Nintendo's worst mistakes.

[misslore]

The Switch is a good little console, 1080P is good enough for me. But my problem is, there's not really enough Triple-A games to play on it. I mostly got it for BOTW, though, I have loads of indie games on it, which this seems like a good platform for.

Agreed. Not enough AAA games is the main cons for me.

 

[Captain Ron]

Nintendo have made a few mistakes in their video gaming division (they are a toy company primarily after all remember). WiiU was just badly marketted. No-one apart from the developer of Pikmin 3 really knew what to do with the tablet controller. It feels like the weird lovechild of the Wii and the Switch. It's not portable and it's not ideal for fullscreen play on a TV either. Some great titles on it for sure but it was just too weird to get mass appeal. VirtualBoy. Remember that. Oh dear. Of late they have been remarkably successful. For me their single worst decision over the last few years was handing the development of Metroid Prime 4 to anyone other than Retro Studios. Thankfully they rectified that but it has cost time and money to fix I would imagine.

 

[PandaZ]

I don't have switch , and not much in to Pokémon. some titles are kind of nice though for younger audience

 

[MEGATAMA]

Nintendo is a very successful business, and gaming wouldn't be the same without them. Unfortunately, they've had their share of missteps.

What do you consider the worst decisions Nintendo have ever made? My pick would be sticking with cartridges for the N64, causing them to lose third party support.

I say sticking with cartridges for the N64 was the worst mistake Nintendo ever made, not backing out of the SNES CD add-on project with Sony. For two reasons:

1. If Nintendo had chosen to use CDs for the N64, they likely would have kept more third parties and beaten the Playstation, or at least not have lost as badly.

2. Because Final Fantasy VII was originally going to be on the N64, but because of Nintendo’s decision to stick with cartridges, Square jumped ship to Sony, where FFVII became a killer app for the PS1.


Third parties would have had no reason to take a chance with a newcomer in Sony if the N64 used CDs, because Nintendo was still the market leader at the time. And I think Sony would have joined the console market with or without Nintendo. The SNES CD add-on was just their way of getting their foot in the door.

If the N64 used CDs and Nintendo kept all the third parties, the Playstation might very well have just been another also-ran in the console market.

That was major mistake they never recovered from because in process Playstation become real and took third partys.

 

[KBD]

one could pull that off.

Apparently Nintendo doesn't want to, but why?
Are they intending to stay a platform primarily for small children for eternity?

 

[kenshingintoki]

Apparently Nintendo doesn't want to, but why?
Are they intending to stay a platform primarily for small children for eternity?

What are you Talking about? What device can 4k/60 aaa games in the Nintendo switch form factor?

Small children? Their demographic is gigantic and they’re one of the biggest video game companies in the world with the most expensive and sought after IPs.

 

[KBD]

Final Fantasy VII was originally going to be on the N64, but because of Nintendo’s decision to stick with cartridges, Square jumped ship to Sony, where FFVII became a killer app for the PS1.

Is it really that popular?
I've tried that series a couple of times & it misses the mark for me.

 

[kenshingintoki]

Is it really that popular?
I've tried that series a couple of times & it misses the mark for me.

Ff7 is quite a popular game yes

 

[KBD]

1080P is good enough for me.

I thought it would be for me, & Metroid Dread does look good, but just not great in comparison to other platforms that are using the newer capabilities of modern TVs.

 

[Captain Ron]

Nintendo's video game division has never been interested in the specs wars and any time they were ever leading on spec it was probably more by accident than design. Their focus has always been about the game play and their IPS. That in my opinion has been one of their strengths, not weaknesses. There will be a VR and/or 4K offering from Nintendo at some point I am sure but when they do it Sony and Microsoft will probably be battling over 8K gaming specs. I'm perfectly fine with this approach and you know with a AAA title on a Nintendo platform that the developers are doing their best to eke every last bit of performance from the machine and not just be happy with utilising a fraction of the potential on offer. There is a certain elegance and efficiency to that approach of doing more with less that appeals to the engineer in me.

 

[KBD]

More with less is great for keeping costs down, but turns away serious gamers.
I've never ever been a serious gamer, but I do enjoy that a Playstation or xBox have been multimedia stations, could you even watch a blu-ray or listen to a CD on the Wii?

 

[Captain Ron]

More with less is great for keeping costs down, but turns away serious gamers.
I've never ever been a serious gamer, but I do enjoy that a Playstation or xBox have been multimedia stations, could you even watch a blu-ray or listen to a CD on the Wii?

Well, i've put countless hours into the likes of Breath of the Wild,Metroid Dread and the Bayonetta games and i'm really looking forward to Metroid Prime 4 and the new Xenoblade. Can't abide the likes of Minecraft or Animal Crossing. Does that make me sound like a casual gamer?

 

[KBD]

I really loved Super Metroid & was expecting more of that with Dread, but it's a completely different style of gameplay that I didn't enjoy.
I held onto the Switch longer than I should have, because I thought someone else in the house would enjoy Animal Crossing handheld, but alas.
Eventually I realized it was just collecting dust & sold it at a decent loss. I made the mistake of collecting too many games for it, which helped with the loss, Ha!

I thought Monster Hunter Rise would be good, but it was just the same thing over & over & over again, & often I'd have to look up how to beat the monster, because I just wasn't getting there on my own.

The Wii was the last Nintendo that I enjoyed, but Nintendo was also the first console I owned.
I was quite excited about the gun for Duck Hunt, but if I remember correctly that was the only game that supported it.

I really really dislike FPS games on xBox or PS, because of their controller, which has no business in a FPS type of game. The Wii controller & sensor made The Most sense in a FPS environment.

I could play Resident Evil for hours on the Wii, can't say that about any game since, except perhaps Civilization: Revolution on PS3, but even then the controller is lacking for that style of play.


People just like to point right at the screen & click:

I once set up a giant projector screen with Wolftenstein on it & I stood in front of it with a wireless trackball & played the game for an exhibit weekend event.
We were selling the wireless trackballs & after customers saw me appear to just point at the screen & click they were buying those things like mad.

 

[Don Rogers Tash]

Virtual Boy must be right up there.
I bought it on release in Japan (still got it) and it's a great curio but that's about it.
A headache inducing mess that the brilliant Gunpei Yokoi (RIP) deeply regretted making.

 

[Captain Ron]

The cardboard toys that are powered by a switch was clever but ultimately I think just too "out there" as an idea to catch on. Don't see any of it in stores now. Think we can call that one a brave but noble failure. Ditto the augmented reality Mario racing. They were SO close to a winner with that one though. Imagine if those Mario Karts were small rechargeable caterpillar tracked tanks instead with tiny laser lights in the gun and sensor receivers. FPS tank warfare with augmented reality weapon,vehicles and environmental damage. I'd be all over that!

 

[Booker DeWITT]

The cardboard toys that are powered by a switch was clever but ultimately I think just too "out there" as an idea to catch on. Don't see any of it in stores now. Think we can call that one a brave but noble failure. Ditto the augmented reality Mario racing. They were SO close to a winner with that one though. Imagine if those Mario Karts were small rechargeable caterpillar tracked tanks instead with tiny laser lights in the gun and sensor receivers. FPS tank warfare with augmented reality weapon,vehicles and environmental damage. I'd be all over that!

For me, it just seemed a bit too expensive, just for a piece of cardboard. But I do like that Nintendo experiments, and try something different, even if it's a bit of a hit or miss.