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Nintendo's Crackrock Revealed

Posted by Zonk on from the why-they-so-crazy dept.

Press the Buttons has linkage to and commentary on an N-Sider story explaining some of the wacky decisions that Nintendo has made over the years. From the post: "There are a lot of unanswered questions out there in Nintendoland: Why was there never a Metroid 64? Why did cliche villain Wario become a major character, and then only for the Game Boy? What was the Virtual Boy supposed to accomplish? Why was there only a Game Boy follow-up to Kid Icarus? The short answer is 'politics'."

5 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well that explains Startropics... by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 1, Insightful
    One thing the article missed though is about Metroid, specifically how Retro got into it and produced Metroid Prime (possibly one of the best games ever made)

    Ah. A great game ruined by excessive backtracking and poorly placed save points. You'd think people from R-and-frickin'-D would have learned by now that these are design flaws.

    (Yes, I'm still bitter!)

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    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  2. Re:N64 by Txiasaeia · · Score: 4, Insightful
    " I still think there's room for 2D games, but almost no one seems to want to try it."

    Have you tried Metroid Fusion & Zero for the GBA? How about Ninja Five-O for the same platform, or any of the Castlevania GBA games? Alien Hominid for the big three? All fantastic games, all 2d sidescrollers.

    I do disagree with your comments on 3d gaming, though. Metroid Prime 1 & 2 are *excellent* games that perfectly capture the feel of their 2d bretheren. It's a pity you can't get past the interface; as a PC gamer, I'm amazed that MP1 & 2 are just as playable as any PC FPS with keyboard/mouse.

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    Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
  3. Re:No where... by Daetrin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I believe in this case the "crackrock" aspect was meant to apply to the oddly stupid buisness decisions, not the oddly fun games. Why were there so few Kid Icarus and Metroid games, and what prompted the development of the Virtual Boy? R&D1 getting the shaft due to politics.

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    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  4. Kids games my butt. by theapodan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm tired of people passing off the gamecube as a kids toy, without having played some of the titles on it. Ikaruga comes to mind, if you think that a 7 year old could rock that game, you're wrong. Is Hitman 2: Silent Assassin a childs game? Nope. The number of excellent adult titles on Gamecube are substantial, more games than I can afford anyway. And even without these less well known games, the Metroid Prime series are excellent games.

    If you think that Gamecube is a platform for kiddie titles, go blow someones head off and shred their body with an SMG in Hitman 2, and come back and apologize.

    Also, someone in this thread said that Nintendo should stick with what their good at, handhelds. This is ridiculous. Might I remind you that the NES and Super NES are still excellent consoles, especially the Super NES.

    That having been said, I also own a PSX and a Dreamcast, and will definitely be buying a Revolution.

    That having been said, I really with a metal slug collection would come out for gamecube or revolution with all the games included.

  5. Re:N64 by qurk · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I agree with you. While I was completely into Quake for a period of like 5 years (after giving up console gaming for the most part in 1994), the N64 almost completely turned me off. For one thing, the 3d was ok, but Quake blew it away. A friend loaned me a N64 and some games about a month ago, so I'm starting to discover some of the fun of Mario Kart, and Mario 64, but at the time the selling point of 3d games was a complete downer for me, as Quake had completely taken over my gaming life. Also, where the heck were the RPG's? The SNES had literally dozens of rpg's. Other than Zelda, you could probably count the rpg's for N64 with 1 hand's fingers. If Nintendo had encouraged developers to make more 2d games and push the 2d gaming experience to new levels, as well as encourage more RPG's, then I _may_ have had some interest.

    Having previously been a NES and SNES fanboy (I'll admit it), my friends who were N64 Fanboys didn't help me much with my perception of N64 much either :) "Quake sucks! James Bond on N64 kicks it's ass! RPG's suck! Blah" :) Everyone is entitled to their opinion :)