The Nintendo 64 was an a amazing system and gave us some of the best games of all time, certainly some of my favorite games.

It did have some *massive* caveats though.
For one, it's hardware wasn't as easy as the Playstation to build games for and due to various hardware nuances, texturing would tend to look blurry (Which was preferable over the PS1's blocky texturing for allot of people).
We didn't really see what the 64 was capable of graphically untill Perfect Dark in my opinion, it was a league ahead of most PS1 games.

It's controller had a critical design flaw that would result in the control stick becoming limp and relied on a ton of accessories for various features (Rumble, Saving, Transfer Pak). - Which also added to the weight and bulk of the controller.

Sony would eventually one-up the 64 controller with the dual-shock, which would provide even better controls.

I think with the Gamecube, Nintendo had it's best controller design in my opinion. The Wii and Wii U don't live up to it in my opinion.

There were many reasons for the decline of the 64 verses SNES, CD played a part in that, but wasn't the only reason, it was still an amazing device, makes you wonder what it could have been if it could attract more 3rd party's though.

I like this post... everything in it except the Gamecube having the best controller design.

Obviously the SNES controller design was the best. Sony basically still uses it today.

Well. There is nothing the SNES controller can do that the Gamecube controller can't, but the reverse doesn't hold true.

After all those years of refinement, the Gamecube controller is still Nintendo's best effort in my opinion, didn't think much of the Nunchuck, don't like the Wii U control size (Needed to accomodate the screen) and lack of ergonomics.

The gamecube controller was simple, didn't have any gimmicks, felt good in the hands with good weight distribution and ergonomics and it worked, I just wished it was the controller the 64 launched with. :P

You are one of the biggest culprits on this forum Soundwave.
But for the love of God, stop assuming that the Gflop of one device is comparible to another devices Gflop. It's not. Never was. Never will be.

I agree that the GameCube controller is the best Nintendo controller. Those analog triggers were simply amazing, probably the best of any controller.

The PS2 wasn't easy to program for either, it's the best selling console ever, so that wouldn't have held things back. The N64 just needed Nintendo to compromise on the CD issue and it would sold at least double the units IMO.

N64 controller was amazing for its time when you consider it was blazing new ground. Getting the Rumble Pak the first time was a very cool sensation.

It's easy now with hindsight to point at its faults when it did most of the heavy lifting of being the first controller that was really properly designed for 3D games and every other controller basically copied off that.

To be honest, fragility of the analog stick aside, there's a lot I like about the N64 controller over even the GameCube pad. The d-pad is much better, making fighting games better, playing Killer Instinct or Mortal Kombat 4 on the N64 pad was fine.

I also loved the Z-trigger underneath the analog stick, was perfect for first person shooters.

GameCube controller had a shit d-pad and a laughably stupid design for the Z-trigger, they obviously just tacked those two things on at the end. To be honest too the "bean bag" button layout was trying to be cute for the sake of being cute. It didn't really make games any easier to play and made some games (like fighters once again) fairly awkward with a weird layout. 

All this talk about the past and past consoles.

WHO CARES!!!

its all not relevant.


Nintendo's going down so they are going mobile where the money is. "simple as that" point blank and the period.

but thankfully their new mobile system can hook up to a tv! yay for hdmi cables.

Don't think you even need a cable for "TV hook-up", Google Chromecast can do that wirelessly. 

If rumours about docking NX are true, then no, Ninty isn't giving up, it just wants to carve its own niche in home consoles too, with costs that remain under control, a more favourable profit margin and as many synergies with portables as possible.