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The Top 7... Nintendo mistakes

How the videogame giant became the world's favorite underdog

Words: Brett Elston, GamesRadar US

6 - The Virtual Boy

"Eye Advisory: Virtual Boy is for players 7 years and older" - Virtual Boy box

No list of mistakes would be complete without mentioning the world's favorite piece-o-crap gaming device. Launched in 1995, just as the SNES was fading and a year before the N64 would arrive, this "portable" machine was stricken from memory the moment it hit the shelves. For some reason, Nintendo thought people would actually want to strap their heads into a clunky headset that only displayed red visuals on a black background (and caused incredible eye strain after moderate use). The faux-3D images looked like a Game Boy trapped in a crimson-laced Tron nightmare, never once offering the supposed "32-bit" processing power promised on the box.

It was ugly, It was heavy. It was uncomfortable. It was confusing. It was almost 200 damn dollars. Within a year you could find these things for $25, games for $10 and eager merchants desperately trying to get this abomination out of their stores. In a way, the Virtual Boy was the true beginning of the end for Nintendo's unquestioned dominance, the first bizarre misstep in a series of horrible mistakes. Some came before, sure, but they were obscured by the fact that Nintendo was the only game in town. In '95, Sega had chewed up half of the audience and Sony was ready for the rest - a product as ill-conceived as the Virtual Boy couldn't have struck at a worse time.

Virtual Boy's creator, the late Gunpei Yokoi, resigned from Nintendo following this disaster. It's a shame he left (or was forced to leave, as some surmise), as Yokoi is also the father of the gazillion-selling Game Boy. Who knows what other joys he could have brought to this world if he hadn't left the company?


 
18 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
thephntm  - 1 year 1 month ago 
I clicked on this thinking that "Spam GamesRadar" would be on my to-do list (go ahead, call me a fanboy), but now I think different. Nintendo (should've been called "No-Fun-Do" or "Nincompoop" back then) was a complete jerk. Oh, and btw, the Wii, as childish as it is, was definitely NOT a mistake, even if Nintendo did literally bet everything on it which was the gayest decision to ever come from the depths of hell.
zeldagirl64  - 10 months 17 days ago 
*reads 3*
I wonder what the original idea for Zelda would have been as a game... More catering to fan wants in the later games? Link was surrounded in girls in Ocarina yet even as a teenager he ran away or IGNORED. Nintendo for SURE! But Nintendo still has it's good games.
Lucretiel  - 6 months 2 days ago 
Not sure I would call the Wii a mistake, in itself. I don't doubt they'll find something else, some other new thing to offer generation #8. What was the mistake there was the word Wii. Really, Nintendo? It could have been XBox 360, Playstation 3, and Revolution. But no. You had to call it the Wii. Where the hell did they come up with that.
Picnic1  - 6 months 2 days ago 
A good article- it's such a tangled web of fortunes between the videogame companies and that competition has resulted in some great games.

Unlike in Japan, here in the UK, Nintendo has never had unquestioning dominance with the majority, except for with its handhelds. Even the Wii, despite its fashionable status, is still about equally rivalled by the Xbox 360 by the majority. Part of their problem was timing- Nintendo released the NES in the UK at about the time that the Commodore Amiga and Sega Megadrive, with their superior graphics, rightly dominated the UK.
I’ve always thought that the Sega Megadrive deserved its UK victory over the Super Nintendo- not just because it appeared the cooler choice but because it had a larger number of great games- Sega’s partnership with Virgin Interactive and Disney sealed it- and because the Megadrive, older than the SNES, actually had a processor that was twice the speed of the SNES’s. And when the SNES had a superb series like Rare’s Donkey Kong Country, Miyamoto, concerned at Nintendo’s request that he makes Yoshi’s Island appear more like it, appears to throw cold water over DKC by essentially (and wrongly) saying that it’s all flashy visuals and no game.

When I first saw the N64 in a well known toy store, it appeared an epic console to me- it was in ways, although its blocky visuals on cartridge capacity needed to be moulded by skilled experts in game design like Rare. I ended up buying a Playstation on that occasion due to price and wanting to play Crash Bandicoot (despite the PS1 not being one of my glory purchases, the great Crash Team Racing still doesn’t make me regret the purchase too much) however a few years later, and after I had bought a Gamecube, I got a brand new N64 Mario 64 bundle for £50 from the same shop and then bought all the classic Rare games second hand, but in near perfect condition, online.

As the Gamecube had sales approximately the same as the Xbox, which was not judged a failure as a new entrant to the console wars, the Gamecube’s fewer sales than any other major Nintendo console didn’t turn in to the tragedy that befell Sega’s sales as a hardware manufacturer. However saying that you had bought a Gamecube still, a bit oddly, seemed to be regarded as a niche purchase by some people. I think that the Wii has shown that it was not necessarily the inability to play DVDs on the Gamecube that was the reason. I think that the Gamecube, in terms of how the console looked, was just seen as Nintendo at its cutest- something for kids. I think that’s a shame because the juxtaposition between the cute appearance of the tiny Cube and its discs and the detail of the Resident Evil remake (or Metroid Prime) was compelling to me. Playing any Xbox360 or PS3 game, no matter how beautiful, on a machine 2 or 3 times the size and weight of the Cube, doesn’t seem quite as impressive to me- it feels like playing it on an affordable PC in a box, rather than the subtler, more purpose built, nature of the Cube.

Nintendo have now got their sales up by offering quite a retro experience dressed up, to some extent, in the fashionable clothes of magazine lifestyle choices- weight control, keeping your mind active etc. It’s not the uncompromising blend of cuteness and hardcore games that the Cube was but it was clear to them that they needed to draw a line in the sand between them and their competitors and to send out a relatively simple message that a lot of people will identify with. It doesn’t make the Wii have the cult status of the Cube, or the N64 to some extent, but selling themselves to the mainstream is making them survive.
Mr.Mario  - 6 months 2 days ago 
Look on Wikipedia under Wii. Youll find the reasons for the console's name.
mjmont92  - 6 months 1 day ago 
Nintendo shot itself in the foot, numerous times. Sony just decided to save them some trouble and chopped the foot off.

I have been a huge nintendo fan for a long time. But seriously, I can only put up with so much shit.

F**K Nintendo in it's stupid face!
MyGameName  - 6 months 18 hours ago 
When you mentioned the N64, Nintendo actually allowed the technological miracle that was Conker's Bad Fur Day on to their HORRID system. Unfortunatly, not many people played it(I'm just now playing it off a ROM).
noobeater  - 5 months 30 days ago 
(deep breath)

i must say id choose the retro nintendo games over anything on the wii and most probably the 360...i sold my wii after 4 months because it was aweful ye zelda may have been the best yet and galaxy took mario 64 and changed it to be impressive twist but i just think with the exception of a minority of their games, that nintendo do not care for their fans like they used to, and i could really see microsoft with its so successful and superior online communtiy as being the main console for years to come.
Icehearted  - 5 months 29 days ago 
I loved this piece! It was deeply reflective and honest, quite a few times it even had me feeling a little nostalgic for those bygone days of "Genesis does what Nintendon't!"

I feel that for so many reasons the Wii is truly contributing to gaming decline. It's been said often for a while now that this "casual gamer" appeal is hurting the industry, but more than that I thin it's a lack of quality and innovation in gaming design that is hurting us all the most. Releasing a system that dares to be different only to see it bogged by a glut of poor lookalike shovelware seems back assward in every way.

There will always be a place in my fondest childhood memories for the old NES and SNES, long nights with friends playing those classic gray carts and such. Nintendo as it is now appears to be little more than a company of cheap cash grabs and poorly thought out doodads. The DS is neat, but Zelda with a stylus? That hurt, guys, it really hurt.
Superdude576  - 5 months 27 days ago 
Yea, this is definitely NINTENDO, aka Losers Incorporated. They always made those kind of games when I was a kid, and the 64 was cool until I got a PS2. Then everything but my Game boy and my Game Boy color (before SP and DS) got ignored. I defintely put my money on Sony and Microsoft as the permanent gaming learders. Unless Nintendo gets a miracle on its hands, the rag-tag Wii and the pretty DS are not gonna cover the slack they've lost over the years. Gooo Sony!
DRILLERDUD  - 4 months 16 days ago 
i offically hate nintendo now
GeneralTickTock  - 4 months 16 days ago 
i have a wii and its alright but it just cant compare with the 360 or ps3. it has ps1 graphics and its games are just stupid. its like comparing a N64 to a 360.

which would YOU buy???
Kytl  - 4 months 15 days ago 
Even after reading this article,even though it was pretty honest,i would say that some of it is also exaggerated.if the Wii was a mistake how come the other 2 companies are just now starting to copy Nintendo?and the reason for Nintendo betraying Sony and creating one of their biggest rivals is that the contract Sony created for the deal was just unfair.Sony would get most of the profits and while Nintendo would still be making money,Sony would be making more of it.and while the N64 controller was a bit weird it felt more comfortable since i KNEW that it would never fall out of my hands or any of my friends hands when we celebrate a victory in a game like,oh lets say, Super Smash Bros.
oh and GeneralTickTock, if you think the Wii has graphics that old,then may i just suggest getting glasses or perhaps eye surgery?
if anyone is reading this and you instantly think "fanboy",perhaps you're right but know this,i'm not blind. i may one day get one of the other systems just to play the exclusive games that didn't reach Nintendo but Ninty will always be my favorite,and I'm confident that that was a good choice.
RickyV300  - 4 months 15 days ago 
wow nintendo got pwned by sony big time
Mechamorbo  - 4 months 12 days ago 
Kytl, no one forced Nintendo to sign that contract or to go ahead with the design and construction of it, to the point where they were ready to announce it. If they weren't happy with the terms, no one was forcing their hand to forge the partnership. It's not Sony's fault, it's all on Nintendo. They AGREED to the agreement.

I've never been a real Nintendo fan. I started gaming with the Genesis, then moved to PC. Sure, I had a Gameboy, and later a DS, but I've played very few exclusive Nintendo games to feel any special affinity towards them.
Nintendroid426  - 3 months 4 days ago 
did any game actually use the N64 d-pad without the use of the analog stick?
Cwf2008  - 1 month 6 days ago 
The mighty United States Congress at work: Not settling foreign affairs, wars, economy, or the needs of the people, but regulating a video game company. Wtf.
TestDDs  - 1 month 1 day ago 
Nintendo's biggest mistake is its self



And Cwf2008's is a ass hole
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