Hi Nintendo fans. I've been on here for a long time now and there are a few quite high-profile members here that think that the N64/cube failed due to the software Nintendo released for them.
Well, I'm here to share with you that that is one of the most absurd things I've ever heard in my entire life.
We know for a fact that when the playstation was released, it had barely any compelling first party software. There are a few exceptions here and there, but in general the Playstation was not a console that succeeded due to Sony's first party offerings.
The exceptions to this are Crash and Gran Turismo. However, the success of Crash can easily be attributed to the success of Playstation in general due to other factors.
Nintendo on the other hand released more AAA games during the N64 era than any other manufacturer that gen combined. With the work of its in-house studios and Rare, Nintendo carried the N64 to reasonable sales all by itself.
Now, let's look at how the casual market is doing. Today we have the WiiU and the 3DS. The WiiU and 3DS offer some casual shit just like the Wii and DS did. Where are they now. There are less offerings, but it's only the beginning of the platforms. Yet look at them, nobody fucking cares. If you think that the N64 could have been saved from its inevitable doom thanks to casual titles, you were wrong.
The Wii was not a success due to its casual offerings. The Wii was a success due to Wii Sports almost single-handedly. The Wii was a success due to its motion controls. NSMB wasn't a success for being a casual game. NSMB was a success due to being a long-desired return to the roots of mario in a time where going retro was "in".
So, when all is said and done, the N64 offered no small portion of quality and entertainment. A Wii Sports-like offering would have helped the console greatly, but that's because Wii Sports, at its prime, offered an entertainment value like no other. It has nothing to do with casual titles, those will be forgotten.
Look at the game boy line, did that survive due to casual titles? No, that mostly survived thanks to Pokemon.
This industry has much more than meets the eye, and until we find our answers, those who say otherwise than what's in this thread are blocking us from finding out what we need to realize, that there are pockets of gold in the industry, whether core (pokemon) or casual (brain age), and that Nintendo has always been notorious in finding them even when times were toughest. Let's get rid of stupid thinking and start finding answers.
Ciao
~padib
