The Nintendo Death Watch - The Bigger They Are...

Premiering just 2 months after the VR Boy, the Sony Playstation arrived in America.  The Playstation used CD-ROM discs as opposed to game cartages.  This led to lower third party production costs and many third party developers totally abandoning Nintendo.  Also, Sony beat Nintendo to market by almost 2 years with the Playstation, locking in a base of gamers that had been raised by Nintendo but longed for more "adult" and sports themed games.

When the Nintendo 64 premiered, it showed that they were officially the company of yesterday, not tomorrow.  While the system did have a faster processor and better load times, the N64 system relied on the old media cartages instead of the next-gen CD-ROMs.  The excuse was "copy protection," a mantra that Nintendo had been chanting since the NES days.  And while illegal copies and versions of games was an issue with the original Playstation, it never became a problem of the size and scope that Nintendo feared.  And as I previously stated, 3rd party support almost completely abandoned Nintendo, which led to the Playstation acquiring a much larger library.  Games that were available on Nintendo were available on the Playstation as well, with better graphics, sound, and CGI cut scenes.

This was another issue that weakened Nintendo's market share. Game developers strongly moved towards CGI cut scenes in all their games (for good or ill depending on who you talk to), which is something the N64 could simply not do sans for Resident Evil 2 (which was a port of the Playstation version and came at the end of the N64's life cycle when it didn't matter). 

Also Nintendo had designed a clunky and childlike controller for their system, a far cry from the sleek look of the Playstation controller.

When faced with these problems, how did Nintendo respond?  Instead of becoming more advanced, their games became simpler and more childlike, geared directly towards children.  Super Smash Bothers, a very successful game among young teens and children, relied on the joy of pummeling Nintendo’s franchise characters in a style reminiscent of Looney Toons.  They embraced the "Pokémon" fad, releasing game after game of Pokémon filler.  They even released a "Special Edition" N64 with a giant Pikachu on the top, which lit up when the system was turned on.  The system only appealed to a limited market segment, narrowing the acceptance of the system.

The failure of the Nintendo 64 is more apparent today, as a soon to be released port of a N64 game is generating waves of publicity and raves for the Microsoft X-Box.  "Conkers Bad Fur Day" was Nintendo's answer for those who said they didn't make games for older players.  It featured a cute looking but foul-mouthed squirrel, engaging in a series of violent and lewd acts.  For Nintendo, the game was commercial flop… at that point "adult" gamers had given up on the system.  Today, X-Box is re-releasing the game, with updated graphics but keeping the storyline in place.  It currently looks to be a huge hit for the X-Box.

Next: The Stupider They Fall >>
 

More Opinions Articles
More By Lee Stein