Nintendo's Crackrock Revealed

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'."

Comments

N64

[Digital Vomit]

"When the Nintendo 64 came into fruition, the only thing Nintendo fans seemed to want were 3D sequels to the great games Nintendo created on the Super Nintendo."

I beg to differ. Mario/Zelda/Metroid on the the SNES were the pinnacle of Nintendo gaming. It all went downhill with the N64, and has only made a slight comback with the Gamecube, IMHO. I was a huge fan of these games, but the 3D versions just ruined it for me. I still think there's room for 2D games, but almost no one seems to want to try it.

I'll probably buy a DS just for New Super Mario Bros., though. It looks like a step in the right direction.

Re:N64

[grumbel]

### Mario/Zelda/Metroid on the the SNES were the pinnacle of Nintendo gaming. It all went downhill with the N64

Thats a bit of a stretch, ZeldaOoT is hailed as one of the best games ever, Mario64 basically invented a whole new genre and simply is still one of the best 3D jump'n runs around. Ok, Metroid went nowhere since there wasn't a N64 version of it, but thats not really downhill either. With Gamecube on the other side you have Sunshine which is frustrating and boring where Mario64 was just pure fun. WindWaker also has its pledora of problems and neither of them really brought anything really new to the table, just more of the same. Metroid Prime also seems to be liked by many, even so I like the 2d ones much more.

Overall it didn't went downhill, it more went sideways, a different direction, different gameplay, but the basic quality is still there.

That said, yes, I don't like the trent to 'everything has to be 3d' either. I would love to see a 2d Mario or Metroid which uses all the power a Gamecube has to offer, there are just lots and lots of cool things you could do on the Gamecube in 2D. Sadly the only 2d games you seem to get these days are remakes of older series (Gradius, Contra) and none of the pick titles gets anywhere close to 2D gameplay. So for the moment the handheld sector is the only domain left where you will continue to see 2d games, but even that trend is going to fade away sooner or later, the DS doesn't have that much 3d power so 2d is still a good option, with the PSP on the other side everything seems to follow the 3d trend.

Re:N64

[Linus Torvaalds]

Mario/Zelda/Metroid on the the SNES were the pinnacle of Nintendo gaming. It all went downhill with the N64

I agree. The SNES was the last Nintendo hardware I owned. When the N64 came out, I remember being distinctly unimpressed with Mario 3D or whatever it was called. The graphics might have been better (and in fact, I think they were worse; big, blocky 3D is worse than small, pixellated 2D), but platformers as a genre are far more playable in 2D.

From my perspective, it wasn't so much "the only thing Nintendo fans seemed to want were 3D sequels", but "the only thing Nintendo fans were given were 3D sequels". If the N64 had come out with Marioworld 2 that was 2D, then I would have gladly bought it. But that wouldn't have shown off the 3D hardware, would it?

Very interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

What was the point to linking to Press the Buttons at all? It seems superfluous. Anyway, that was a very interesting read. I'm a long-time Nintendo fan, and I was already pretty familiar with the structure of the company's development teams, but I never knew the rivalry and politics between them was such a big deal. It was very interesting to learn about the shake-up by the new president. Perhaps it will prevent future game development from being hindered by favoritism, but since there are now multiple teams within EAD there's a possibility that the same old rivalries will reappear in a new form.

I also fear that Miyamoto may be getting stretched too thin now that he's in charge of all software development. Certainly, any game that gets his input is better for it, but he was already being pulled in too many directions at once.

No where...

[focitrixilous P]

Neither of the articles mentioned the term "crackrock" anyhwere, or any other drugs that I noticed. It mentions the oddball devlopment teams behind Nintendogs and Wario Ware, such awesomely odd titles, and I'm wondering why you would call them a crackrock. It's possible that hiphop slang has already left me behind, just two months out of high school, but 'crackrock' is probably not a compliment. The question is, then, why does Zonk hate Nintendo? First the "OMGZ Nintendo loses 80% profit NINTENDO IS TEH D00med" and then calling their best dev team a crackrock? What's your beef with Nintendo, Zonk?

Re:And the Mysterious Wario Ware Team is...

[LKM]

And the Mysterious Wario Ware Team is... Treasure.

You're wrong. Wario Ware wasn't developed by Treasure, it was developed by Nintendo, as the article states. The mediocre Wario World Jump-N-Run for the Gamecube was developed by Treasure, though.