This is weird, I do not think of the N64 like that at all. It always felt to me like the ratio of good games to total releases was relatively high. Not as high as on GameCube maybe, but nowhere near DS or Wii levels of shovelware paradise. Heck, even the GBA or the PS1 have way more crap. NES and SNES too, probably. There weren’t much games being shoveled out on the N64 back then. Games just kinda trickled out here and there. I guess the library as a whole gets a really bad rap nowadays, because everything kinda looks like a murky turd. Which isn’t undeserved. But, it’s not like the devs weren’t trying.
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i don’t see the n64 as the home of shovelware at all. lots of weird mascot platformers, yeah, but most of them are at least interesting in a way that platformers since almost never are. i agree with bug in that the ratio of releases to ones worth playing is one of the best of any console ever; barring maybe only the dreamcast
Well both the N64 and GameCube have a pretty small library, i guess you could say the ratio of good:crap isn’t THAT bad compared to systems which have more volume (therefore more noise:signal). i guess i more have that impression because of how hinky and ugly the games often felt. And to be fair, i like some of those crap games-- i kind of alluded to how i felt on the podcast through talking about Quest 64, which is a really bad and boring game that nevertheless had some interesting stuff going on, as a thought exercise at least.
“objectively strongest” is gonna get you in trouble in the late 90s though, the PS1’s texture warping and storage media plus square’s framebuffer cecil b demille matte paintings produced the objectively nicest results.
anyway yeah I’d agree it’s not shovelware per se because the thing was pretty hard to code for! but the results were not often good, often just due to the weirdness of the era.
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i think i was misusing the word shovelware and maybe leaning too hard on “mostly crap” and i’m just gonna lamely walk back what i said right on out of the thread now sorry
edit: no but for real i… wasn’t so much saying that the n64 was a mostly shitty system with some great games. i mean i did say literally that it turns out but its not what i meant. More like… it’s a system that feels like kind of a hot mess, like you have true blue classics that still hold up, and genuine crap games that are somehow kinda interesting, and then this whole big middle tier that’s maybe just sort of banal, or clunky, or ugly, but there aren’t a lot of games that stick out to me as flat out bad. It’s a system I’d characterize as having interesting crap i guess. i just overstated the case and now i’m backpeddling helplessly auugh.
it was definitely the beginning of the ‘people have no idea what to do with nintendo consoles’ era, though it didn’t quite feel as serious as what would happen with wii later. the fact that they stayed cartridge based + had that funky 3 pronged controller/surprisingly shit d-pad made it kind of an outlier when compared to ps1, saturn, etc
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It’s okay, I didn’t expect to mount a spirited defense of the N64 library either lol. That console made me lose faith in Nintendo, miss out on the GameCube, and stick with Sony for a while.
And yeah, stuff was totally a hot mess. I mean, even the first party games like Mario 64 had an unheard roughness, departing from Nintendo’s usual polish. Like, compared to the endlessly iterated perfection that was Yoshi’s Island, to me the first 3D Mario felt almost unfinished. But yeah, totally new territory, there were no guidelines yet. Goldeneye was supposed to be a light-gun shooter first! (I remember hearing in an interview that this was the reason for the somewhat clunky separation between normal stick-aiming and R-trigger fine-aiming, as well as the, for the time, elaborate Time Crisis-like enemy damage model.)
I wanted to see if Metroid 64 was planned for DD and google spit out this instead:
[quote=“http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Metroid_64”]games™: “This apprehension over 3D gaming, is that the reason there was never a Metroid 64?”
Sakamoto: “I was actually thinking about the possibility of making a Metroid game for N64 but I felt that I shouldn’t be the one making the game. When I held the N64 controller in my hands I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around. So for me it was just too early to personally make a 3D Metroid at that time. Also, I know this is isn’t a direct answer to your question but Nintendo at that time approached another company and asked them if they would make an N64 version of Metroid and their response was that no, they could not. They turned it down, saying that unfortunately they didn’t have the confidence to create an N64 Metroid game that could compare favourably with Super Metroid. That’s something I take as a compliment to what we achieved with Super Metroid.”
games™: “Can you say who that company was?”
Sakamoto: “Sorry, I cannot.”
[/quote]
Which makes me wonder if Jet Force Gemini was Rare trying to prove that something like it was possible. Along with Banjo Tooie, it’s the only of their N64 releases I haven’t played. I kinda want to, just to see how “rough” it is.
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I just realized that, despite the N64 having memory cards, Nintendo’s own games rarely used them, and then only for secondary functions.
It’s pretty weird, because the obvious promise of having 4 controller ports and a memory card slot on each controller was that a bunch of people would each be able to bring their own personalized element to a multiplayer game. Nintendo’s own games didn’t seem to promote that idea; only a few other games like Bomberman 64 (with customized Bombermans) and the Gauntlet games (which saved named RPG characters) seemed geared towards making use of the new possibilities.
Nintendo just seemed to want you to glue a rumble pak into the slot.
EDIT: Okay I forgot about the N64 Custom Robos which are second-party games, also Japan-only.
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Conspiracy theory: Nintendo asked Rare to make a Metroid 64, they made a prototype and Miyamoto said it’s garbage, after which they kept working anyway (still being pissed that he didn’t like DKC back then) turning it into an original IP called Jet Force Gemini. Maybe? I don’t know. I just know that I really wanted a Metroid back then!
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I mean this is obviously what the average game playing person did too and it was a great call, the PS1 was the most important console since the NES at least, but man, the gamecube was so good, I’m still sad people missed out on the gamecube. the best 4p library after the dreamcast, the cleanest video output of anything in its generation by far and in fact technologically sound from top to bottom, and so self-possessed.
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GameCube has my favorite controller design (see the relevant thread) but also my favorite overall hardware design. That it’s so compact and durable and has an actual handle on it for easy transport predicts both the attempted populism of the Wii and the “take your system over to your friend’s house for multiplayer good times” angle the Switch seems to be shooting for.
Also it has secret startup noises if you hold down certain button combinations
revisiting the gcn thread when
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i will never understand why nintendo never made a light-gun peripheral add on that plugged in to the memory card slot
Whoa, really? It’s a struggle for me to think of more than one or two DC-exclusive titles I’d like to play now. PS2 and SNES have always felt to me like the consoles with the best numberofgames:goodgames ratio.
Do people here still get anything out of Mario Kart 64? I’ve felt for a long time that that’s been the go-to party game most of all for its cultural ubiquity that makes it a sort of foregone conclusion, because I’m pretty sure the later games have made it obsolete in every way (even as they’ve become more full of shrieking cartoon noises).
worst game in the series except maybe the Wii one
The new ones are too distracting
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I played the Gamecube and Wii Mario Karts once or twice each. Didn’t buy either, largely because my house hasn’t been the center among my friends for local multiplayer games since 2005.
They both seemed weirdly more complicated than they needed to be. Why are there so many vehicles?
Also, infinitely rehashing old stages makes them feel less exciting. Less exciting than just playing the 64 version itself which has more memories and good times attached to it.
I have Mario Kart 7 on my 3DS and I’ve played like five races. I’d probably play it more if I could put it on my TV and play with friends.
4-player Battle mode is probably a lot of fun, but… they put guard rails on Rainbow Road. Which was indicative of a change in direction that shaped the series into something I didn’t enjoy as much anymore.
And all subsequent kart games (except maybe Super Circuit) took 64 as a template, instead of Super. The courses weren’t kart courses anymore. They started putting the karts on wider tracks with less demanding turns, making items more important and driving less important to win. Which is something I really don’t like, because I really like my racing games to require good driving technique above all else. I like F-Zero more than Extreme-G. I like Super Mario Kart more than any other kart racer I’ve played. Mario Kart 64 was when they turned the series into more of a party, and less of a racing game.
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Well, only counting exclusives is kind of unfair, considering the big amount of excellent arcade ports.
SNES I am not sure about, but PS2 has soo much shovelware, you wouldn’t believe it. Maybe because most of it has been released in Europe. just look at what Phoenix Games did to us:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/company/74698-phoenix-games
(Actually no, you should not click that link.)