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The Anwser is yes. Some hardware designers are getting sloppy. Some companies however build with efficiency in mind.

Tetris is available for the Nintendo DS: http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=SHMfI4-pd_ DDhbjpYkb631-LunYD1UhC

And this is an excellent version of this game - not the shitty Tetris Worlds that was released a few years ago for all the consoles.

If you're on pins and needles looking forward to November 17th ...

Going to the actual Nintendo website and looking up their profits through each report from 2001 to 2005 I give you Nintendo's profits.

2005: $816,973,000
2004: $316,134,000
2003: $640,640,000
2002: $800,338,000
2001: $726,339,000

This is pure profit. Sales were often in excess of 4 billion dollars. 2004 is lower in profit due to costs incurred in the development of the DS.

None of this is assumption, this is straight numbers taken from Nintendo's fiscal reports free availible at:
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/annual_report.jsp

Going to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc(SCEI)'s page, I could only immediately find the numbers for 2005 and 2004 in yen.

2005: 35.5 billion Yen ($302,333,504 by today's conversion rates)
2004: 57.1 billion Yen ($485,916,092 by today's conversion rates)

SCEI made more than Nintendo in 2004, but Nintendo did far, far better than SCEI in 2005.

There's a point to be made that some income and expenditure for both companies during this period would come from the GBA, DS and PSP. However, I think my original point remains that Nintendo remains competitive even with the low market share of the Gamecube. In fact, in that two year period Nintendo soundly beats SCEI.

Quite simply, Nintendo was more profitable than SCEI this past generation despite the incredible market share the PS2 had.

I figured I'd reality-check your reality-check, since people often assume that since Sony's a well-diversified multinational, they must be raking in significantly larger profits. So, I took a look at their annual reports, located here and here.

Sony's annual profits (in millions of yen) for those years were 16754, 15310, 115519, 88551, 103838, and 123616 for a total of 463588. Meanwhile, Nintendo's annual profits for that same term were 96603, 106445, 67267, 33194, 87416, and 98378 for a total of 489303. That means over the last six years, Nintendo was actually more profitable than Sony.

Now, the last couple of years, Sony has been more profitable than Nintendo and the six-year total is dragged down by a few miserable years in 2001 and 2002, but the fact is that Sony did not out-perform Nintendo.

This started me thinking some more. I heard that the Wii was having some major issues with their new controller. Specifically they have issues with sunlight and florescent lights.

I don't know where you 'd read that (and obviously neither do you), but the source of this information is from the "Iwata asks" series of interviews. Let me quote the relevant part:

Ikeda: In the early stages of development we ran into a number of problems that we hadn't anticipated, like the fact that the controller would react to fluorescent light, for example. Creating a mechanism that prevents the controller from responding to fluorescent light and sunlight may sound like low-profile activities, but it still gave us a lot to work on.

$50 pre-order. $30 for a 1yr warranty.

I must confess, I do not understand why you would want to order a warranty here. Nintendo tradionally already has a one-year warranty on their systems (see http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/manuals/warrantyt ext_us.jsp), and many credit cards will double that warranty for you automatically. What benefit is there to order the warranty, other than to give more profit to the store? And even if you are planning on getting a warranty, why would you pay for that before receiving the system?

Just read the orginal source material. It's more interesting and detailed.

I came into this duscussion to say the same thing. Ars pretty much just summed up the first three pages of the round-table with Iwata.

URL bears repeating: http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol1_p1.html

The interview itself has been posted in pieces over the past few weeks, starting with this segment. It's been ongoing, and it's pretty interesting stuff, if you're into that sort of thing. There was a story posted on Slashdot a week or two ago that mentioned it, even, but it hardly had any replies, so I don't know if that's a sign that no one read it, or what.

Anyway, as I posted on that story back then, among other things, the interview mentions some things that I've seen people here talking about, like the possibility of distributing independent games via the Virtual Console system. They seem to be considering it and possibly in favor of it as high up as Iwata. It goes into a whole lot more detail than the Ars Technica summary does, and the more recent segments talk about some of the software design elements, not just the hardware side of things. Interesting reading.

Is there anything in TFA that was not already mentioned in NOA's translation of Iwata's interviews?

But it's only $4.

Just order one and enjoy it. I agree that it's exclusion is mysterious, and makes me worry that people will stop making games that take advantage of it. It's closer in experience to an analog stick than the PSP nub - it's possible to get nearly as good at Mario 64 with it as it is with an analog stick.

http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol3_p2.html

"Iwata:
It's even conceivable that we'll take titles that have been popular on the Shopping Channel and further polish them up to be sold as a packaged software with the MSRP accepted in the existing distribution channels. Talking of potential, we may even be able to create an opportunity for amateur developers where they can release games that they have made, although this will be hard to do in the immediate future. The mechanics of the games industry at the moment doesn't allow games to be sold unless they're widely advertised by major publishers to earn greater profit. This seals off gateways into the game industry for new talents."

Well, for me Wii Sports is a disincentive - For a parent it's going to be different. Ignoring everything else and looking at the Wii Sports game - if the child is under 10 the parent will get the Wii if the child is over 12 the parent won't.

Any teen or adult is going to be far more impressed by a 360 game such as 99Nights

99N (NNN?) is probably a bit too violent for the preteen market but there is nothing stopping Microsoft giving a game like Kameo free with the Core 360. That's going to further marginalize the Wii.

This senario supposes that the store is promoting the "free" game and not something like WarioWare of Raving Rabbits. They can also promote more grown-up (FPS) games, but Wii Sports just looks bad. And it's apparently realy easy.

Ronan

From the looks of it:
http://wii.nintendo.com/software_warioware.html
This is basically just a random collection of mini-games? And from the page above "Players: 1-player, some 2-5 players", not everything would even include everyone?

I think Mario Party is superior because it is all placed within the context of a board game, which everyone can immediately understand and relate to. If you prefer, Mario Party also has the option of just randomly selecting a mini-game and playing it, so it can emulate Warior Ware, but some of the game boards in previous Mario Parties have really been cool and they addss a whole level of fun on top of just competing in various mini-games.

My guess is he's going to get it from here. Personally I'm just going to ignore it. They significantly dropped PS2 prices over here, and I'm still not going to get one.

http://www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?articleid=aT85 VZmuLFtGkO9m1HSsJ2PdSlh7Sc0b&page=

Based off the movies on wii.com, this thing will probably set Japan aflame in numbers similar to the DS and DS Lite. Further comments below...

• The interface looks relatively easy to navigate, though I wonder how long I can hold that controller out in front of me.
• The Mii Channel is another step in the development of online personas. Yahoo! Avatars, anyone? Regardless of how similar it is, this will definitely draw in the chick clique. Being able to take "yourself" in a remote is a bonus. How Westerners pick it up depends on whether or not they'll respond like they did with The Sims...
• Wii Weather really does look cool.
• The News Channel is cool; I wonder if we'll have different sources to pick from.

The centerpiece of the Wii (or, at least, what's being displayed here and touted as a Big Reason to get one) resembles an AOL-TV like Internet portal, but it can play games. I'm not going to expect this thing to be my Firefox replacement or anything.

Launch lineup: Strong, good potential. Excite Truck. Ha ha ha... that's excellent. Hopefully I'll be able to make and store a crapton of courses. Wii Sports is more likely than not a bargain at the perceived price of $50, especially if there's more than one course available for Wii Golf. Tying in Miis' skill levels and performance is a good idea. Probably doesn't have advanced features of any of the five games (will Golden Tee for Wii, if it comes out, support the concept of topspin/backspin/natural fade/draw?) but is a good multiplayer title to have regardless.

I would think they would find whatever exploits people are using to do such things and patch them. Probably with that WiiConnect24 thing.

From the site: " Communication: Wii can communicate with the Internet even when the power is turned off. This WiiConnect24 service delivers a new surprise or game update, even if users do not play with Wii. Users can connect wirelessly using IEEE 802.11b/g, or with a USB 2.0 LAN adaptor. Wii also can communicate wirelessly with Nintendo DS."

The Wiimote doesn't work like the light guns of the past; it uses the two bars you sometimes see in the pictures, one goes beneath the screen and one goes on the side.

See this.

An AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video.

As other posters mentioned, the GCN had two ports for that, so the logical implication is that the Wii's port is different.

What may occur is a separate box consisting of the GFX card, Physics Card, AI card, PSU for the above along with supporting memory modules just to power existing games.

Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

I can appreciate your comments regarding our choice of WEP security for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) service. Nintendo's decision to make the WFC compatible with WEP and not WPA stems from the fact that WEP is the most prevalent standard for securing Wi-Fi connections. We feel that WEP provides sufficient protection.

If you prefer not to change your current security, then you might consider using the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. Although it uses WEP security, it can only be accessed by a Nintendo DS and will not interfere with your regular wireless security.

We have developed an application you can download to test your PC's possible compatibility with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. This test is not a guarantee that the USB Connector will work, as there are a number of things the application does not test. However, a successful test is a good indication the connector will work. The test application can be found at the following address:

http://www.nintendowifi.com/troubleshooting/Networ kTest.jsp

The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector is available at Best Buy, EB Games, Frys, GameStop, Star City Video and Toys R Us. You can also purchase this item directly from our online store (http://store.nintendo.com/usb) or over the phone by calling 1-800-895-1672. The connector carries a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $34.99 U.S. ($39.95 Canadian). Please keep in mind that although Nintendo of America Inc. may suggest retail prices for products, the dealer is free to determine on its own the prices at which it will sell products.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.
Sharon Matheny

Nintendo's home page: http://www.nintendo.com/
Power Line (Automated Product Info): (425) 885-7529


This is the message I got from Nintendo.

I do not think WEP is sufficient protection, and will NOT buy a DS until it supports an industry standard.

How do they market to social gamers? Oh I dont know... maybe something like this? http://wii.nintendo.com/images/fea_gamepg_wiisport 3.png

Why do they insist on ripping out the heart of Japanese games?

I don't like excessive localization as much as the next overly obsessed geek, but at least they had input from the original staff, and it sounds like their own staff was overly obsessed on their own.

That said, if you have to localize the hell out of a game, you should at least localize it awesome . Even if the game ends up having nothing to do with the original, I'd accept it on its own rights if what you have still makes a great game.

Cubed3 is reporting that it comes from a magazine, Tips and Tricks, which was scanned and posted on the nintendo forums

I just checked.. and yes the nunchuck does contain the same 3-axis motion and accel sensors as the wiimote: http://wii.nintendo.com/controller.html

Close, my friend. It's not all about the Ds, It's all about the DS. The platform game is doing just fine.

Although fans have been referring to the remote controller as the revmote/wiimote since it was announced, Nintendo has consistantly refused to use that terminology. On their website they use the term "controller" and call the Wii's the "Wii Remote". In interviews that I have read, the Nintendo people always use that term and not "wiimote".

Somehow, most people agree that "the days of the NES" was the "good ol' days", and that the first Mario side scroller was awesome (for its time, but still very good by retro standards). Let's see what it had, shall we?

• Compelling story : Big dragon kidnapped princess, italian plumber must save princess
• High production values... what the heck does that mean?
• Controls that are not overly simplified : 90% of the game is half of the D-pad (left and right), one button to jump, one button to either dash or shoot fireball.

A compelling story is what makes a movie good, not a game. I played Final Fantaxy X last month... it is indeed one very good movie, but I don't think I spent more than 40% of the time actually playing.

Hey, you could just use your laptop as a controller - though it's perhaps not quite as comfortable as this.

DID YOU KNOW? NINTENDO GAME OFFERINGS HEAT UP AS THE WEATHER COOLS DOWN

July 25, 2006 - The fourth quarter of 2006 will herald a new era for Nintendo with the launch of its remarkable new Wii(TM) home video game system. But that's not what this news item is about! How could that be, you ask? Perhaps the secret to the launch information for Wii is somehow encoded in the text of this news item. You might want to pore over it for a few hours before staying up all night to debate phraseology and comma placement with your friends online. Or maybe it's all just a scam to get you to read the other games we have launching this fall. One of the two.

As the weather cools down, the Nintendo portable game offerings heat up. FINAL FANTASY® V ADVANCE makes its way to Game Boy® Advance SP on Nov. 6. As series go, FINAL FANTASY is to video games what James Bond is to movies. FINAL FANTASY loyalists will enjoy an opportunity to debate which installment was best.

Nintendo DS(TM) owners are the big winners. Every week or so, another huge DS title hits, from the Touch Generations title Clubhouse Games(TM) to fan favorites like Elite Beat Agents(TM) and Yoshi's Island(TM) 2. Clearly a gamer's idea of paradise, here is Nintendo's upcoming DS lineup:

Oct. 9: Clubhouse Games(TM)
Oct. 16: Nintendogs(TM) (Dalmatian)
Oct. 23: Magical Starsign(TM)
Oct. 30: Pokémon® Ranger
Oct. 30: Children of Mana®
Nov. 6: Elite Beat Agents(TM)
Nov. 13: Yoshi's Island(TM) 2
Dec. 4: Custom Robo(TM) Arena
Dec. 4: Kirby(TM) Squeak Squad

And, for Nintendo GameCube(TM) owners, The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess will be available for you this fall. An enhanced version also will be a launch title for Wii. That will all happen on ... Oh look, we're out of space.
For more information about all of Nintendo's upcoming titles, please visit www.nintendo.com.
http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=9938

From the official Nintendo Wii Website:

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

Well, the biggest problem with the virtual boy was the headache you got even after short periods of play. That's going to be a symptom of any oscillating mirror technology. I do have to say, it was a fully immersive experience which hasn't been duplicated again though.

The other big problem was it was marketed as a portable system, and the games were essentially portable games, but it was a decidedly non-portable system.

Besides what innovative gameplay are you experiencing?

correct me if I am wrong but the DS wireless is not quite standard, not to mention the hacking scene there does not seem as big

Wireless Communication: IEEE 802.11 and Nintendo's proprietary format; wireless range is 30 to 100 feet, depending on circumstances; multiple users can play multiplayer games using just one DS game card.

http://www.nintendo.com/techspecds

Nintendo's proprietary format (if I understand correctly) is used for direct DS to DS connections where you may be able to play multiplayer off of one cartridge; the reason they choose to create their own format is to prevent piracy.

One thing a PSP would give you is "Picture out of Picture" - you could stream one video feed while another was playing on the primary screen, perhaps warn you when it detected commercials were over. I think it could do a lot more interesting and useful things than a standard remote. I have no idea if Sony is actually planning to do any of those things but it does not mean it's not a potentially good deivce as a remote.

First off, to be useful the PS3 would have to be connected to a television signal thus would need some sort of input which it doesn't have (as someone pointed out earlier).

Online play is no longer a competing factor. Cue Wii website: http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html

Both Nintendo and Sony had online options in the Xbox/PS2/GC generation, but Xbox Live was the clear winner. Sony's now planning on copying Xbox Live for the PS3, and Nintendo's retro game market looks like it's strongly influenced by Xbox Live's marketplace and Arcade. Nintendo and Sony may get their acts together, but Microsoft has a huge lead (in knowledge, implementation, and mindshare) with Live that will be tough to beat.

In fact, for those of us who don't have 1080i tv's, graphics quality isn't going to matter that much.

I'd rather have a 720p TV than a 1080i (interlacing == flickering == hurts my eyes, and 720p has more usable resolution, as 1080i's vertical resolution in movement is really only 540). A 1080p system is a waste of money right now (check back in ~2 years). And that's why I replaced my old 1080i TV with a new 720p TV last November.

Keep in mind that "graphics quality" involves more than just higher resolution textures. It means more detailed models, more objects on screen at a time, more realistic rendering effects, etc. All of that will be noticeable on a standard-definition TV. Of course, it does still depend on developers using the full power of the system. If a developer just applies higher resolution textures and anti-aliasing to PS2-grade graphics, that's going to suck on any TV (see Gun, several of the sports titles from Xbox 360 launch).

In fact, I think what this race is going to boil down to is number of available games (Wii might actually win this one, taking the ROM distribution into account), and price (nobody I know loves PS exclusive games enough to spend roughly 3x the money on it)

It always boils down to number of available games. I wouldn't count out Xbox Live Arcade just yet, either. And with Sony losing GTA's launch exclusivity, there's one less reason to buy a PS3.

While I'll probably end up buying all three (I have a 360 now, I'm planning on getting a Wii at launch, and I'll pick up a PS3 in 3-4 years when it's affordable), my current plan is to go Wii60.

higher quality graphics, online play vs innovative games and play style

Online play is no longer a competing factor. Cue Wii website: http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html

In fact, for those of us who don't have 1080i tv's, graphics quality isn't going to matter that much.

In fact, I think what this race is going to boil down to is number of available games (Wii might actually win this one, taking the ROM distribution into account), and price (nobody I know loves PS exclusive games enough to spend roughly 3x the money on it)

Nintendo's Wii controller requires you to setup two sensors on the side of your TV which I don't care for.

...a normal controller that I already enjoy as opposed to a remote shape that I'm concerned about when playing normal games, especially using the virtual console.

My DS Lite has a dead pixel too, and its making me very angry. i'm having the urge to throw it against the wall, only then it will never be covered by the warranty, and I'd probably put a hole in the wall!

here is what nintendo's customer support page has to say about stuck pixels: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/dslite/tr ouble_spot.jsp

if you're a sucker and pre-ordered it at EB or some other boutique store, they probably won't exchange it (the eb rep told me that their warranty only covers stuck pixels if there is a clump of 5 or more, which is bullshit.) here is how you can set up a repair with nintendo: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/repair/repair_for m_us.jsp

you may need to register your serial number for the warranty to work. after filling out that form, it'll take 4-10 business days to recieve your UPS return label, and 3-4 more business days to repair it and return it.. so i guess i'll just have to play something else for the next couple weeks.

My DS Lite has a dead pixel too, and its making me very angry. i'm having the urge to throw it against the wall, only then it will never be covered by the warranty, and I'd probably put a hole in the wall!

here is what nintendo's customer support page has to say about stuck pixels: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/dslite/tr ouble_spot.jsp

if you're a sucker and pre-ordered it at EB or some other boutique store, they probably won't exchange it (the eb rep told me that their warranty only covers stuck pixels if there is a clump of 5 or more, which is bullshit.) here is how you can set up a repair with nintendo: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/repair/repair_for m_us.jsp

you may need to register your serial number for the warranty to work. after filling out that form, it'll take 4-10 business days to recieve your UPS return label, and 3-4 more business days to repair it and return it.. so i guess i'll just have to play something else for the next couple weeks.

PSO on the other hand, is rather hard to get ahold of, although I know that Play-Asia still has brand new copies of the Japanese version of PSO Episode 3 available for purchase, which are compatible. (If you've got a Japanese Gamecube, of course)

Despite this, you can still get ahold of an Action Replay and a Gamecube SD Card adapter for under $50, which requires no console modification to use SDload.

It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

Since the Wii will have two USB ports, what makes you think you won't be able to plug in a USB keyboard, or that there won't be a custom keyboard released at some point?

Personally, I wouldn't be suprised if things involved the DS connectivity at some point as well, maybe letting you use the DS touchscreen along with handwriting recognition to enter text.

Nintendo is a privately held company. One of the largest in fact.

Actaully, it's been traded on a number of exchanges during it's history, most recently the Tokyo exchange (since 1983).

Company History

This article from the upcoming Game Informer magazine focuses on the pros and cons of the development environment of the upcoming Nintendo Wii. As well as revealing the last big secret concerning hardware functionality. Here are some summarizations from that article.

-Pros-

-Inexpensive graphics development.

-Developer-friendly "camera" program

-Will support HDR lighting, normal maps, bump-mapping, nurbs rendering, and panoramically-composted depth-composited cubemappng, ray-tracing.

-Chipsets are very inexpensive although EXTREMELY powerful, WILL incorporate many aspects of the Project Reality study.

-Nintendo is providing extensive documentation to ease the incorporation of the Wii-mote.

-Cons-

-Challenging to program effectively for the Wii-mote, due to it being very new to the industry.

-Marketing to be more challenging for bigger third-party franchises due to nature of the innovative qualities.

-The development cycle to possibly equal the time cycles of PS3 and Xbox360 due to the time needed to be innovative and effectively program for the controller.

-The challenge of marketing the Wii's controller in ads and commercial may turn third-parties away from exclusivity. (The challenge to display through ads how "playing is believing")

-The Final Secret/minor surprises also-

-Wii will include a built-in decent resolution camera that can be used to add your face to character models and add innovation to games. These snapshots can be tweaked as well. It is still being decided whether to allow camera to record and stream video. Mention made to have this feature be a strong feature in online play.

-A wireless headset will be made available at launch.

-SD cards will range from 2GB to 7GB and will be priced "within reason".

-A new router technology is still in development and not yet available to developers. In the final product Nintendo hopes to be able to make every Wii a sort of "Wi-Fi hotspot" with each user connecting to that user and so on. They also want to be able to allow different users to share things and are thinking about setting up a pseudo-P2P network through Connect24, where users can share content and "other things". This means that even if you have a dial-up connection or no internet, you can still connect to Wii Connect24.

-The Wii will indeed have a PPU included in final hardware. It will have only 32MB though, which will still take a considerable amount of pressure off of other chips.

-A still-in-development simple dev tool will be made available to users through the Connect24 network. It will allow users to create a simple game in 2D or simple 3D and share it with the world. This will hopefully be available on the network by launch.

-The last big secret is the "graphics solution". It revolves around a whole lot of non-volatile RAM (opting out of HDD support, RAM is much faster than a HDD). And a development interface that centers on a AI-controlled command-line interface. This additional tech only included in final dev kits, while most developers don't have access to final dev kits.

That is what everyone online has been calling it, but officially Nintendo calls it the "Wii Remote".

No Hit Indie Games ON A CONSOLE.

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

He is no longer NOA's Executive VP of Sales and Marketing: On the 25th he was promoted to President and COO.

http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=9653

Congratulations, Reggie!

I don't know about that 1-year thing when it comes to Nintendo, at least in the case of the NES. The overlap between the NES and SNES is 4 years, 1991 to 1995. While it's true we did not recieve a Mario after 1990 or a Zelda after 1988, here're some notable games released in those years:

1992 - Baseball Stars 2, Yoshi, Dragon Warrior 3, Dragon Warrior 4, Mega Man 4, Mega Man 5, Contra Force, TMNT 3, Super Mario USA (Japan)

1993 - Bonk's Adventure, Kirby's Adventure, Chip and Dale 2, Duck Tales 2, Mighty Final Fight, Tetris 2, Bases Loaded 4, Yoshi's Cookie, Bomberman 2

1994 - Star Tropics 2, Wario's Woods, Mega Man 6, Mario's Time Machine

Yeah, it gets pretty lean come about 1994 and there was nothing in 1995 (unless the original NES Classic series was that late, can't find much info on it right now) but it wasn't a 12-month-and-we-drop-it deal either, otherwise the NES would've been stone-dead halfway through 1992.

Now, the SNES is entirely different, in that I can't think of more than a dozen games that came after the Nintendo 64. I was amazed how fast the 3rd parties dropped it (and, to a lesser extent, the Genesis). Nintendo, though, having gone out on quite a bang with Yoshi's Island, I can't fault _that_ much because at the time it was carrying the both the Nintendo 64 and the VB on it's own. Color GameBoy never really took off and died just about the instant the GBA arrived.

Source: http://www.nintendo.com/doc/nes_games.pdf