| Alistair said: I would have loved to have an SNES 2 instead of an N64. But the problem is (and many people probably don't realize this) is that 2D systems are not space efficient. Most N64 games hardly need storage space, but the late gen 2D games were all exceeding 500MB on PC and CD by the end of the SNES lifespan (and remember what came next, the multi GB Baldur's Gate games etc.) Kind of crazy what Nintendo accomplished with 4MB. Then the 8-32MB cartridges of the N64 era arrived, but can you imagine how much trouble it would be to release a 640x480p game on an SNES 2 with only 32MB of storage? Crazy hard. |
The Saturn tried that approach. It netted them cult status in Japan and abject failure everywhere else. I doubt that all the 2-D Capcom Saturn fighters put together sold half of what Tekken 3 did. At the end of the day, people wanted something more than just a prettier version of what they had before. And for what it's worth, even in 1996 I understood that sprite graphics were terribly inefficient compared to 3-D models. That was actually a point of discussion in a lot of online forums back then. Even the Saturn needed a memory expansion to get the most out of its 2-D games.
For my part, the N64 was my least favorite Nintendo console, but that's because it had almost no RPGs, my favorite genre, and had a lot of other glaring holes in its library, thanks to the limits of the cartridge format. Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask were mind-blowing. I'd much rather have had those games than prettier versions of SMW or A Link to the Past. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was an often-overlooked gem of the N64 that I hope Nintendo and Konami will put on NSO, and I felt it was a genuine leap forward from the SNES game. The Gamecube managed to put it all together, but it had a rough time competing against the PS2.
