Why n64 failed

I also really liked Wave Race 64, which I personally found very entertaining, and, of course, Ocarina of Time, which is one of my all-time faves. I think that's the reason why I still have very fond memories for the N To be honest, I spent most of my time gaming on a PlayStation during this period, but every so often a new N64 game would be released that I'd really enjoy playing, so all my memories of the system are really positive.

I don't think I bought a bad game for my N The Nintendo 64 was a weird system. Other than the GameCube, I don't think I've ever seen a system with as odd a controller. The mighty claw worked great for games like Mario 64, but I've never had to struggle with a fighting games as much as I did with Killer Instinct. It's one of those things where I've always wondered how that was the final product for a general game console.

I can't even imagine how it worked if you were left-handed. Graphically, N64 games didn't age well either. A side effect of the Nintendo 64's small amount of RAM was every game had issues with limited space for textures, leading to a generally blurry look for most games.

Nintendo was deft in working around it, but many third-party titles just looked bad on the system. Nintendo ultimately made the RAM cartridge, but it was a peripheral, so support wasn't as widespread as it could be. Despite these issues, I look back on the N64 with fondness.

Super Mario 64 is amazing and Mario Kart 64 remains one of my favorites in the series. GoldenEye is one of the games that brought the first-person shooter to consoles. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a huge jump for the series and it's impressive at how well Nintendo pulled that off.

Largely out the window. JRPGs are positively archaic from a general design viewpoint. Most of their mechanics are identical to SNES games. They're just 3D instead. GillianSeed79 Member. Oct 27, 1, Nintendo went from having a near monopoly with the NES followed by the best market share, slightly edging out Sega, and the lion's share of 3rd party support with the SNES to the N64 - a console with terrible 3rd party support and ambition.

The N64 was a failure on all fronts except 1st party software. Nintendo ceded their domination of the industry with the N64 and they haven't recovered since. It was a console fueled by Nintendo's greed and desire for control.

Consoles are not religions. There is no grand ethos for a console. Any attempt to discount them looks like delusion caused by blind fervor for a corporation.

Comparing the entire genre of JRPGs to "tank controls" is bizarre. Valkyrie Banned For Spam Banned. Oct 27, Last edited: May 24, The N64 was a console where games would be rejected for publication if they had z-fighting and also everyone used performance-destroying anti-aliasing even though it was supposed to be optional.

The N64 had an overarching ethos. It was unspoken but understood. The N64 hardware lended itself to certain kinds of games that obviously mirror what is popular in N64 devs mimicked other N64 devs. It snowballed. An overarching design direction appeared among developers. Of course there were outliers, but why do you think almost all the "platformers" were essentially open world sandbox games and not, you know, platformers?

Open world games. Sports games. First person shooters. Third person action adventure games. Multiplayer games. Co-op games. If you were making an N64 game, you added multiplayer if you could. If you were porting a game to the N64 that already had multiplayer, you enhanced the MP if possible. If possible, you added co-op because co-op was always popular on N JRPGs have a number of defining characteristics that were simply not popular on the N Things like turn based combat, for example.

The N64 moved in a very different direction as a platform. They're so contrary to the system-wide design trends. That doesn't make them bad.

It just makes them like puzzle pieces that don't fit. Deleted member User requested account closure Banned. Oct 28, 4, EU. I have such fond memories of the N So many amazing games, I loved it. It was magical as a kid. Going back though, the framerates and the fog are killing me.

Oct 27, 20, Plenty of people call the n64 a failure based on the fact that Nintendo lost the Top Spot to Sony and lost a bunch of 3rdParty support. Deleted member Banned. Oct 25, 2, I think the question if the N64 was a success should be asked to the western developers, for some weird reason lots of them just wanted to develop a game for it, i mean Blizzard did that Starcraft game, and DMA design of course now rockstar north were screwed by Nintendo on Body Harvest and yet they developed space station silicon valley for the 64 later ported to other consoles and Nintendo way of repaying them was stealing the capture mechanic for SMO.

HistoricalAnomaly Member. Oct 30, Massachusetts. Only place the N64 "failed" is Japan. Blackage Banned. I think when people refer to the system being a failure, they're primarily talking about it's legacy and how the Playstation brand just dominated the world stage afterwards, largely in part because of Nintendo's awful decisions at the time.

The system just had a great deal of garbage, and it started the trend in my mind that the only games worth buying for Nintendo consoles were Nintendo games, 3rd party support was dead. There was just a ridiculous amount of content on the PS1 to play compared to Nintendo's offering, and I can't be alone in remembering what it felt like to compare the libraries of the 2 systems.

Karateka Member. Oct 28, 5, Calling the n64 a failure requires a very flawed idea of what is important to one as a game player. Calling it a failure means you are acting like you believe the companies profit margins are the most important thing. The N64 had some of the greatest games of all time. This alone makes it a worthy console in retrospect.

Penny Royal The Fallen. Oct 25, 3, QLD, Australia. According to IGN , the 64DD was "essentially a creativity package and limited online experiment at the same time. Additionally, it let players access the internet and share their creations online. Unfortunately, the experiment did not turn out well.

Ultimately, the magnetic disk drive reportedly only sold 15, units total when it released in Japan in After its slow start, it was hastily discontinued. Here's a look at why the 64DD failed. Nintendo unveiled the 64DD at 's Shoshinkai game show. Not even in the slightest. It should come as no surprise by now that Sony and Nintendo were once in talks to make a console together.

Originally Sony was going to basically make a CD peripheral for the SNES, but Nintendo backed out at the last minute, creating some bad blood in the process. What did they care? They were Nintendo and on top of the mountain.

However, that hubris did them in. Not only did Sony create a rival console, releasing it before Nintendo's, but they also stole once exclusive third-party developers like Squaresoft. You done goofed Nintendo. I recently wrote an article ranking the twenty-five big consoles by sales numbers. This includes everything Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft put out. Seeing the gaps was a great learning experience and really solidified how much stronger the PS1 was compared to the N The latter console sold about 32M units while the former sold about M units.

That is a staggering gap in sales. Yes, it had a two-year lead globally, but even that shouldn't account for how far behind Nintendo was. The N64 could have been better for a number of reasons. I mean that's sort of the point of this article. I wanted to look at its flaws to determine where and how Nintendo fell. Even with the bad blood with Sony they could have come out on top if they just stuck to their guns.

That is to say, Nintendo canceled a lot of games. Would EarthBound 64 and Metroid 64 be strong enough to save it? Maybe yes, but probably no. If Nintendo wanted to cancel games then they should have at least made a conscious decision to bring every weapon to the table that they could. That is to say, there were excellent games that were never localized outside of Japan. Sin and Punishment for example. They didn't even have a lot to translate if they did it. There was also Custom Robo and the original Animal Crossing.

Two games that would have been big hits, I think, with fans. Games weren't the only thing neglected by the Western branch of Nintendo. We also didn't get the N64 disc drive add-on. This bulky piece of plastic acted as a second processor of sorts and also let players download games. It was a way to make content closer to the PlayStation.

Nintendo had a lot of plans, but due to poor sales they canceled a lot of projects in Japan and scrapped the idea of even bringing it over here. There's been a lot of rumors and speculation concerning the whereabouts of an N64 classic.

While sure, it would be cool, there's always a question close behind. Are there enough games, that are still good, to justify a purchase? If you were to make a wish list, chances are half of it would be Rare games.