Nintendo Double Diamond Anniversary Retrospective Part 6: The Dark Age (Again, and 56k Warning)

Before we begin, let's talk about some Nintendo News that happened lately...


First off, Nintnedo's Creator Program or whatever it is is essentially a joke... Basically put, if you still want to make a living off of Nintendo games, you either A) have to give 30% of your paycheck to the big N, only produce videos on games on the list (and no, that doesn't include Pokemon, Smash, or others...), and not include other copyrighted clips, or B) Put some of your videos on review (which could take a damn long time because Nintendo), give 40% of your money to your employer, and it's the same basic details. If other companies follow suit, it'll lead to a snowball effect leading to creator programs that screw over their employers and we'll probably have a de facto SOPA for online videos unless you get permission from your employer, and lets plays and reviews will never be the same again.

On a more positive note, we'll be getting a live action Netflix Exclusive Zelda series, which'll be a more family friendly Game of Thrones. I'm really cautious, I'd like to see how this turns out. That's all i got considering they just announced this at the time of me writing this.


Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...



Read Part 5 (a much better era), if you haven't already...


When we last left off, we saw Nintendo slowly fall from the throne they were sitting in for over a decade. Sure. They had The N64 with some of the best games of that era, but it wasn't the late 80s or early 90s, and it would only get worse as time went on. Today, It's time we talked about... oh dear god, do we have to talk about this... -_- Fine... This time we'll be talking about their dark days, first since the 70s/early 80s.


Where did it all begin? In 2000, the N64 was limping to the finish line, and Nintendo Announced the Dolphin the previous year. In Nintendo Spaceworld 2000 in Japan, the Dolphin was revealed to be the Gamecube, There was also the Game Boy Advance, which would also be released around the same time. It was several times more powerful than the N64, and in theory, it could be more powerful than the then recently released PS2. With 4 consoles at the same time (the Dreamcast, PS2, XBOX, and the Gamecube) in the next year, this was going to be the craziest console war in decades. or was it...

The Dreamcast was dying, it did in just the first few months of the new year, It was doomed from day 1, but that's a story for another day. Sega produced games for their rivals including Nintendo, and it was clear that Nintendo won their long time rivalry, and they became allies. The war was going to be 3 way, with the 2 veterans Versus, the newcomer who had experience with Windows and MS-DOS gaming, yes Microsoft was the underdog of the moment with their XBOX. With a new era of games came new consoles, and battle strategies.



In June of 2001, the Game Boy Advance was released to much fanfare. It was more powerful than the SNES, had an expansive library going back to the Game bot of 1989. For every port of a console game, kiddy game, or rehash of a NES or SNES Title, there were New installments to old and new franchises like Castlevania, Pokemon, Zelda, Sonic, Metroid, and Final Fantasy. Yeah Square Soft (now Square Enix) was back in Nintendo's hands.

A recurring problem with this generation of this company's history is that very few of the games were as revolutionary as previous generations. The GBA Sold great, had a ton of games, and was a powerful system for it's battery life and cost. I won't talk about this since most of the first party games weren't worth mentioning as far as a history standpoint other than starting a few franchises. It was mostly seen as a kiddy console, but still sold despite it's reputation. It was hard to play games in the dark but, Nintendo fixed that later with the SP with a Clamshell design and late into the consoles life, they released the smaller than life Micro... One more GBA Thing that had a major Impact was the Game Boy Player, which allowed you to play GB, GBC, and GBA Games on the Gamecube, Speaking of...






A few months later in November, Nintendo Released the Gamecube, Nintendo needed something big for its new console, since the N64 Left some big shoes to fill. It had a controller similar to the XBOX or PS2, and Piracy safe (for a while) games. It Didn't have the most exciting design in the world, but it came in a few colors, just like the N64. Some Impressive games came out in the first couple years of the system's life...

Smash Bros Melee was the party game of choice for the Gamecube. It topped it's predecessor in every way, It sold systems, and had a lot of extras. This was HAL's msot ambitious project up to that point. and peopel played this game at booze filled sleepovers. The other game that had Nintenfans wetting their shorts that came out around the same time was...

Pikmin had tons of characters on screen at the same time. Micromanaging 100 Pikmin at the same time to get off of an alien planet. It was one of the Gamecube's most innovative games.

Nintendo's biggest franchises weren't left out of the picture, the big 3 Gamecube games from Nintendo were notable for different reasons. Mario Sunshine scrubbed away the crapmess left by his brother during the consoles launch (DISCLAIMER: Luigi's Mansion wasn't that bad of a game, I'd say it wasn't bad period, just not the best "Mario" game) introduced a dificulty level not seen in Mario Games since Mario 2 in Japan. Metroid Prime had the best single player campaign in a FPS in a while. Finally, Wind Waker introduced cel-shading to an industry that was to afraid to use the style. Heck, most anime games use it now.


As Generation NES grows into adulthood, they want to be reminded of a better time for nintendo, when games were simple, and challenging. Emulation sites starting gaining steam with gamers. We saw games Americans never heard of, games that bring back that nostalgic feeling, and Nintendo's response was to release their classic games on the GBA, some with better graphics. This would lead to the virtual console and their whole business model for years to come in the next part.

Another good thing to come of the Gamecube is it's peripherals, as well as the forementioned Game Boy Player, it had the first actually good wireless controller. No it wasn't a crappy 3rd party infrared controller, it was the first party Wavebird. You could even play your GBA as a controller for some games. So it had that going for it... One thing that was lacking in was it didn't have a DVD Player. It did have the cool looking and expensive Panasonic Q, but that was only released in Japan, speaking of...

However, They were in a distant 3rd place that era of consoles. 3rd Parties were not going to spend money on a downgraded port (because of the smaller storage capacity of the discs to prevent piracy) for a kiddie console when they could release it to more adult consoles like the Playstation 2 and XBOX. The only port that was better in both sales and rating was Soul Calibur II, that had Link from Legend of Zelda. One game came out late in the consoles life that was of not and was as 3rd party game no less.

THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES, SO VIEWER DIGRESSION IS ADVISED.

Resident Evil 4 was regarded as one of the best games of all time. It made mature games on the Gamecube profitable for once. With good scares, graphics, violence, and better gameplay than the previous titles. You could also play the game with a Chainsaw shaped controller. It was ported to the PS2, but the Gamecube port will always gave a place in people's hearts.

Things were at a all time low for the Big N, since Nintendo sold Rareware To Micro$haft. Rare made Various Donkey Kong games, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Conker, and even had a Zelda Style Action game in works for the Gamecube, which would later become Kameo for the XBOX 360. It got mixed reviews, and Rare would make various games for Microsoft consoles ranging from Mediocre to OH GOD KILL IT!!!!! As cool as it sounds I really don't think Nintendo Should Buy back Rare since there's no way that Rare can go back to gamers good graces. Just look at Power Rangers and Saban and what a hack job they did to the franchise. Nintendo and Microsoft Should really let Rare die in peace, and leave Banjo and Conker to other developers. I said this with MMPR/Power Rangers fans and I'll say it here, sometimes Nintendo fans/Gamers should just let go of their nostalgia.

Nintendo was dying, Pokemania was all but a memory by the mid-2000s (kids would rather play Yu-Gi-Oh), and Nintendo was planing to get rid of the Game Boy line in favor of the next big thing in handheld, but with Sony muscling in on the handheld domain, and a new generation of consoles underway, Nintendo was pretty much on their last leg. but they fought back rigorously. Coming next month, Nintendo's Burning Rebirth...

KEY PEOPLE:

Say What you will about Satoru Iwata, but he took the torch from an aging Hiroshi Yamauchi, and will play a bigger frole in the next part...

HOMEWORK:

Yeah, most of the good games from this generation weren't hat good, but he ones listed above were the standouts. Also the games which were ports of NES and SNES games were pretty good examinations, not to mention remakes like Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen were pretty good examinations too.

CLOSING COMMENTS:

Yeah this generation was pretty dull. Lack of innovative games, not the best games, and not a fascinating history other than they tried and they failed. Next month, things get better with the Wii, Wii Sports, the DS, a new audience, Online gaming, and more.

We're at the home stretch, what do you think? Could I improve? Any questions, comments, praise, or corrections? Comment Below...

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