The Top 7 Nintendo Mistakes are sure to offend somebody
by JC Fletcher 
{ Apr 10th 2007 at 3:30PM }
GamesRadar has just put up their list of historical Nintendo blunders, and ... wow. We hope they're wearing flame-retardant clothing. The list has seemingly noble enough intentions: to analyze how Nintendo went from the absolute biggest name in video games to pretty much third place. Ultimately, it's probably meant to incite arguments, and they'll get plenty of them.But if there's anything we've learned from years of being on the Internet and from specializing in Nintendo discussion, it's that any negative word about Nintendo will summon a cacophony of fanboy hate. Never mind that a lot of the things on the list (with one very notable exception) are definitely huge mistakes and probably did contribute to Nintendo's semi-downfall in the pre-DS days.
Let's try to buck the trend here. Let's have an open discussion about Nintendo's missteps, instead of screaming at naysayers and trying to spin the Virtual Boy as a good thing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
trainwrecka @ Apr 10th 2007 11:18PM
didn't mind the article at all - i actually really enjoyed it and feel they hit the nail on the head with it. if they really "weren't" mistakes nintendo wouldn't have changed what they were doing - they did though. lucky for us it was for the better.
chas @ Apr 10th 2007 3:42PM
on the very first page he says people will get tired with wii sports, but i have to say that wii sports probably has the most replayability of any game ever. i played about 10 rounds of bowling yesterday and it was still just as awesome as the first day. i wish people would play these games before critiquing them
AndrewNeo @ Apr 10th 2007 4:06PM
I think saying Nintendo is in third place is pretty much enough to start the fire right there.
shep133 @ Apr 10th 2007 4:10PM
This writer is even farther away from reality than Pat Robertson.
Tckob @ Apr 10th 2007 4:12PM
nothing new here.....move along...
Geo @ Apr 10th 2007 4:42PM
The author makes some good points, but saying things like casual gamers wouldn't be interested in wiisports 2 is dumb.
Mr Khan @ Apr 10th 2007 4:47PM
(Puts on sarcasm hat...)
But, the Virtual Boy totally ruled, it was video games beamed DIRECTLY TO YOUR BRAIN!
And the N64 was totally correct to have cartridges, their 64 cool MB were definitely better than 700 shitty MB on other consoles (cough PlayStation cough)
Nobody wants Online anyway, it kicks so much more ass to connect to your handheld console
And video game consoles don't need any more power than the Wii has, what you see on PS360 is illusion, Wii's graphics are real, would you rather have 43 MB of REAL V-RAM or 256 MB of shit V-RAM?
I mean, geez, Nintendo make mistakes, come on...
Mr Khan @ Apr 10th 2007 4:59PM
(After reading article)
damn, they really put the hurt on Nintendo to unnecessary degrees. First off, they wrote off the Wii, making the assumption that it will eventually fall flat on its face (still a possibility, but growing less likely every month). Second, they basically damned the N64 and GameCube to hell, despite the fact that the two consoles spawned some of the best games ever
They made it sound like the flaws of the N64 and GC automatically negated any good games that may have appeared
Half of that article was just flamebait... (other half spot on)
TIME @ Apr 10th 2007 5:05PM
I can agree with a few of the statements that hes made but they have all already been over used by sony and 360 fanboys. And yes this who bashing of consoles are getting very very old. I think alot of people had their money on the Wii failing as poorly as the GC but I have a news flash !It isn't! you can't argue with facts the Wii out sells the competitors enough said get over it go cry to your mommys if you have a problem.
Sarah @ Apr 10th 2007 5:52PM
ack..that was a harsh article, probably more so because its so true (yeah you heard me!) I sit here in fear and hope and pray that nintendo doesn't piss off 3rd party developers again or forget about our online play. Look, I really like nintendo's games but I do enjoy others too, like Final Fantasy, and not the bucket carrying crystal chronicles, but could you imagine the difference if the 64 had gone with CD's and was able to play FFVII? I think the Wii is selling very well, I think the PS3 has no chance to catch up at this point, but the 360 is very poised if nintendo decides to play the role of dictator again when it comes to outside developers. It'll be interesting to watch, and I'll have my fingers crossed for the Wii because it has so much potential to be one of the best consoles to come out in a long time.
theLoneYoshi @ Apr 10th 2007 6:07PM
I don't know about you guys, but I loved the N64 controller. And also, they write off the Wii and it barely came out. They name Super Smash Bros Brawl and say how it doesn't use the Wiimote, but What about Mario Galaxy? Metroid Prime 3? Those other two games are major games as much as Brawl is.
As for the other arguments, they pretty much hit the mistakes on the spot, but they exaggerated A LOT.
Wil @ Apr 10th 2007 6:37PM
"But if there's anything we've learned from years of being on the Internet and from specializing in Nintendo discussion, its that any negative word about Nintendo will summon a cacophony of fanboy hate."
Or, in my case, a big pile of positive words about Nintendo.
JC Fletcher @ Apr 10th 2007 7:01PM
Well, here's one for the Top 7 JC Mistakes: the missing apostrophe in that quoted paragraph. AWESOME.
Peabo @ Apr 10th 2007 7:38PM
I would have to agree with the article, though it is too early to have the Wii on the list. You'll notice that the Wii article talks about the risks that could cause failure. Let's at least acknowledge that Nintendo has taken a big risk and it's too early to tell if it has paid off. Things that could still go wrong:
1. The Wii remote makes it too hard to port titles.
2. The Wii remote forces manufacturers to create custom games which means lower profits (and fewer titles).
3. The Wii's 'casual' gamer only buy 2-3 titles total vs. 8+ on the other systems.
4. Nintendo fumbles the whole online play thing.
So far things have gone very, very well with lots of systems sold. We need to wait 12 months to see what the title catalog and title pipeline is like. I wouldn't want to end up owning a system that suffers the same fate as the GC - a few awesome games but with all the gameplay innovation money being poured into 360 or PS3. And yes, I do think the Wii Remote is innovative, but so far it hasn't proven itself with titles that truly leverage that innovation.
Spekkio @ Apr 10th 2007 8:25PM
I'm sorry, but this article is absolutely intolerable. Yes, Nintendo has made mistakes. What company hasn't? It hasn't changed the fact that Nintendo has survived and thrived where others have failed time and again. Nintendo has been in the videogame industry since 1975. In the years since, the fatalities have been many: Atari, Coleco, 3D0, the Philips CD-i, Bandai's WonderSwan, Sega (hardware)...and those are just hardware companies! See the whole list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_video_game_companies
I'd like to see similar articles about Nintendo's current hardware rivals. And a list of the top seven Nintendo achievements.
student @ Apr 10th 2007 8:28PM
I don't know, I think you guys are missing the point of the Wii post. The question isn't so much whether the wii is good or not, but where does Nintendo go from here? How do they create a new console? Do they just bolster the graphics even more and be like PS3 and 360, or do they do something even more innovative and crazy?
Gary Combs @ Apr 10th 2007 8:59PM
Okay, I'll agree with some previous comments that half the criticism was half on. Though it started pretty moronic with the Wii, it didn't get better with the attacks on NES carts... It did get it 100% with the #1 issue, that is, with Nintendo's deal with Sony, though Nintendo was right in backing out of that agreement, (it shouldn't have signed that specific agreement to begin with). Its nonetheless a decent read, even if I don't agree with more than half of its points. (to note: I had a NES, SNES, GB, PS2, and GC, and plan to get a Wii, and maybe eventually a PS3, basically I skipped out on the N64, as I wasn't interested, and didn't really like the PS)
Valzar @ Apr 10th 2007 9:34PM
Funny how some of the things nintendo is being blasted on are exactly what the competitors are doing now. The argument about cartridges on 64 can be directly ported to blu-ray discs on the PS3. The one thing i know for a fact, is i work at Best Buy and if we get wii's they are gone that day, but the PS3 stack just keeps getting bigger.
Brandon @ Apr 10th 2007 10:21PM
This guy is so retarded. I love nintendo, but they had made some huge mistakes, but the ones listed are so booogus. How the hell is nintendo giving up rare not on there?? That was the biggest mistake they ever made! And the whole gamecube online crap give me a break, that was last gen, how about sony's catastrophe of an online service for ps2? And it was true, customers in 04 didn't care much about live. I'll agree also, nintendo should be a little bit friendlier w/ third parties, but come on, this guy is just retarded when bringing up how they were "jerks" in the nes days. They were pioneers of the home console business, it was an expirement. I don't mind someone criticizing nintendo, just don't be totally retarded about it and don't take things out of context.
Tom @ Apr 10th 2007 11:14PM
Wii 2 Predictions:
--Xbox 360 Graphics
--Tall version of the N64 in glossy white
--2 top-load SD card slots where the memory expansion hatch was on the N64
--Primary controller is a 5"x7" touchscreen w/ large stylus (sold in either wireless or wired form, rechargable Li-ion with up to 16 hours)
--Full Gamecube/Wii hardware emulation, including GC front-facing ports and memory card slots just below the glowing orange disc slot
--30GB nonremovable internal HDD (the shock-resistant iPod kind)
--Codenamed "Nintendo Firepower"
Soiden @ Apr 11th 2007 12:33AM
@ Tom
Nintendo Firepower? Man...
That article was completely fanboyism. I agree that Nintendo have made many mistakes, but just reading the start gives you an idea about the guy who wrote it.
djmg82 @ Apr 11th 2007 1:11AM
I stopped caring about the article when I read...
"Five years from now, when the PS4 and NextBox show up, they're going to jump in hardware power again. And then Nintendo's left with a machine that looks two generations old instead of one."
...right... because Nintendo is just going to just let the Wii compete with the NEXT generation of consoles to come?
The article reeks of idiocy.
Kev @ Apr 11th 2007 2:07AM
And now Nintendo fans know how it feels to be an Apple fan.
Gnizmo @ Apr 11th 2007 2:22AM
It was an attempt to use the popularity of the Wii, and the rabid loyalty of the Nintendo fanbase to up the number of pageviews 10 fold. It seems to have worked.
Most of his more outlandish statements can just be ignored as flamebait, but I have to pipe in about catridges. I still prefer using them to this day. I am hoping harddrives eventually catch on huge and replace disc loading. I hate hate hate hate load times. While I can easily admit it was a buisness mistake to stick with catridges over CDs, I am still glad they did. It gave me one more generation of games without having to deal with a now loading screen.
Ars @ Apr 11th 2007 2:29AM
Its quite a pointless and idiotic shot at Nintendo. The ironic thing is that this article pops up in the pinnacle of Nintendo's continued successes with the DS and now the Wii. I can't help but think that someone is getting paid to spread some Nintendo hate around. Though, many of the author's points are valid and have value. The problem is that its a very one-sided arguement in terms of Nintendo's mistakes. Sure sticking with carts for the N64 was not the wisest move, but in return the N64 recieved some of, if not the best games ever created. The real issue is at what cost did Nintendo opt to use carts, which was pointed out by the author.
I guess this is what a company gets for continually pushing the game industry forward and producing new and original content and ideas.
Chris Putnam @ Apr 11th 2007 3:18AM
"Because what do you do next? Five years from now, when the PS4 and NextBox show up, they're going to jump in hardware power again. And then Nintendo's left with a machine that looks two generations old instead of one."
Did I miss something, or is this statement as stupid as it sounds? When Sony and Microsoft are making the next generation of consoles, Nintendo is just going to be sitting on the Wii? What possible basis do they have for this prediction?
The statement that the Wii controls will be tired out by then is on awfully weak ground too. There's a faint chance that could happen, but there's a much better chance that motion control is going to be the industry standard. And why not? A nunchuk-remote-style combo offers all the functionality of a conventional controller setup, plus a lot more. By the end of this generation developers will have the sense to know when to use motion control and when to use conventional control, and not just try to cram motion into every game as a gimmick. It would have made just as much sense to predict that analog sticks would be a passing fad in the PSX-N64 era.
TIME @ Apr 11th 2007 5:22AM
I will agree that one bad word about nintendo and it will cause a fanboy war. But doesn't that happen in most cases no matter what company you insult fanboys will be there to shoot every last statement down. Everyone is upset about nintendo not taking the normal path of just upgrading a console with the newest technology. And just for the record Nintendo is kickin both Sony and Microsofts asses and the wii only has as much horse power as a toaster. And besides Nintendo created this console to fit casual gamers needs and wants not so much hardcore gamers. Next time these people write an article that bash nintendo or any other company I have a tip for you:
1. Be original. Try not to use facts that everyone else uses and knows. We don't need some guy in a suit to tell us how bad nintendo has done in the past.
Steve @ Apr 11th 2007 9:36AM
Wow. It's like you could replace most of the replies in this thread with
"The truth hurts."
Fact of the matter is that Nintendo was once the Big Dawg and by 2006 the system was about as popular as Menudo. Get your heads out of the sand people! Something had to happen to cause that downfall! This article mentions them.
I'm also glad to see that for the first time the N64's beast of a controller was finally slammed. I loved the buttons and sticks available on that thing but that trident layout was horrendous.
Frank @ Apr 11th 2007 9:47AM
One of the best games in the history of video games was Goldeneye for N64. All first person shooters started there, and thats what gamers really want these days. It all went wrong for Nintendo when they came out with the Gamecube. The games were all too kiddy, and the machine looked like a pre-school toy. The Wii has a chance, but it will die out if they dont come out with mature shooters, that gamers over 14 years old will like.
Carlos @ Apr 11th 2007 10:25AM
Well, it is an article that speaks the truth. But it is very subjective. With a little more cursing it would be a complete fanboy article. I think six of the mistakes the article mentions are real. The “Wii mistake” I still cannot tell, its to early to reach conclusions. But I don't think its a mistake. Only time will tell.
Ross @ Apr 11th 2007 11:29AM
The article is actually true for the most part. It's a little biased, with it's 'predictions' and such, but for the most part true.
Does Nintendo totally suck with 3rd parties? Yep.
Did they used to have a monopoly? Yep.
Was sticking with cartridges a totally bad idea? Yep.
64dd, a bad idea? Yep.
Virtual Boy? Yep.
You could look at all that as a good thing though, if it wasn't for all those mistakes, we probably wouldn't have the Wii.
ShaleX @ Apr 11th 2007 5:06PM
So I read the list, and as harsh as I am to nintendo, that 1st one is kinda over the top. I'm not going to sit here and say i think wii is going to win, but i'm not going to say i think it's not going to win. I don't know the future. The other things are pretty accurate.
2 things though. Goldeneye wasn't the beginning of Shooters, Doom and Quake were.. and I don't care what anybody says, a little box on a TV screen was nothing compared to 8+ player LAN party quake 2.
The N64 spawned 3 major games, true... but the only reason they were on the N64 is because that was the system that Nintendo had made... and As the article mentioned they kinda designed the system around Mario and Zelda. But then perhaps, that's why I think argueing hardware is the stupidest most pointless thing in the world. Hardware means nothing.. Software is everything.
Secondly... How are you counting the "pre-DS" days... the GBA is still the best selling game platform of all time. Just, durring it's heyday there was no GBAFanboy blog to update us all every day how well it was doing.
Tim @ Apr 21st 2007 10:20PM
His salad dressing of hate ruined what was otherwise a fine argument. His points about Nintendo's history with Sony and 3rd parties were well on the mark, but you could sense there was a lot of fanboyism he was struggling to hold in check. I'm disappointed he was so biased, because I'm a Nintendo fan who prefers to be critical instead of mindlessly devoted. I especially hated his ignorance of the handheld market.
Monopolies have hardly ever been good for consumers, and I'm glad that Nintendo knows defeat and Sony is falling from power. This nice hearty mix of competition between the big three will bring us much better games than any one company could provide, although this competition can be a double-edged sword at times.
dan @ Apr 21st 2007 11:52PM
I think the article was spot on about cartridges-vs-CDs and making it tough for 3rd party developers. Now PS3 is making the same mistakes with blu-ray and all round inconvenience.
But the article is DEAD WRONG about Wii. It's pretty short-sighted to look at it as a gimmick. Of *course* whatever Nintendo does next will combine the interface improvements, but with more processing power, and who knows what else? How is that not a recipe for success? Perhaps they haven't seen that the Wii is doing twice the numbers of PS3 so far.