Fun Club Looking back, the N64 era feels the most existentially dire era for Nintendo prior to the Wii U.

[YolkFolk]

The N64 might not have had a steady release schedule but the better games that did come were seen as juggernauts which allowed them to at least stand up to the dominant Playstation.

Releases like Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were arguably the most anticipated of all time. It was also the top choice for many when it came to split screen multiplayer experiences with groups of friends with games like Goldeneye, No Mercy, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros bettering what Playstation could offer in that department.

Gamecube by comparison was just absolutely nothing. Sunshine and Wind Waker didn’t have the might of SM64 or OoT and no Rare made it feel like there was a big hole in the software line up. It just felt like the console didn’t compete with Playstation 2 at any level and even the market recognition was low. People point to better third party support for GC over N64 overall but a lot of these titles were frowned upon at the time for being worse versions than on PS2/Xbox due to disk space and missing button controls.

Gamecube was Nintendo at absolute rock bottom and it was their lowest low until the Wii U released in 2012. It genuinely felt like Nintendo had no where to go and it was hard to envisage them being successful again without something spectacular lined up.

 

[Deleted member 2181]

The GCN may have ultimately been death-by-1,000-cuts, but the one biggest factor behind its failure was its late launch.

It just came out too late. PS2 had already sown up the market completely by the time the GCN had launched. If the GCN came out in November 2000 it might've stood a chance, but by end of 2001? Nah. It was far too late by then.

The N64's own late launch was a contributing factor to the GCN's late release of course, but they ultimately should've just cut the N64's life short and moved its slate of 2000 releases (especially Perfect Dark) over to the new console. Imagine the GCN launching (albiet with reduced PS2 level specs at a similar price), but at the same time as the PS2 with fucking PERFECT DARK as a launch title!

That's an interesting perspective. I had a SNES, an N64... and never bought a Gamecube. Nothing on there appealed to me (except for, eventually, The Wind Waker). If it had launched with Perfect Dark though? I'd have got it day one probably.
Instead we got news that Microsoft had bought Rare. So I went X-Box, which was an incredibly stupid move on my part.

 

[PixelKnight]

It’s funny because it didn’t feel that way as a kid. Everyone at school had an n64 and everyone loved Nintendo and Zelda and Mario party and smash bros. And the lack of games didn’t hurt because it was so easy to play the same game over and over. I imagine for anybody in their late teens or twenties at the time it probably sucked lol.

I think it totally depends on where you were as well as how old you were. The N64 did really well in the US but got utterly trounced here in the UK, where ‘PlayStation’ took over from ‘Nintendo’ as the default term for a games console almost overnight. The games were half the price and it also keyed into a lot of club/media trends here at the time, meaning the PlayStation pretty much got the win in terms of pop culture for anyone over 18, and younger teens obviously wanted in on that stuff too. Where it didn’t was, obviously, Pokemon, which cemented the silly divide of casting Nintendo as ‘for kids’ even further than Sega’s warz ads in the 90s did.

For me though, seeing PSOne wipe the floor with the N64 here was all part of me leaving games behind for a bit around 1999 though. I would have been late teens/early 20s, and felt a bit old for Pokemon but I was also commuting with my first job, and just didn’t have much time for home consoles. I eventually returned in around 2006 with FFXII on PS2, the DS, PSP and the Wii, all of which reminded me what I loved about games. So I pretty much skipped a lot of the Gamecube and GBA years too.

 

[YolkFolk]

That's an interesting perspective. I had a SNES, an N64... and never bought a Gamecube. Nothing on there appealed to me (except for, eventually, The Wind Waker). If it had launched with Perfect Dark though? I'd have got it day one probably.
Instead we got news that Microsoft had bought Rare. So I went X-Box, which was an incredibly stupid move on my part.

It wasn’t as big of a thing then but a remaster of Perfect Dark at 480p/60fps would have been great for them on day 1. Many had moved on from the N64 by the time the original released so having it on a next gen system looking smooth af would have been a great advert for the new console.

 

[GamerJM]

Do we have sales data of N64 hardware from each year of its life? The impression I've always gotten was that even though the software lineup later on was stronger, the N64's hardware sales were relatively frontloaded in the 96-98 era because of the hype of analog movement and 3D (and a lot of the big PS1 juggernauts like Gran Turismo, FF7, Tekken 3, and MGS didn't come until late 97-98, a year after the N64 launched). The zeitgeist later in the N64's lifespan was also the leadup to the PS2's launch, and then its eventual launch as well. And by that time Pokemon was already international.

 

[Yoshifan31]

As a kid I didn’t know anyone with PS1s, only N64s

On top of goated games like Mario 64 and OOT, you had actual 4 player multiplayer games. It really wasn’t that doomed of an era, especially when you consider Pokemon. The PS1’s sales gap mostly widened after the PS2 already had come out, PS1s were super cheap. When both consoles were active it wasn’t total domination at all, neck and neck even. This mostly applies to NA but still. Pretty sure N64 games were consistently the top selling software as well

I think the Gamecube era had way more Nintendoomed. Gamecube could actually run anything on PS2 and do it better, there was no real limitation like discs vs cartridges the previous gen (mini cds and the controller did hurt a bit but that’s still nothing too major). Meanwhile, the PS2 simply had all of the games, Nintendo was still hurt from the loss of third party support. Even the few Gamecube third party exclusive end up being ported. On top of that you had the PSP that had the potential to kill the GBA because it played music, movies and had graphics that were closer to home console level, no wonder why the DS suddenly dropped. I guess I’m biased because that’s the generation when I started to follow gaming media but yeah I definitely feel like it was a dire time. During the N64 era at least you could live off Nintendo and Rare’s games alone, they are better and offer more than everything on PS1 combined tbh. Literal goated single player games, play four player multiplayer out of the box. There’s a reason why every meme out there romanticize Goldeneye, Smash 64, Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party but don’t mention anything about the PS1

 

[Semi Lazy Gamer]

The GCN may have ultimately been death-by-1,000-cuts, but the one biggest factor behind its failure was its late launch.

It just came out too late. PS2 had already sown up the market completely by the time the GCN had launched. If the GCN came out in November 2000 it might've stood a chance, but by end of 2001? Nah. It was far too late by then.

The N64's own late launch was a contributing factor to the GCN's late release of course, but they ultimately should've just cut the N64's life short and moved its slate of 2000 releases (especially Perfect Dark) over to the new console. Imagine the GCN launching (albiet with reduced PS2 level specs at a similar price), but at the same time as the PS2 with fucking PERFECT DARK as a launch title!

The GCN was also late by three days to the Xbox in the US, which also had a killer app at launch with Halo and online play.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

Do we have sales data of N64 hardware from each year of its life? The impression I've always gotten was that even though the software lineup later on was stronger, the N64's hardware sales were relatively frontloaded in the 96-98 era because of the hype of analog movement and 3D (and a lot of the big PS1 juggernauts like Gran Turismo, FF7, Tekken 3, and MGS didn't come until late 97-98, a year after the N64 launched). The zeitgeist later in the N64's lifespan was also the leadup to the PS2's launch, and then its eventual launch as well. And by that time Pokemon was already international.

Yes, you are correct. The N64 had a record breaking launch, and kept pace with, and in some cases even outsold, the PS1 for the next 18-24 months. Even FF7 did not completely neutralize the N64.

However, 1998 was the last time N64 was really competitive in that sense; Ocarina of Time was out, it would never get another hit on that level, and the conversation was now moved to the upcoming next generation with the Dreamcast already out in Japan in 1998 and the PS2 hype torpedoing literally everuthing else in its path.

In its first year, the N64 sold 5.80 million units (remember, this was a record breaking launch)
In its second year, it sold nearly 10 million units
In its third year it sold nearly 8 million units, bringing it to 23 million units at the end of 1998.

After that, from here until the end of its lifespan in early 2003, it sold a grand total of under 10 million units globally.

 

[Phendrift]

As someone who wasn’t there during that time, it’s always hard to see when people claim it was dire.

Like I believe it when it’s explained to me, but in hindsight games like SM64 and OoT left such an impact on their legacy that it’s hard to believe they were in any real danger.

The legacy of the N64 is really positive, with games that stand the test of time. You wouldn’t think at all that it was a bad time for Nintendo when those two juggernauts still make top 5 GOAT lists to this day.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

As someone who wasn’t there during that time, it’s always hard to see when people claim it was dire.

Like I believe it when it’s explained to me, but in hindsight games like SM64 and OoT left such an impact on their legacy that it’s hard to believe they were in any real danger.

N64, GameCube, and even Wii U all benefit in discourse now from being assessed in their totality. In other words, when you are talking about N64 now, you are looking at one library of Maio 64, Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros., Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, etc. It's a dozen or so amazing games that you suddenly get dropped in your lap at the same time. That is overwhelming and paints a very different picture than how things were at the time, where these games were spread apart by weeks, months, sometimes even years. PS1 had as many games released in an off-year as N64 had in total;. Saturn even had more games released than N64!

This syndrome also impacts retrospective perception and analysis of GameCube and even Wii U (this one is always fucking hilarious to me because it was less than a decade ago guys, don't try to gaslight me lol). But yeah, the pace of releases, combined with the volume of releases, was what killed those systems, these are all very important lessons Nintendo learned from N64-GCN-Wii-Wii U and, yes, 3DS, because all these systems have great libraries but are done in by the cadence of those releases and the lack of constant new content to keep their install bases engaged.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

I sort of felt the same as someone who wasn't there and didn't get into games until the gamecube/ps2 era. The library always looked sparse especially compared to the PS1's but I think the thing is most the library - or at least the first party output - is full of heavy hitters. A lot of the games from this era are still considered some of Nintendo's all-time greats like Mario 64 and OoT, and of course, Rare's output during this era was insane (though I believe it was also the result of crunch that they put out so much in such a small time).

It's mostly the lack of RPGs that's my only retro-critique of the system. PS1 definitely won there. Wasn't there a quote from someone high up at the Nintendo at the time who said something like "RPGs are only for sad lonely people in dark rooms"? Here's hoping Quest 64 makes it to NSO

It wasn’t just someone high up but, in fact, the CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi himself:

"[People who play RPGs are] depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games," he noted in a 1999 interview. Yamauchi - who incidentally has prided himself on the fact that he has never played a videogame - went on to call RPGs as a whole both "silly and boring."

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

It wasn’t just someone high up but, in fact, the CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi himself:

He was so salty after losing Square and then Enix

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

He was so salty after losing Square and then Enix

He just had the demeanor of someone who becomes a salt factory if prodded enough.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

As someone who wasn’t there during that time, it’s always hard to see when people claim it was dire.

Like I believe it when it’s explained to me, but in hindsight games like SM64 and OoT left such an impact on their legacy that it’s hard to believe they were in any real danger.

The legacy of the N64 is really positive, with games that stand the test of time. You wouldn’t think at all that it was a bad time for Nintendo when those two juggernauts still make top 5 GOAT lists to this day.

Remember that part of the reason for this is most likely that during that era N64 was very popular in North America, which made up a lot of western discourse. Imagine having western journalist hiveminds hyping up your game console and its innovative games for decades. It led to a lot of appreciation for how influential games like Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were, even in places where the console wasn't doing too hot.

 

[big lantern ghost]

As someone who awakened to Final Fantasy and Quake at this point in history, I agree insofar as the N64 never really got much play at my house growing up. After a point, it was pretty much a “bust it out when there’s a family gathering” sort of thing.

Just as an aside, I worked at an EB Games in high school. I worked every Sunday and every single time for months, these university bros would come in looking for an N64. Eventually I boxed mine up and brought it in for them lol. They were so happy! They deserved that N64 more than I did

 

[Djehuty]

The GCN may have ultimately been death-by-1,000-cuts, but the one biggest factor behind its failure was its late launch.

It just came out too late. PS2 had already sown up the market completely by the time the GCN had launched. If the GCN came out in November 2000 it might've stood a chance, but by end of 2001? Nah. It was far too late by then.

The N64's own late launch was a contributing factor to the GCN's late release of course, but they ultimately should've just cut the N64's life short and moved its slate of 2000 releases (especially Perfect Dark) over to the new console. Imagine the GCN launching (albiet with reduced PS2 level specs at a similar price), but at the same time as the PS2 with fucking PERFECT DARK as a launch title!

The main issue was that still, they basically had no big titles outside of nintendo that were coming exclusively to it, it lacked features that other consoles around the same time had, even if it came out earlier ps2 and xbox would still steamroll it when they came out.

they also didn't launch with a new mario which was retrospectively really dumb but at the time they thought luigis mansion could cover for that (even though a lot of what makes the mario series mario is entirely gone)

even if they launched earlier there were still boatloads o bad decisions that launching earlier could not make up for.

it wasnt going to do well no matter what they did, the best they could do was weather through it and reboot their console line basically, which was what they ended up doing.

 

[Djehuty]

N64, GameCube, and even Wii U all benefit in discourse now from being assessed in their totality. In other words, when you are talking about N64 now, you are looking at one library of Maio 64, Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros., Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, etc. It's a dozen or so amazing games that you suddenly get dropped in your lap at the same time. That is overwhelming and paints a very different picture than how things were at the time, where these games were spread apart by weeks, months, sometimes even years. PS1 had as many games released in an off-year as N64 had in total;. Saturn even had more games released than N64!

This syndrome also impacts retrospective perception and analysis of GameCube and even Wii U (this one is always fucking hilarious to me because it was less than a decade ago guys, don't try to gaslight me lol). But yeah, the pace of releases, combined with the volume of releases, was what killed those systems, these are all very important lessons Nintendo learned from N64-GCN-Wii-Wii U and, yes, 3DS, because all these systems have great libraries but are done in by the cadence of those releases and the lack of constant new content to keep their install bases engaged.

if we do the same to the switch it very quickly shows how big the gap is in software library from switch to gamecube and n64. only counting first party you could probably list off 50 great games on switch.

in fact I will do it, spoilered cause its quite Long
i included things that sold well for what they were and/or got positive reception.
so im leaving out a lot of the failures of this gen but most people dont bring up doshin the giant when talking about the gamecube so its fine, i also included wii u ports and remakes of older games, but not ports from older hardware like pikmin 1 and 2.

Spoiler

Breath of The Wild, Mario Kart 8, SPlatoon 2, ARMS, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario Oddyssey, Super SMash Bros Ultimate, Ring Fit, Splatoon 3, Kirby Star Allies, Pikmin 4, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, New Super Mario Bros U, Fire Emblem 3 Houses, Metroid Dread, Luigis Mansion 3, Pokemon Legends Arceus, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Tears of the Kingdom, Xenoblade 3, Pikmin 3, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Fire EMblem ENgage, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Party, Links Awakening Remake, Paper Mario The Origami King, Xenoblade 2: Torna, Xenoblade 1 defintive Edition, Mario 3D World+ Bowsers Fury, Mario Party Superstars, Pokemon Sword and Sheild, Snipperclips, Metroid Prime Remastered, Clubhouse Games 51 Wrlwide classics, Nintendo Switch Sports, Warioware Get it Together, Age of Calamity, Hyrule Warriors deluxe, Pokemon Eevee and PIkachu Pokemon diamon and pearl, Mario Tennis Aces, Yoshis Crafted World, Kirby Return to Dreamland Remake, Bayonetta 3, THat bayonetta spin off game I cant beleive exists, Astral CHain,and Super Mario maker 2

though whats worth mentioning is the libraries of the competitors at the time, im gonna be real even on a board biased to nintendo I would laugh you out of the room if you said the gamecube had a better software lineup than the ps2, and nothing nintendo made that generation came close to how important halo was to both the players and the industry as a whole.

 

[PixelKnight]

As someone who wasn’t there during that time, it’s always hard to see when people claim it was dire.

Like I believe it when it’s explained to me, but in hindsight games like SM64 and OoT left such an impact on their legacy that it’s hard to believe they were in any real danger.

The legacy of the N64 is really positive, with games that stand the test of time. You wouldn’t think at all that it was a bad time for Nintendo when those two juggernauts still make top 5 GOAT lists to this day.

It’s because those two games are massively influential but released two years apart at a point where the PlayStation also had smash hits coming out every month. Less than 400 N64 games were released and nearly a hundred of those didn’t leave Japan. Only ~240 released in Europe over five years. In comparison, there were something like 4,000 PSOne games, they were nearly half the price, and in the months between every smash hit on N64 pretty much everything else was packed onto one other platform. The N64 looks great in hindsight- a small number of games that laid the groundwork for so many titles since. But at the time, the good stuff was comparatively thin on the ground for long periods of time, and it was obvious how thin the N64 magazines were compared to their counterparts. SM64 and OOT stand the test of time, but between the release of them, you had stuff like Square introducing Europe to JRPGs on the PSOne with FFVII, on top of all the arcade ports plus everything from Capcom. I loved my N64 both at launch and for local 4P multiplayer but just got fed up with waiting for stuff on it.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Yes, you are correct. The N64 had a record breaking launch, and kept pace with, and in some cases even outsold, the PS1 for the next 18-24 months. Even FF7 did not completely neutralize the N64.

However, 1998 was the last time N64 was really competitive in that sense; Ocarina of Time was out, it would never get another hit on that level, and the conversation was now moved to the upcoming next generation with the Dreamcast already out in Japan in 1998 and the PS2 hype torpedoing literally everuthing else in its path.

In its first year, the N64 sold 5.80 million units (remember, this was a record breaking launch)
In its second year, it sold nearly 10 million units
In its third year it sold nearly 8 million units, bringing it to 23 million units at the end of 1998.

After that, from here until the end of its lifespan in early 2003, it sold a grand total of under 10 million units globally.

Amazing how short the thing was really active for, but it still hung around till 2001. Sometimes the 2000 lineup doesn't feel real.

 

[Celine]

I sold my PlayStation and got an N64 with Goldeneye and Zelda OoT, had no regrets and wasn't aware of any issues.

But yeah looking back, the company probably didn't have the cash reserves that it built up in the Wii and DS days, so maybe was in a worse financial position after the N64 failures than during the Wii U period.

Nah, Nintendo continued to be the most profitable console manufacturer in the World.

 

[Celine]

Hardware and software marketshare shrunk for Nintendo from SNES to N64 but first-party software sales, where the big profits were made, actually increased!

In US Nintendo first-party games flocked among the best selling games of the year in the period between 1995 and 2000.
Annual top 20 best selling games in US (by dollar sales, source: NPD)

 

[Phendrift]

It’s because those two games are massively influential but released two years apart at a point where the PlayStation also had smash hits coming out every month. Less than 400 N64 games were released and nearly a hundred of those didn’t leave Japan. Only ~240 released in Europe over five years. In comparison, there were something like 4,000 PSOne games, they were nearly half the price, and in the months between every smash hit on N64 pretty much everything else was packed onto one other platform. The N64 looks great in hindsight- a small number of games that laid the groundwork for so many titles since. But at the time, the good stuff was comparatively thin on the ground for long periods of time, and it was obvious how thin the N64 magazines were compared to their counterparts. SM64 and OOT stand the test of time, but between the release of them, you had stuff like Square introducing Europe to JRPGs on the PSOne with FFVII, on top of all the arcade ports plus everything from Capcom. I loved my N64 both at launch and for local 4P multiplayer but just got fed up with waiting for stuff on it.

Remember that part of the reason for this is most likely that during that era N64 was very popular in North America, which made up a lot of western discourse. Imagine having western journalist hiveminds hyping up your game console and its innovative games for decades. It led to a lot of appreciation for how influential games like Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were, even in places where the console wasn't doing too hot.

N64, GameCube, and even Wii U all benefit in discourse now from being assessed in their totality. In other words, when you are talking about N64 now, you are looking at one library of Maio 64, Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros., Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, etc. It's a dozen or so amazing games that you suddenly get dropped in your lap at the same time. That is overwhelming and paints a very different picture than how things were at the time, where these games were spread apart by weeks, months, sometimes even years. PS1 had as many games released in an off-year as N64 had in total;. Saturn even had more games released than N64!

This syndrome also impacts retrospective perception and analysis of GameCube and even Wii U (this one is always fucking hilarious to me because it was less than a decade ago guys, don't try to gaslight me lol). But yeah, the pace of releases, combined with the volume of releases, was what killed those systems, these are all very important lessons Nintendo learned from N64-GCN-Wii-Wii U and, yes, 3DS, because all these systems have great libraries but are done in by the cadence of those releases and the lack of constant new content to keep their install bases engaged.

Sorry if my post wording was unclear, I absolutely get that it factually was a dire time for them.

But I definitely think the system was able to escape the image of a “bad period” for Nintendo in the long run, especially for people who weren’t following it at the time. That’s kind of what my post was commenting on, that it’s something that has to be explained to those who weren’t there. Because now we just kind of look back on it like “oh yeah this was when Nintendo revolutionized 3D gaming.”

It’s certainly escape that image moreso than the GC, and especially the Wii U, ever will (even if I actually prefer the GC’s output, I understand why)

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Nah.

Thanks for the ref.

So hard to believe even at their worst Nintendo never hit the lows of Sony.

And yeah, the profits were remarkably consistent during the GCN period.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Nintendo certainly sees the Nintendo 64 era as problematic, but we wouldn't be here today without it.

Genyo Takeda, lead engineer behind N64, sees the console as a "reflective regret"

Today Nintendo hardware development chief Genyo Takeda repeatedly uses the word hansei ("reflective regret") when he refers to the difficulties of programming Nintendo 64 games. "When we made Nintendo 64, we thought it was logical that if you want to make advanced games, it becomes technically more difficult. We were wrong," he admits. "We now understand it's the cruising speed that matters, not the momentary flash of peak power."

Back when the GameCube was in development, Miyamoto described the Nintendo 64 as "a rite of passage"

It was hard to develop for the Nintendo 64, especially because the software libraries were delayed. However, the Nintendo 64 truly brought developers into the era of 3D, and there were bound to be problems with that. I suppose developers who have been working with pseudo-3D on the PlayStation, are now finding themselves playing catch-up working in real 3D on the PlayStation2. In that sense, I think the PlayStation2 is even harder to develop for than the Nintendo 64. You see, the Nintendo 64 weeded out weaker developers at an early stage. In the long term, I think that was necessary. Almost a rite of passage.'

Even for key partners overcoming the rite of passage wasn't easy. Intelligent Systems released only one game for the N64 (and it was basically a 2D one, Paper Mario). HAL Laboratory had various projects in development hell for years. According to Iwata:

To tell the truth, I ran into some trouble in the days of the N64 myself. Back then, I was president of HAL Laboratory, Inc. The Nintendo 64 came out in 1996, but until 1999 and the release of Smash Bros. and Pokémon Snap, HAL Laboratory wasn’t able to contribute much in the way of new products. That was because the Nintendo 64 drastically changed how things were made up through the Super NES. We ran up against how to make the best use of 3D graphics, and the team had quite a hard time.
[...]
Nintendo 64 had a number of restrictions, but it truly was a full-blown 3D machine. Nonetheless, the limits it had were such that, unless you used it right, it wouldn’t run well.
[...]
With the Nintendo 64, the size of textures was severely limited. If you didn’t contrive something clever when making the data, the processing speed would drop dramatically.

The N64 was a "rite of passage" for players as well. The controller introduced the analog stick, but it was infamously unintuitive -- you can hold it in three different ways, so what is the correct one? According to Miyamoto, they wanted something working both for 2D and 3D game, but 3D games became the norm.

I feel that the thing about the N64 controller that was lacking was the 3D stick being the middle. At the time, I thought puzzle games and the like would use the directional pad anyway, or that games could just use both as needed. But if the world moves over to analog controls, then I think our next console needs to have an analog stick that's properly situated on the left—that will provide a more user-friendly experience. At the present moment, though, putting the analog stick on the left would have been a waste.
[...]
To be honest, I think it would be better if the control stick were on the right side, because I think right-handed people would enjoy being able to make more precise movements with their dominant right hand. I bet that if you showed a [right-handed] child who had zero knowledge of video games a controller, they would naturally try to use their right hand to control the analog stick.
[...]
Yeah. The reason the Super Famicom controller was so well-done is because they paid close attention to how people like to hold controllers. And I think it was a very friendly design. I originally came from an industrial design background, and in school our professors would talk all the time about the principles of industrial design.

And then, we have Mario 64. Mario 64 was, of course, a revolution and a masterpiece, but it had a narrower target than 2D Mario, a fact that Miyamoto, Iwata and Koizumi lamented for years. Most of the 2D Mario audience didn't pass the rite.

Miyamoto: One thing that has hurt the Mario games…Taking them into 3D, while it has expanded the worlds, has shrunk the user base. By going into 3D, the games have become more complicated. Before that, the Mario games were the type of thing that anybody could pick up and play very easily. By going into the 3D world, we have limited who that game is accessible to. After Super Mario 64, making a game that those 3D Mario fans can enjoy further requires shrinking the audience even more because you need to go more in depth.

Iwata: Super Mario 64, which Koizumi-san was a part of the development team, was a game that was praised highly. But at the same time, it created a group of players that felt 3D games were too difficult for them [...] Wandering all around provides a lot of freedom but carries with it the problem of not knowing where to go and getting lost. In a 2D Super Mario game, you just keep going toward the right and the goal pole is sure to be there. You don’t have to worry about whether you should keep heading in a certain direction.

Koizumi: Actually, there was a time when I thought it might be impossible to make a 3D action game that would be so accessible, anybody could easily pick it up and enjoy the experience. When you’re playing on a 3D plain, it’s so easy to lose track of where you are in the field. And if the camera moves automatically, there are people that would get 3D sickness.

And yet... You can see how GameCube, Wii and Switch were born from these mistakes. These three consoles are famously easy to develop for, their controller are intuitive for pick-up-and-play experiences, and had games targeting a broader demographic (Miyamoto described Pikmin as a "3D game which plays like a 2D one", a definition we can extend to the other GameCube launch titles, Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing). For sure, it was a reflective regret.

The Nintendo 64 was the moment Nintendo lost their market leadership, in part because Sony did everything right, in part because Nintendo did everything wrong. Yet, for the company as a whole, it was certain a formative experience, and they passed the "rite of passage" finding new creative ideas.

 

[SeafoamGaming]

I was born a bit over a year after the N64 hit the US, and yeah, back then it was really just GBC for me due to that being the new hot thing when I was able to play games, along with a used N64 come 1999/2000... Even then, I seldom had games for it and most of them ended up getting pawned off by my birth mom very quickly, so Smash Bros, Pokemon Stadium, OOT and SM64 were the literal only four I kept. And even then, SSB would eventually go the way of the pawn shop too. I don't know if my mom even knew about game schedules, and I certainly didn't; what showed up on a walmart shelf when we visited was what we'd consider buying. I grew up with SMB Deluxe and Conker's Pocket Tales, and that was enough for my very very young self until Pokemon Yellow was given to me and I grew hooked on that franchise. Still didn't have much else to play until a GBA in 2002/2003 though, then I really took off with it. I definitely remember pretty much living with Pokemon Sapphire/Melee/Harry Potter GCN games from 2003-2005, and I argue that was when I basically had a drought I somewhat noticed, (that and my mom being too poor to buy anything I'd want anyhow) but even then, I basically lived in Hoenn and later Kanto in 2003-2006 so that drought didn't mean much to me who'd make my own fun. It wasn't until after my adoption in 2006 and me actually learning what a magazine was that I knew about upcoming releases ahead of time (with Phantom Hourglass/Diamond and Pearl being my first titles in that regard)

Meanwhile N64, Mario 64, stadium and OOT were more than enough to keep kid me busy, especially since I never beat those games as a kid... I think I got to Gym Leader Castle's rival battle in Stadium once on rentals, but never beat him, and my mom eventually rebought OOT after pawning that eventually, and that copy had a completed save... But I had no idea how to beat ganondorf so i still got stuck, aha.

 

[Evil Lucario]

I don't have any real, tangible sales data or sentiment backing up my personal opinions here, but as someone who used to look down on the N64 and liked the GameCube, my position on them completely swapped where N64 games feel more impressive than most GameCube games, both in content and impact. Save for Smash Melee, F-Zero GX (which is Sega), Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Pikmin 1 and 2, and Mario Kart Double Dash, nearly every single GameCube game has one massive glowing weak point in their content that dampens the entire experience. Things like:

• Mario 64 speaks for itself, meanwhile Sunshine is blatantly unfinished and pads out a bunch of random nonsense to barely scrap by 120 shines, only held up by a really good moveset.
• Paper Mario 64 works as an incredible follow-up to Super Mario RPG and reestablishes Mario RPG combat and level design, TTYD ends up reusing many level design ideas from 64 while also incorporating some truly awful level design and hallways, despite its immaculate combat system that improves everything from 64.
• Star Fox 64 evolved rail shooting into an insanely hype structure and pacing, Star Fox Assault is only pretty good with an excellent multiplayer but it had an above average single-player and no branching paths to make up for a lack of stages (and also outsourced to Namco).

Obviously, the GameCube still has good stuff. Luigi's Mansion is real cool. The above games I excluded are some of my favorite games of all time (except Double Dash, but that is more personal). Wario World is also pretty neat, even if it's not super deep (and also outsourced to Treasure). Some third-parties actually came through, like Sega with Super Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 1/2 and Heroes (which also has that glowing weak point with content structure, although I still love it), or Factor 5 with Rogue Squadron, or Capcom with Resident Evil 4. If a third-party game is multiplatform and on GameCube, it even TENDS to be the better version over the PS2 version.

But what separates the GameCube and N64 for me is the amount of must-have genres you simply cannot get on another platform. Because on the N64, it dominated all the genres the PS1 simply did not deliver as well. Ape Escape is awesome, but it was late compared to Mario 64, reducing its cultural impact, and doesn't have momentum-based platforming like Mario. Ocarina of Time set so many standards in general 3D movement and content structure in action-adventure games that is STILL being used to this day like God of War, with no real analogous game on PS1. Star Fox 64 and especially Sin and Punishment annihilates any PS1 rail shooter, like Omega Blast on PS1 (made by Polyphony Digital, the Gran Turismo devs). GoldenEye 007 popularized FPS games on console and helped redefined what they could be while PS1 FPS games were like ports or not so impressive games. Multiplayer in general was just so much stronger on N64 than PS1.

What did the GameCube have? I think Smash Melee and Prime 1 and Wind Waker (which I hear also has pretty severe cut content you can feel, but I haven't played it yet and will later this year) are the only big games people REALLY care about. Meanwhile with the N64, people can bring up way more games that would rank higher in general, AND they had no real competition. GameCube games MOSTLY had real competition, like Sunshine is like one of the worst "good" 3D platformers of 6th gen, Star Fox started getting its lunch eaten really hard by Ace Combat, Ico making its mark alongside Zelda, 007: Nightfire was demolished by Halo (and also multiplat), etc. The games that I feel people only care about are those types with no competition, like how there's no good Smash-like, no good Metroid Prime-like, and insanely few good Zelda-likes. It just did not make as much of a cultural impact as any other era of Nintendo, save for the Wii U.

So really, it's hard for me to look at the GameCube in THAT positive of a light which is unfortunate because tech-wise, it is simply immaculate. But Nintendo and their partners fell flat in a lot of games, which is real sad. The Wii U is still their lowest point on a console level (company level, Nintendo was still doing pretty good games-wise on the 3DS even in 2016 and the GBA also offsets a lot of the GameCube library), but the GameCube is probably their most upsetting era, looking back with hindsight.

 

[Regulus Tera]

It felt more like Nintendo was too arrogant to see they were making a wrong move with the N64 than truly feeling dire. It was never as bad as Sega with Saturn and Dreamcast, but only the Wii U era compared, and only because the 3DS papered over the faults.

 

[Lugia667]

Nah, Nintendo continued to be the most profitable console manufacturer in the World.

didn't Xbox lose money for MS for quite a while? Honestly shocked they kept it through that

 

[Djehuty]

Nintendo certainly sees the Nintendo 64 era as problematic, but we wouldn't be here today without it.

Genyo Takeda, lead engineer behind N64, sees the console as a "reflective regret"


Back when the GameCube was in development, Miyamoto described the Nintendo 64 as "a rite of passage"


Even for key partners overcoming the rite of passage wasn't easy. Intelligent Systems released only one game for the N64 (and it was basically a 2D one, Paper Mario). HAL Laboratory had various projects in development hell for years. According to Iwata:


The N64 was a "rite of passage" for players as well. The controller introduced the analog stick, but it was infamously unintuitive -- you can hold it in three different ways, so what is the correct one? According to Miyamoto, they wanted something working both for 2D and 3D game, but 3D games became the norm.


And then, we have Mario 64. Mario 64 was, of course, a revolution and a masterpiece, but it had a narrower target than 2D Mario, a fact that Miyamoto, Iwata and Koizumi lamented for years. Most of the 2D Mario audience didn't pass the rite.


And yet... You can see how GameCube, Wii and Switch were born from these mistakes. These three consoles are famously easy to develop for, their controller are intuitive for pick-up-and-play experiences, and had games targeting a broader demographic (Miyamoto described Pikmin as a "3D game which plays like a 2D one", a definition we can extend to the other GameCube launch titles, Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing). For sure, it was a reflective regret.

The Nintendo 64 was the moment Nintendo lost their market leadership, in part because Sony did everything right, in part because Nintendo did everything wrong. Yet, for the company as a whole, it was certain a formative experience, and they passed the "rite of passage" finding new creative ideas.

this makes sense. i guess the best way to describe the n64 is, the mistake that changed how they viewed game development.

there were certainly negative repercussions that lasted into next gen but they had set the groundwork for the wii then.

then they pulled a ps3, except 3rd parties pulled out immediately, and nintendo also didn't release many games for it.

 

[Rooster]

Could you imagine another time when almost every branch of Nintendo's hardware business was struggling?

When the 3DS first came out nothing was really hitting. The Wii fad had basically ended (Nintendo didn't get the memo), DS was old and being phased out, the fanbase was dissatisfied enough to make Rainfall a thing. Skyward Sword was... good but not particularly successful for a big Zelda, leading to BotW. That was a pretty short period though, since they did turn the 3DS around. And then had to lean on it for that whole gen.

Though the fatalistic vibe was undercut, ironically, by the hope in the new system on the horizon. And the fact that even though the 3DS wasn't performing up to snuff, its upcoming library did actually look good, iirc.

 

[Dcubed]

Amazing how short the thing was really active for, but it still hung around till 2001. Sometimes the 2000 lineup doesn't feel real.

It didn’t really though… After November 2000, the system was basically totally moribund, as sales dried up almost completely and the remaining releases (Paper Mario, Conker’s BFD, Pokémon Stadium 2 and Mario Party 3) trickled out to little fanfare.

The only Nintendo home console that had a worse ending was the Wii… which was the direct cause for the failure of its own successor.

 

[YolkFolk]

It felt more like Nintendo was too arrogant to see they were making a wrong move with the N64 than truly feeling dire. It was never as bad as Sega with Saturn and Dreamcast, but only the Wii U era compared, and only because the 3DS papered over the faults.

The Wii U era was not in any way comparable to the N64 era. Even the Gamecube era was much harsher for Nintendo for reasons already described in the thread.

 

[Rooster]

The Wii U era was not in any way comparable to the N64 era. Even the Gamecube era was much harsher for Nintendo for reasons already described in the thread.

I mean they were more successful during the 64 era. The Wii U era was... dire, console-wise. Handheld-wise it was fine. In terms of success, the Wii U era was worse.

But in terms of lasting effects the 64 era was worse, when they came tumbling hard off their pedestal at the top and lost significant to total support from almost all the third-parties, which, in that area, was a development they've never truly recovered from, even if things have improved over time.

Obviously neither were going to spell the end of Nintendo's foray into hardware, let alone the company. But relative to other eras, I think each was more dire in different ways.

 

[YolkFolk]

I mean they were more successful during the 64 era. The Wii U era was... dire, console-wise. Handheld-wise it was fine. In terms of success, the Wii U era was worse.

But in terms of lasting effects the 64 era was worse, when they came tumbling hard off their pedestal at the top and lost significant to total support from almost all the third-parties, which, in that area, was a development they've never truly recovered from, even if things have improved over time.

Obviously neither were going to spell the end of Nintendo's foray into hardware, let alone the company. But relative to other eras, I think each was more dire in different ways.

Definitely some fair points. Another key standout was that there was also a clear decline in Nintendo home console sales from the NES onwards.

The Wii was the only home console Nintendo ever released that sold better than its predecessor.

NES > SNES > N64 > Gamecube < Wii > Wii U

Switch should be considered a merger of the home console and handheld lines which was perfect for them.

 

[Dcubed]

N64, GameCube, and even Wii U all benefit in discourse now from being assessed in their totality. In other words, when you are talking about N64 now, you are looking at one library of Maio 64, Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros., Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, etc. It's a dozen or so amazing games that you suddenly get dropped in your lap at the same time. That is overwhelming and paints a very different picture than how things were at the time, where these games were spread apart by weeks, months, sometimes even years. PS1 had as many games released in an off-year as N64 had in total;. Saturn even had more games released than N64!

This syndrome also impacts retrospective perception and analysis of GameCube and even Wii U (this one is always fucking hilarious to me because it was less than a decade ago guys, don't try to gaslight me lol). But yeah, the pace of releases, combined with the volume of releases, was what killed those systems, these are all very important lessons Nintendo learned from N64-GCN-Wii-Wii U and, yes, 3DS, because all these systems have great libraries but are done in by the cadence of those releases and the lack of constant new content to keep their install bases engaged.

This is 100% truth. It's really hard to gauge the real lived experience of being on the Nintendo side of the fence back then if you didn't experience it yourself in that time. These days? You can just experience the library in its totality right now and it gives you a warped perspective of what it was really like owning said console.

The reality though is that you had to live through massive droughts of absolutely nothing being released. It really can't be overstated how much this utterly killed the N64. You wouldn't believe that it actually outsold the PS1 in 1996, but it absolutely did! It crushed the PS1 upon its initial launch, but then the great drought kicked in at around the time FF7 launched in Japan, and it was basically all over at that point.

Put this into perspective. The N64 launched with just two games (SM64 and Pilotwings 64). The first 3rd party game (Wonder Project J2) didn't release until 4 MONTHS after the system launched in Japan! In the US? Only 8 games released in total throughout 1996. And the gaps in first party releases only widened from there.

Owning an N64 was like occassionally finding the most refreshing oasis imaginable in an arid desert wasteland. And if you want to talk about quality? There was very little on offer outside of Nintendo and Rare's titles. Those two developers/publishers carried more or less the entire console on their backs, with only the occassional bright spot (Turok 1 & 2, Goemon 1 & 2, Hudson's & Factor 5's titles chiefly) outside of that as far as exclusive titles go.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

GCN felt like cult classic era Nintendo. I had one friend who had a GC and would go round and play Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash etc but never owned one at the time. I only discovered the library way after the fact with Wii BC (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance being one of the first gems, shortly after Resident Evil Remake & Wind Waker). But I do generally remember the perception in the UK as the GC as the system no one chose, everyone I knew had a PS2 and I was the only one in my friend circle who had an Xbox (got the PS2 later) after Dreamcast bombed, since I was the SEGA fan.

SEGA fans at the time were also split between the three bases but I do recall vaguely most people online suggesting that Xbox and GC were the better bases for SEGA fans (at least initially, later on the PS2 we got classics like Yakuza 1 & 2 and divisive games like 3D Shinobi on there).

N64 was my system before Dreamcast and I never got the perception Nintendo were doing badly or owt. Mario 64, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time felt like defining moments and I was happier having less games back then, probably since I rented most games and they felt more "epic" than games from previous generations. You got to remember that games on Mega Drive (my system before N64) felt smaller than adventures like OoT and Majora's Mask, which felt really epic to me. So by the time I moved on from N64, I never felt like I wasn't getting many games to play all the way through at all, despite the release schedule.

 

[Aishasghost]

The N64 marked the point where nintendo consoles stopped being for general gamers and became primarily for nintendo fans.While the NES and SNES had just about every major game and type of game available the N64 had squat unless the only games you care about are nintendos biggest franchises. I sure hope you like Mario 64(and later Zelda ocarina of time) and 3d platformers and racers in general because that's pretty much all you got for most of the N64s lifetime. Meanwhile the playstation had basically every major game by third parties and just about every kind of game available(just like how things were on nintendos previous consoles). It's not a surprise that Sony humiliated Nintendo as badly as they did.

Truthfully, Nintendo never really recovered from the damage caused by the N64. Nintendo would probably still be competing directly with Sony and Microsoft in the red ocean home console market had things gone differently.(Which probably would've only happened if Nintendo went with CDs tbh)

 

[YolkFolk]

The N64 marked the point where nintendo consoles stopped being for general gamers and became primarily for nintendo fans.While the NES and SNES had just about every major game and type of game available the N64 had squat unless the only games you care about are nintendos biggest franchises. I sure hope you like Mario 64(and later Zelda ocarina of time) and 3d platformers and racers in general because that's pretty much all you got for most of the N64s lifetime. Meanwhile the playstation had basically every major game by third parties and just about every kind of game available(just like how things were on nintendos previous consoles). It's not a surprise that Sony humiliated Nintendo as badly as they did.

Truthfully, Nintendo never really recovered from the damage caused by the N64. Nintendo would probably still be competing directly with Sony and Microsoft in the red ocean home console market had things gone differently.(Which probably would've only happened if Nintendo went with CDs tbh)

The N64 was actually considered the console of choice for FPS fans.

 

[Forkball]

I love the N64, but as someone who lived in the era… the droughts were real. There were less than 400 N64 games split across all regions. Meanwhile PlayStation had thousands of games, including many franchises that once found their home on Nintendo consoles.

 

[Aishasghost]

The N64 was actually considered the console of choice for FPS fans.

Not really saying much when FPS's barely existed on consoles at the time.FPS's were almost entirely exclusive to PC gaming. Console FPS's didn't really start to blow up until after Halo: combat evolved.

 

[YolkFolk]

Not really saying much when FPS's barely existed on consoles at the time.FPS's were almost entirely exclusive to PC gaming. Console FPS's didn't really start to blow up until after Halo: combat evolved.

Goldeneye started it all for console FPS games, not Halo.

Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Turok 1-3, Quake, Doom 64, Hexen, Duke Nukem.

The N64 really started the trend which the other consoles would continue in the future.

 

[Dcubed]

Not really saying much when FPS's barely existed on consoles at the time.FPS's were almost entirely exclusive to PC gaming. Console FPS's didn't really start to blow up until after Halo: combat evolved.

Goldeneye outsold the original Halo by quite a bit (8.1 million vs 5.5 million). Halo 2 did just barely outsell Goldeneye though (8.4 million).

So no. Halo was not the genesis of the console FPS. Goldeneye was.

The N64 was the home of the console FPS. The Xbox however was the home of PC developers coming to consoles; something that became the standard in the following generation after that, as former PC-first developers took over the landscape of console development with the 360 and PS3. And Halo was the first step in that transition (even though ironically Bungie was a Mac developer).

 

[Ramune]

I think I was lucky to be exactly the right age when the N64 came out here, because by today's standards the catalogue definitely looks sparse and spaced out, but...I was 10 and couldn't afford many games in a year. Between GameBoy and N64 I got my fill of big hitters in genres I liked at the time, and I played what I did have a lot. And there were big games I missed!

GCN felt like cult classic era Nintendo. I had one friend who had a GC and would go round and play Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash etc but never owned one at the time. I only discovered the library way after the fact with Wii BC (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance being one of the first gems, shortly after Resident Evil Remake & Wind Waker). But I do generally remember the perception in the UK as the GC as the system no one chose, everyone I knew had a PS2 and I was the only one in my friend circle who had an Xbox (got the PS2 later) after Dreamcast bombed, since I was the SEGA fan.

SEGA fans at the time were also split between the three bases but I do recall vaguely most people online suggesting that Xbox and GC were the better bases for SEGA fans (at least initially, later on the PS2 we got classics like Yakuza 1 & 2 and divisive games like 3D Shinobi on there).

N64 was my system before Dreamcast and I never got the perception Nintendo were doing badly or owt. Mario 64, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time felt like defining moments and I was happier having less games back then, probably since I rented most games and they felt more "epic" than games from previous generations. You got to remember that games on Mega Drive (my system before N64) felt smaller than adventures like OoT and Majora's Mask, which felt really epic to me. So by the time I moved on from N64, I never felt like I wasn't getting many games to play all the way through at all, despite the release schedule.

This is very similar to my perception at the time in the UK as well. During the N64 years a lot of people I knew had the console and were happy with it, and the multiplayer games were king, so while there were definitely big games you knew you were missing by not being a PS1 kid, it wasn't that big a deal, and if you were like me you got a secondhand PS1 later on anyway to catch up. Then everyone moved onto PS2, with a handful going Xbox, and that was the big console war in class. Nobody was talking about the Gamecube, which I guess was a consequence of the N64 era, even if the brand had weathered most of the storm among kids my age. That's also when I started getting more regular internet access and using message boards though - during the N64 era I got all my gaming news and takes from...gaming magazines, many of them Nintendo-focused, or my dad hyping up stuff for me. It was a lot easier to be happy in your bubble then, then once you got allowed to go on the computer you'd hop on some message board and get told by a stranger in another country that you were a stupid gay baby for liking this or that, and that cel-shaded Zelda was an abomination and a total joke!

 

[Yavga]

I am so glad I grew up experiencing the N64 when I was like 8 - 12 years old, I thought Nintendo 64 was like the best thing ever, I still think that. I wish I could experience it like new again.

 

[fourfourfun]

When we discuss Classic Mini consoles, there are loads of titles to throw into the mix. A prospective N64 Mini is much harder to button down though, and I think that is telling for the platform.

Some incredible marquee bangers but turgid middle ground carts outside of that.

 

[freedomseekr]

I don't remember the N64 era well - I was, at the time, 9/10 years old, the internet was a thing I knew of but didn't have, but I had an N64 and I had a blast with it.

Is it, in hindsight, Nintendo's most dire moment prior to the WiiU? Not really - many have pointed this out already, but the N64 actually did reasonably well and Pokémon reinvigorated the GameBoy brand to help carry it over to the Colour.

He was so salty after losing Square and then Enix

Nintendo never lost Enix the way they did Square. Enix published games on the GBC (Dragon Quest I-III as well as DQ Monsters I & II) and on the N64 (Wonder Project J 2, Mischief Makers - and while Enix' involvement with this series has only been to do with localization, Ogre Battle 64 was also A Thing) - what happened was that their partners, most notably Tri-Ace and Armor Project (i.e. the Dragon Quest team), made the decision to switch to PlayStation, something Enix as the head corporation had no say over.

Nah, Nintendo continued to be the most profitable console manufacturer in the World.

Good gravy, I know the launch of the PS3 was bad but I didn't know it was THAT bad.

 

[MrGab]

I think 2003-2005 period was more dire for Nintendo. Things got more positive after DS take off in sales and Wii controller got revealed in 2005.

 

[Branduil]

I think 2003-2005 period was more dire for Nintendo. Things got more positive after DS take off in sales and Wii controller got revealed in 2005.

Like I said, even with N64 losing to PS1, I think there was a ton of optimism for their next console, they just had to "fix the mistakes" of the N64 and 3rd parties would come running back, they'd see a massive increase in sales, Pokemon had just exploded, etc. There were plenty of reasons for fans to convince themselves a comeback was inevitable.

The Gamecube era was completely different, Nintendo was pretty much written off in the console space and it was WIDELY expected the PSP would conquer the handheld space the same way they did home consoles; remember, this was pre-PS3, and with PS2 sales Sony had an aura of inevitable dominance that was hard to argue against. The DS prototype also looked hacked together compared to the slick PSP, and no one realized yet what a game-changer touch controls could be.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Nintendo certainly sees the Nintendo 64 era as problematic, but we wouldn't be here today without it.

Genyo Takeda, lead engineer behind N64, sees the console as a "reflective regret"


Back when the GameCube was in development, Miyamoto described the Nintendo 64 as "a rite of passage"


Even for key partners overcoming the rite of passage wasn't easy. Intelligent Systems released only one game for the N64 (and it was basically a 2D one, Paper Mario). HAL Laboratory had various projects in development hell for years. According to Iwata:


The N64 was a "rite of passage" for players as well. The controller introduced the analog stick, but it was infamously unintuitive -- you can hold it in three different ways, so what is the correct one? According to Miyamoto, they wanted something working both for 2D and 3D game, but 3D games became the norm.


And then, we have Mario 64. Mario 64 was, of course, a revolution and a masterpiece, but it had a narrower target than 2D Mario, a fact that Miyamoto, Iwata and Koizumi lamented for years. Most of the 2D Mario audience didn't pass the rite.


And yet... You can see how GameCube, Wii and Switch were born from these mistakes. These three consoles are famously easy to develop for, their controller are intuitive for pick-up-and-play experiences, and had games targeting a broader demographic (Miyamoto described Pikmin as a "3D game which plays like a 2D one", a definition we can extend to the other GameCube launch titles, Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing). For sure, it was a reflective regret.

The Nintendo 64 was the moment Nintendo lost their market leadership, in part because Sony did everything right, in part because Nintendo did everything wrong. Yet, for the company as a whole, it was certain a formative experience, and they passed the "rite of passage" finding new creative ideas.

Thanks so much for this resource. It is fascinating to see just how things flipped in the N64 gen.

It must've been hard to take if you were one of the Japanese devs, surrounded by apathy towards your console in your home country.

 

[YolkFolk]

When we discuss Classic Mini consoles, there are loads of titles to throw into the mix. A prospective N64 Mini is much harder to button down though, and I think that is telling for the platform.

Some incredible marquee bangers but turgid middle ground carts outside of that.

Don’t really agree with that at all. The only issue would be the games available due to right holder issues. If we’re talking an actual all time top 20 N64 list then it would be full of quality.