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Guest The Mighty Damaramu

Did the n64 bomb?

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Guest The Mighty Damaramu

You know I always wondered. Technically did the N64 bomb? I mean everyone had one I know that. But did anyone enjoy it? Everyone I knew(or know) that has one loved it when it first came out(Mario, Turok, Goldeneye yay! ) but as things progressed everyone seemed to find the Playstation. Man I thought the PS sucked and wanted an N64 so bad back in 96(I was only 12! ) that I got one for Christmas the year it came out. I though I was set. But the next year for Christmas I was begging for a Playstation. And I remember what my cousins boyfriend said "Man once you get a Playstation that N64 will sit around and collect dust!" and you know what? He was right.

These days the most play the N64 gets in my house is from my 4 year old cousin because the games are all so simplistic and easy for him.

And every video game store I go to they tell me how bad the N64 was in the middle and end. My question is.....was the N64 only good in the beginning? Did it make a big bang and then quietly fade away? Did it bomb?

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Guest Kahran Ramsus

No it didn't.  It did sell well.  Most months you could count on N64 games being at the top of the sales lists.

 

As far as quality, it was great as a party system.  AKI's wrestling games, Mario Kart, Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, etc...  And if you like platformers it puts the PSX to shame.  It wasn't awful, just different.  If you only llike RPGs, then you would have no use for the N64.  RPGs are my fav type of games, but I still loved the N64.  We constantly played four player Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, the wrestling games & All-Star Baseball (still the best baseball game ever released, the series has sucked ever since it left the system).  Plus the Zelda games which I really enjoyed.

 

The biggest gripe people have with it results from the fact that it wasn't as good as the SNES, which completely dominated the 16-Bit Era as far as quality is concerned.

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Guest The Mighty Damaramu

Yes it did not hold a candlestick to the SNES(greatest system ever IMO).

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Guest The Mighty Damaramu

Zelda was awesome. So was Turok. I never got around to Perfect Dark(to busy with my PS)

The thing that made me quit playing it really was the Expansion Pack. You needed it to play certain games and I didn't have 30 bucks to shell out for one. So I just kinda quit playing.

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Guest teke184

IMHO, the only reasons to still own a N64 now are Conker's Bad Fur Day and Goldeneye.

 

The Playstation, OTOH, is worth having for many of the RPGs and the Resident Evil games (RE2 is the only one on the 64).

 

Then again, my opinions are very different from that of most people, as I hate most of the 1st person shooters that people LOVED for the N64.

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Guest redbaron51

Multiplayer wise, this was an ultimate system, and put the PS out of it.

 

Though with strong games like GoldenEye, Mario 64, Mario Kart, Waverace, wCw/nWo World Tour at the beginning it was very good.

 

I think about 99 early 2000, n64 reached its peak. GoldenEye was still popular, Madden Series for football. Wrestlemania 2K, Banjoe-Kazoie, All star baseball, and many other games. Then after that, games were hit an miss.

 

Perfect Dark, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, No Mercy, Conkers Bad Fur day, and the tony hawk series were good, but there were alot of bad in the way.

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Guest KoR Fungus

I wouldn't say it bombed, but it was a pretty big disappointment, both in terms of quality and in terms of sales.  Sales-wise, sure Nintendo turned a profit, but it didn't do nearly as well as the NES or SNES, and Nintendo lost their position as #1 in the console market.  Quality-wise, seven or eight great games over a five year period is pretty bad.  It's hard to call a system with Mario 64 and Zelda 64 a disaster, but by the end you were lucky if the system got more than about two good games a year.  It had a pretty good grasp on the shallow, easy to learn party game niche, but that's really all it had.

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Guest J*ingus

Goldeneye is the only game I still play on the 64, as opposed to at least a dozen on the PS1.  They just didn't have the 3rd-party support that they needed for the games on that system.  

 

Also, the controller really helped kill it for me.  It was way too big, way too complicated, and introduced my two least-favorite controller innovations: the rumble pack and the analog stick.

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Guest KOR420

Goldeneye,all wrestling games own for this system i still have one and i just rebought WCW/NWO Revenge for 2.99

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Guest Judas14
You know I always wondered. Technically did the N64 bomb? I mean everyone had one I know that. But did anyone enjoy it? Everyone I knew(or know) that has one loved it when it first came out(Mario, Turok, Goldeneye yay! ) but as things progressed everyone seemed to find the Playstation. Man I thought the PS sucked and wanted an N64 so bad back in 96(I was only 12! ) that I got one for Christmas the year it came out. I though I was set. But the next year for Christmas I was begging for a Playstation. And I remember what my cousins boyfriend said "Man once you get a Playstation that N64 will sit around and collect dust!" and you know what? He was right.

These days the most play the N64 gets in my house is from my 4 year old cousin because the games are all so simplistic and easy for him.

And every video game store I go to they tell me how bad the N64 was in the middle and end. My question is.....was the N64 only good in the beginning? Did it make a big bang and then quietly fade away? Did it bomb?

Yes and No.

 

While it was a steady stream of income for Nintendo, it damaged Nintendo's standing as "THE Game System" in the Gaming Industry and soured many a game fan against the company that they were once blindly loyal to. Compare it to the NES, SNES, and Gameboy triad (GB, GBC, and GBA) and their sales/dominance in the their time and you'll see how much of a failure it was (though it was no where near the failure of Virtual Boy).....

 

Lack of quality games, emphasis on the kids market while Sony grabbed up an entire market/generation of gamers who like more mature/adult forms of video games, and a refusal to fully exploit their trademarks (only one Mario game, no Metroid game, and two Zelda Games that are basically the same game with minor window dressing changes to it), and the alienation of third party game makers (most notably Square) made the N64 a failure IMHO. But it's a failure Nintendo can financially live with provided that they learn from their mistakes with the Gamecube....

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Guest goodhelmet

Hey any system with No mercy, WM2000, Zelda, Goldeneye and Conker's Bad Fur Day is A-OK with me

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Guest Mystery Eskimo

I am fairly addicted to Perfect Dark on the N64, so from a personal point of view, no.

 

In terms of sales probably yes.

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Guest

No, it didn't bomb, but it didn't quite live up to the Ultra 64 era of hype, did it? I still find it funny that Sony, the company that I discounted due to their inexperience in the field (I doubt I was the only one) almost dominates the industry now, when many expected them to be another 3D0. Of course, with cart prices, PSX's great selection of games, the burgeoning franchises created on and often for the platform, and Nintendo's loss of former exclusive developers, a lot happened between 1995 and the release of the Game Cube.

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Guest chirs3

Economically? No.

 

Otherwise? I'm not sure. There are quite a few good games for the system, but they aren't spread out over the genre's, and there aren't nearly enough for an avid gamer.

 

I've got a Playstation and about 10 games. I know I can get quite a few more that'll suit my taste.

 

With an N64, there are maybe 10 games TOTAL that I'd want...

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Guest Jericholic82

It probably was a dissapointment, but has its good points.  In 97, I saw it at my cousins house and wanted it, but also wanted PSX, for christmas I could choose one or the other and I chose the 64, mainly due to the commericials I saw for wcw vs nwo: world tour and nfl quarterback club 98.  I have those 2 games plus revenge, wm 2000, no mercy, goldeneye, war zone, and nba courtside 1.  yes in almost 4 years i only got that many games. Plus I finally got my gameshark in 2000 (which is a little late). South Park was a cool game as was zelda.

 

well at least it wasnt as bad a decision as in 95 when for xmas i chose a genesis over a snes (yes i know i was 4 years late for the 16 bit era, but i also didnt get a nes til 89 (i idnt know much about video games before i was six).  But on the plus side, i still can play world series baseball 95 on sega which is my favorite baseball game of all time (havent played all star so i cant compare, i played triple play 2000 but it kinda sucked)

 

as a side note, i cant decide which next-gen system i want. I could just get a gamecube cuz of wm x-8 but ps2 looks good. can anybody help me out?

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Guest chirs3

I'm going out on a limb...

 

... and guessing, since I don't own any, that the PS2 will be your best bet, for the same reason PSX was better over N64, Sega Saturn, 32x, etc. A much wider variety of games and appeal.

 

Plus there're gonna be a lot of port overs from other systems to PS2...

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Guest

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with a PS2.  I've been a Nintendo guy all my life, but finally got a PS2 instead of a GameCube.  I haven't regretted the decision once.

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Guest thevertex

A lot of you are really underestimating the quality games of Nintendo 64. IMO the library had a much better quality/crap ratio than the Playstation.

 

There were the best platformers ever in Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day that basically redefined the entire genre forever. It had very good FPS in Goldeneye, Turok, and Perfect Dark. There was Legend of Zelda and it's sequel, The first snowboarding game ever that didn't suck in 1080, there was Rogue Squadron, Wave Race, and No Mercy as well.

 

The fact is the n64 was the most influential system ever. Mario 64, Zelda 64, Goldeneye are the 3 most copied games of all time. Basically Nintendo made billions off it, and it had terrific games for all ages, not just for little kids as some internet trolls constantly repeat. I don't see how it can be considered a failure in any sense at all.

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Guest

There were the best platformers ever in Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day that basically redefined the entire genre forever.

 

That can definitely be argued. Mario 64 did indeed change the videogame scene, and totally redefined the platform genre, but Banjo, DK64, and BFD didn't do much of anything. I give props to Rare for Banjo, but DK64 was a major disappointment when you look at the DKC titles for the SNES. BFD was a good title, though nothing outstanding.

 

The fact is the n64 was the most influential system ever. Mario 64, Zelda 64, Goldeneye are the 3 most copied games of all time.

 

Yes, Mario 64 is one of the most influential titles out there, but Ocarina of Time and GE are far from being two of the most copied games of all time. How about Mortal Kombat? Street Fighter II? Tony Hawk's Pro Skater? Now those games set off a huge wave of wannabes and clones.

 

The N64 is definitely not the most influential console of all time. It's not even close. The Playstation is the most influential of the past two generations, if not of all time. While the NES saved the industry, and really took videogames into popular culture, the PS took it all to the next level. It's the most successful system of all time (sans the GameBoy, of course), and has forever changed the industry.

 

Judas14 summed up the rest of my points rather nicely.

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