hardware pieces too.  
 

damn.  Forgot. WiiU just was a year over year loss not just a quarter.  Hate that thing  

GameCube was horribly maligned by a nexus of other slanted fanboy media, insecure grown babies, developer trolls too. Yet those first three years were great then it finally piled on to basically force a self made prophecy they like cowards wished for with failure. I remember that turning me off a lot to stuff and going more into the past not wanting to put money into babies hands paying into that justification.

 

And now here we are which of that generation is most loved?  Which is the most desired? Which is the most collected?  And as such the most toxic priced?  The so called kiddie box that should have out nintendo into the grave.  Screw them.

A fun thing I've noted, is that the Gamecube was largely cherished by children, and when I say that, I mean the kids who grew up with that system still adore it. You can see this with a ton of Youtube personalities of people in their 20s these days, people who's first console was a Gamecube or both a Gamecube and a PS2, the fondness for the Gamecube is infinitely greater and more revered by those people. PS2 is a great system, but it was kind of the king of '7/10' or '8/10' games and didn't have many truly legendary titles, where as the Gamecube had games that people still obsess over today like RE4, Prime, Wind Waker, or oddly, Sonic Adventure 2 (I love this game but it doesn't quite fit, but hey, people adore it today). 

Now we see the system and its lineup creeping up in price, meanwhile the other system that sold about the same, the Xbox, has almost no placement in the collector market. Nintendo has fortitude for sure, if not at the time, it'll come get you later.

Edited March 22, 2023 by goldenpp72

[Tanooki | 4,950]

@Brickman Totally, agreed and you left out some real whoppers like Cubivore, Chibi Robo, and Custom Robo too, also the first showing of console Fire Emblem as well, and the odd advance wars rip Battalion Wars.  Agreed on "celda" man did I wish I had a PUNCH FACE button on my keyboard back then, all the entitled arrogant rude comments were just over the top.  Even then I realized if I were looking back later it would age well since it didn't have the usual 3D angles to stuff, it was like watching a cartoon you controlled and it is, and still is.  Tabonga is true though, the GB Player was epic, a true successor and then some of the Super Gameboy.  Allowing thousands of gems to play on your TV was fantastic, sucked the SNES style GB controller never got released outside Japan.

@goldenpp72 I'm not really on board with children who cherish, that's a broad stroke one would say of the 8, 16, 32/64 bit era too.  Unless you just felt screwed by a poor choice and were stuck, or stuck renting largely would be an exception, yet in general terms your cares stick mostly to where you kind of started.  I'll admit being a victim there, I have a heap of NES, SNES and GB/C stuff that would go last, pry from the dead fingers last.  That said, Gamecube popped up when I started working in the industry back then, I had far less time around those eawife level of abuse hours and treatment yet still...gem after gem that it only got.  For those who didn't chug the kool-aid of the sycophantic lying media and fanboy suckups, any age would find dozens of epic opportunities there.  That's why I'm not pissing thousands of dollars on solid titles others have had to because I didn't chug the swill and I kept my goodies largely.  The PS2 was fine, but at that rate anyone with a semi-decent PC and a good video card could do what PS2 did, matched if not better with games that ported over.  It was  dawn of an era to come that would explode years later soon on PS3/360 where most games got ported, were better off (best versions), that cost less and ran with better control, more resolution heights, the works.  PS2 was a leader yes, but it was a generic leader outside of what it (like Nintendo) had as exclusives.  As you said, not very legendary, just above average a B/C system game quality wise, A's though to be fair on what only stayed on it in enough cases.  I think why Xbox has no leverage, the original just was mostly Halo, Forza, and little else that wasn't average ports and they were the dicks who charged for multiplayer while it was free elsewhere.  MS was ahead of the game, they also gave less cares a generation later considering they were all in putting their goodies on Steam/PC and pushing the 360 controller as the go-to windows standard as it was more about games than hardware since for them.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,017]

The GameCube hype was sustained by the success of the Wii. Nintendo did everything they could to get people to play GameCube games and for some small fraction of kids, they actually took advantage of either having the privilege of growing up playing decent games on the worst controller ever developed whether that was on the GCN or the Wii.

GCN games are still kinda locked to the original hardware or a Wii, or Wii U. But Wiis are aging and GameCubes aren't HD. Wii U has HDMI but it shit the bed, the gamepad is uncomfortable and it might be bricked if it's not turned on enough. 

So now the only way to play these games is to either cough up $70 for a decent game or emulate since Nintendo still hasn't released any games other than Sunshine from the vault. Whether it's a popular opinion or not, the best way to drive up price of used games is to keep them in a vault. The second a GameCube line up gets accessable for $40 a title or $50 a year, the prices are getting cut in half. 

Edited March 23, 2023 by RegularGuyGamer

[G-type | 2,520]

2 hours ago, Brickman said:

do love that the GC has now made a revival and everyone now all of a sudden wants it and the games because they've realised that all those articles and trolls didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

It’s not a mystery. every console becomes a retro collectible 20 years after it came out because that’s when the target audience reaches the age when they have the money and nostalgia to buy it again.

[Brickman | 4,012]

18 minutes ago, G-type said:

It’s not a mystery. every console becomes a retro collectible 20 years after it came out because that’s when the target audience reaches the age when they have the money and nostalgia to buy it again.

This is true but it's not like people are busting down the doors for Xbox games (at least not that I'm aware of) and besides horror and RPG the PS2 library is pretty cheap.

But I was really just meaning it is funny how much the console was mocked and called a kid system at the time but has now become the most popular of the three from the era.

29 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

The second a GameCube line up gets accessable for $40 a title or $50 a year, the prices are getting cut in half. 

I've been hearing that line since the Wii virtual console days and how NES and SNES games are going to crash  The demand for GC is pretty big, maybe not here but other places like Reddit etc, a lot of people are collecting GC.

[Tanooki | 4,950]

I'm after GC again in recent months or so, but offline.  It helps keep the pain down to a minimum because if the prices sucks I walk away, and if it beats the online troll rates by a comfortable enough margin I buy.  When I see something in the same condition/completeness now tipping $100-120, and I can snap it up for $60-70 locally, I will.  That's what happened with Wario World and most recently Simspons Hit & Run(this I never had before, amazing game surprised me big time.)

But I'm just as happy with a $5-10 copy of Legends of Wrestling all the same too found last year.

 

Funny how this broke away from n64 to a cube chat.  Almost seems like a mod should break the topic in half as this is good, just derailed.

[AirVillain | 490]

They still create games/content based off it... so yes. 

They are squeezing that bad boy dry! It's STILL a success. 

Edited March 23, 2023 by AirVillain

[goldenpp72 | 1,235]

12 hours ago, G-type said:

It’s not a mystery. every console becomes a retro collectible 20 years after it came out because that’s when the target audience reaches the age when they have the money and nostalgia to buy it again.

Really depends, Xbox people certainly don't run around busting down the doors, and while there are some rarities, the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP are still pretty cheap to collect for. You see some increases on the more obscure gems but, all very much doable still. It really is just Nintendo and Sega that command the highest prices at this moment, throw in some Neogeo or other obscure golden age systems and you have your big money areas.

I think the rarest Xbox title I own is worth like, 150 bucks, and I have over 1000 games across them. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I doubt it. It sold poorly compared to prior systems and competitors, cost them precious third party support, and put them behind technologically. It had no unique features and actually required significant additional hardware to even present the illusion that it was a competent machine. While there were minor successes such as transitioning important franchises to 3D, it was in many ways their first major mistake as a videogame company and a sign of future hubris that would continue to plague the company for many years.

[Gentlegamer | 174]

13 hours ago, Brickman said:

This is true but it's not like people are busting down the doors for Xbox games (at least not that I'm aware of) and besides horror and RPG the PS2 library is pretty cheap.

Let's keep it that way, both are treasure troves of great games.

[fox | 1,673]

On 3/22/2023 at 3:26 PM, wongojack said:

I think contributors to this thread know this, but the "Nintendo is for kids" narrative (right or wrong) started much earlier than N64 or Gamecube.  I guess the media pumped it harder at the Gamecube, but it was there almost from the very beginning.

I mean video games were for adults in bars playing on cocktail cabs or at least teens in smokey dark arcades.  Even Atari sold its systems as home computers and featured adults in the marketing with no children present.  It wasn't until Nintendo came around selling their system as a toy that video games were seen as a kiddie thing.  Feels like Nintendo came along and took your video games and gave them to your baby brother.

Nintendo really disney-fied the whole industry for many years and their censorship policy was really heavy handed and led to the blood-less version of Mortal Kombat, which raised a loud uproar.  Meanwhile Sega was catering more and more to teens and young adults and came off looking a lot cooler in the process.  Sony followed the same path and were able to showcase a lot more mature groundbreaking titles on their platform.  Nintendo just seemed very slow and unwilling to change with the shift in demographics.

What does this have to do with the Gamecube?  The whole cel-da controversy, zelda fans wanted something more dark and serious like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and you have this weird cartoony thing to showcase the new Nintendo system.  You have PS2 out there getting all the games, and even Xbox doing exciting things and making waves, and Nintendo just looked that much more out of touch with what people wanted at the time.  Nintendo ironically did cave and put out some more mature stuff for gamecube, but it was too little too late so shake off the kiddie stink the brand had spent decades wallowing in.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,017]

20 hours ago, Brickman said:

I've been hearing that line since the Wii virtual console days and how NES and SNES games are going to crash  The demand for GC is pretty big, maybe not here but other places like Reddit etc, a lot of people are collecting GC.

It has tho. Look at recent diamond and pearl releases. SNES and NES can't stack up against goofy little GCN discettes. Im not saying availability will crash the market but it'll bring C rate titles like wario world back to earth. 

[Hammerfestus | 3,881]

Remember that time Squaresoft ditched them?

 

My phone really wanted to autocorrect me to SquarePants 

[Brickman | 4,012]

3 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

It has tho. Look at recent diamond and pearl releases. SNES and NES can't stack up against goofy little GCN discettes. Im not saying availability will crash the market but it'll bring C rate titles like wario world back to earth. 

Possibly or they may just level out for a bit then rise again. That is normally a common thing when they get released digitally. I don’t see GC games crashing any time soon with how many people are getting into it.

I actually just finished Wario World for my backlog and definitely wouldn’t call it a C rate title. It’s actually a great game but a bit short. It’s also made by Treasure so I don’t know if it would crash. 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

56 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Possibly or they may just level out for a bit then rise again. That is normally a common thing when they get released digitally. I don’t see GC games crashing any time soon with how many people are getting into it.

I actually just finished Wario World for my backlog and definitely wouldn’t call it a C rate title. It’s actually a great game but a bit short. It’s also made by Treasure so I don’t know if it would crash. 

Anything made by high quality devs of any genre always holds its value- treasure, compile, atlus, working designs, etc

[phart010 | 1,708]

Wario World probably was a B-C game if that’s a thing. That’s doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not as good as something like Mario Sunshine.

It’s pretty clear there’s a graphics disparity between the two. And as you mentioned, length of the game

[Tanooki | 4,950]

There is and WW is squarely an A effort in a B tier game, C not by a long shot.  It gets knocked down because of the brevity of it and due to the way it just in general plays.  It's almost this like 2.5D style scroller of sorts with canned rooms for the environments, almost like a handheld game.  There's just less there more often than not, but what is there with what's less is really really good.