Nintendo’s Mistakes Led To Their Eventual Success.

Currently Nintendo are winning the console war with close to 70 million Wii consoles sold worldwide, however this was not always the case. Infact over the last 10 years Nintendo home consoles have failed to make a huge impact with the N64 and Gamecube being comparative flops when compared to the success of the Playstation, Playstation 2 and the Xbox. The mistakes Nintendo made in the previous three generations of consoles were somewhat fatal to them then, however as a result of these mistakes Nintendo and their Wii console are tremendously successful. Read on to find out how Nintendo’s mistakes caused their downfall in the mid 90’s to their successes now.

The Playstation, A Monument To Nintendo's Sins.

Now we are used to a console war between Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft this however was not always the case. In the early 1990’s Nintendo and Sega with their SNES and Mega Drive respectively were the leaders in the console war. While the SNES was very successful for Nintendo a key decision made by Nintendo changed the gaming industry forever. In the late 80’s Nintendo formed a partnership with Sony to produce a disc drive for the Famicom (NES) and later the SNES, however when Nintendo felt that the terms of the contract were unfair as it would give Sony creative control of all the projects using the disc drive system Nintendo cancelled the project. Sony however continued to develop the technology, which would later become the Playstation and go on to sell over 100 million units compared to its main rival the N64 which sold 33 million units.

The Technically Limited N64 Cartridge.

The Nintendo 64 itself caused problems for Nintendo, the decision to use outdated cartridges to avoid piracy which was common with disc media, was a problem for many developers as it was more expensive to produce and buy causing developers to be hesitant to develop for the N64 due to the higher production costs. Furthermore the low texture cache of 4KB caused problems with limitations on what developers could achieve, as a result many N64 games suffered from poor blurry textures when compared to the Playstation. However the biggest problem the N64 suffered from in my opinion was the limited space on the cartridge (64MB) when compared to the disc media of the Playstation, as a result many franchises that had been synonymous with Nintendo soon shifted onto the Playstation where they would go on to become hugely successful and fuel console sales, in particular this includes Final Fantasy 7 and the Metal Gear franchise.

Gamecube DVD and Standard DVD Comparison.

In November 2001 the Nintendo Gamecube was released to moderate success. Initially the console went second in the console war ahead of the fledgling Xbox but far behind the established Playstation 2, by the end of the generation the Gamecube however was firmly in last place. This is in my opinion heavily due to Nintendo’s decision to use a mini-DVD as the choice of media when compared to the standard DVD’s that both the PS2 and Xbox used, Nintendo again concerned with piracy made the decision to use a heavily limited media with only 1.5GB of available disc space when compared with the 4.7GB available to the PS2 and Xbox, as a result despite being more powerful than the PS2 many multiplatform games were limited due to the disc space. Key examples this were Timesplitters 2 and the EA Sports series which managed to include much more content onto the multiplatform versions when compared to the Gamecube.

The failure of the Gamecube lead to Nintendo’s decision to develop a gaming system unlike any other around and the result was the Wii, which utilised motion controls. However while successful I feel that Nintendo did miss a trick with the Wii, when first announced the motion controls were very limited before being upgraded to the Wii Motion Plus last year, furthermore the reluctance of Nintendo to try and compete with the HD Generation of games has lead to criticism that the Wii is a glorified Gamecube which is partially true, when the motion controls were first demonstrated in the Metroid Prime Tech Demo, it was actually played on a Gamecube retrofitted with Motion controls. I feel that the Wii has suffered in recent years due to its reluctance to embrace HD as more gamers have now started to turn to the Xbox 360 and PS3 after using a Wii and getting bored of what it offers.

Furthermore Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld format has also lead to laziness in their development of a new console, the original Gameboy was released in 1989 and it wasn’t until 12 years later we got a true successor with the Gameboy Advance, however in that 12 years we have the Gameboy Pocket and Gameboy Colour redesigns that did nothing to really advance the technology. This attitude of redesigning handhelds carried over to both the Gameboy Advance with GBA SP and GBA Micro and the Nintendo DS with the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL redesigns. As a result of this dominance I feel Nintendo are more inclined to redesign consoles rather then develop the technology. A similar attitude can in my opinion be seen in Nintendo’s software design.

Redesign over Revolution?

F.L.U.D.D. More Gimmick Than Gold.

The Mario Series, spanning over 20 years since its debut has always followed a similar formula even after shifting into 3D, the premise of you having to save a kidnapped Princess. Even after shifting into 3D with Mario 64 this premise remained the same, however instead of progressing through worlds you had to gain power stars before saving her from Bowser. Even the New Super Mario Bros Wii has followed the format from 20 years ago of progressing through worlds while adding little to the core gameplay, Super Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy are examples of this with the FLUDD device in Sunshine and the idea of traversing planets in Galaxy being added while being little more than a gimmick.

Like the Mario Series, Zelda has at its core remained the same even after a shift into 3D with a overworld with dungeons connected which you must complete to advance being favoured. Very little has been added aside from some new weapons or enemies but the premise remains the same, the latest in the series Twilight Princess is heavily influence by previous titles; in particular Ocarina Of Time with some bosses being identical and this is a sure sign of the series becoming stale, however Nintendo has promised that the next in the series will shift away from this format.

Pokémon Pearl. Good Graphics But Not Great.

Pokémon has been a staple of the Nintendo’s handheld systems since its initial release in Japan 15 years ago, however over this time the dynamic has not really changed. While Gold and Silver heralded a massive change in gameplay with the Day/ Night dynamic, the Pokégear and the breeding system these changes were simplified and streamlined in further instalments while not really adding much aside from new Pokémon that are beginning to recycle earlier ideas and new regions. While the graphics have improved in the games they are still nowhere near the best looking games on the Nintendo DS with a hybrid of the DS’s 3D capabilities and the trademark Pokémon style. However for years now fans have been clamouring for a fully 3D Pokémon title on a home console and while Nintendo have developed games such as Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness they have been reluctant to translate the franchise into a full 3D adventure. Furthermore Nintendo’s insistence to remake previous games with improved graphics shows laziness on their part.

The Nintendo Wii while hugely successful has been criticised for the quality of some of its games, in particular that outside of the first party titles that there is a lack of quality. However I believe that Nintendo’s decision to translate older Gamecube games into New Play ports with motion controls and slightly improved graphics shows laziness and complacency that has resulted from the success of the Wii rather than a desire to build fresh new franchises.

The Wii, Failing To Embrace HD.

In conclusion while Nintendo have been lazy it has lead to success by going against the grain with Motion Controls with the Wii, however they would never have found themselves in this position had they not abandoned Sony’s ideas for a disc system which would later go on to be developed as the Playstation. The insistence to rely on cartridges rather than CD’s lead to ground being lost by the N64 which was further lost by the Gamecube and the lack of AAA titles and the use of Mini-DVD which had a very restricted memory. Now that Nintendo are back in pole position I hope that complacency does not set in and I still feel that by disregarding the HD generation Nintendo are missing a trick, only time will tell.