Im one of a legion of old skool video game players (started playing our classic 6 switch Atari 2600 waaaaay back) who really fell in love with Nintendo during the 8bit and early 16-bit era. From about the time of the MK1 fiasco, Nintendo (imo) has been on a mission from satan to do everything possible to drive away the dedicated base of followers they built in those early years. Theres no two bones about it, the N64 was abysmal. It had more texture effects than the ps1, sure, but so many of its titles had lower poly counts and all those "great" poly effects basically just resulted in blurry textures and lots of fog in the near distance. Games were over priced, the controller seems to have been designed by a lsd-dropping engineer, 3rd party support was sorry and, as previosly mentioned, there are entire genres that are completely ignored by the console. We're talking about a japanese produced system that has no rpgs, fighters, or 2d shooters. what the heck were they thinking?!?!?! the game did have a lot of what I call "run around platformers" which, imo atleast, have never matched the fun-factor found in the GREAT 2d platformers of the 8/16-bit Nintendo eras. Nintendo makes the best 2d platformers of all time... its no coincidence that the gameboy rises in popularity as Ninny slowly pushes for all their console stuff to be more and more 3d-based. Im not a fan boy, I own pretty much all the consoles released since the NES, including truly oddball stuff like the PC-FX, VB, a neo geo mvs cab etc etc... i luv playing my nes and snes and I currently have a gc. If anything I am a Nintendo fanboy... one who feels like hes been shunned by the very console maker he adored for so many years.

in any event, any1 that bothers to import games will quickly find that the Saturn was a fantastic system with games in every genre. Over 1100 saturn games were produced... including over 50 shooters and 50 fighting games. There are lots of rpgs too (not a big fan). If I flew off the handle earlier I apologize. Seems like way to many people who really dont know anything about the Saturn are ready to "diss" it as a crap system. I may do the same thing to the N64... but atleast I owned the thing...twice before I made my final judgement about it...

j

thats your personal opinion... I wouldnt call any1s opinion "misinformed" its inherantly poor word useage. There is someone out there that thinks Superman 64 is a great game... they aren't "misinformed" they just have different taste that you and me. In any case, I dont think Mario 64 was even close to being as fun as SMB or Mario 3 on NES or SMW on SNES. Zelda 1 was the best zelda ever... again, just my opinion. Radiant Silvergun is the best console game ever made, its on saturn. Like I mentioned before, I like 2d shooters and fighters. If you want to argue the virtues of RS on Saturn vs Star Soldier Vanishing Earth on N64 or maybe Marvel vs Capcom on Saturn vs Killer Instinct Gold on N64 then we can do that. If you truly believe the n64 stuff is superior, I won't even call your opinion "misinformed"...

j

I never got into the Saturn, so I wouldn't know if it was good or not... I imagine that out of 1100 games, there should be at least one or two really good ones. My experience with the N64 left me with the impression that it sucked... there were a few good games for it, but there was just too much lameness for me to accept it as a good system. I also find it pretty funny that some of the same people who cracked on the original Xbox controller also defend the N64 tooth and nail in spite of it having the worst controller ever made.

Anyway - this thread isn't about Saturn or N64 or Atari or Xbox... it's about the Cube and Acclaim. I was in EB today and Best Buy over the weekend... I noticed that the GC sections are getting shoved into the corners and they take up the least amount of shelf space. The GC sections are shrinking... losing Acclaim isn't gonna help that. Judging by where the GC section was in EB - I'd think it was a dead system... I mean, they had one small shelf with no sign and it was the same spot that was holding clearance Dreamcast games just a year ago.

Anyone that thinks that is stupid and thats not just my opinion.

As far as the GameCube being a dead console. IMO the GameCube and Xbox have been dead consoles a long time, but as long as new games keep coming out for them there is no reason not to enjoy them. However, we have to deal with the fact the PS2 drove nails in both their coffins a long time ago.

I always enjoy reading these threads where we get a few people who seem to know what they are talking about, and the rest are fanboys who plug their own favorites and slam all the others.

I will not say anything as to the failure or success of any system, as I have nothing to base it on. Personally I have liked all of the Nintendo systems to date, as well as the PS1, PS2, and Dreamcast. I had no real experience with any other system, and I was never a Sega person. The one time I played the Sega CD I was disappointed... can't remember the game though, something about slumber parties and people coming in the house.

With Nintendo it has always been about the 1st party platform games. With any Nintendo system I can be 90% certain that it will have a Mario game and a Zelda game... and that is plenty for me. The fact that they brought back the Metroid franchise has been awesome as well as the return to Castlevania games for the GBA (lets hope they do one for the Cube) and now they are doing F-Zero too!

I always love to hear the 'kiddie' defense from people who are anti-Nintendo. Those are the truly missinformed ones, and anyone who thinks Zelda: Windwaker is a kiddie game is making a huge mistake. I thought that once this game was released people would realize it for what it is, an awesome game with some of the best graphics that I have ever seen this side of GT3.

It's just a matter of opinion. Personally, I think both controllers sucked ass. Both were uncomfortable. The N64 controller put my hands/wrists at an awkward angle and led to cramping. The non rubberized analog stick sucked as well as my thumb slipped off of it all the time. The stick was also poorly made and would wear out after 6 months or so. The Z trigger was awesome though. The original X-box controller was too big for my hands and led to cramping, and the white/black buttons were way to far away.

The beginning of the end for Gamecube was their actual beginning.

Along with this thread, this trend is something to be concerned about. Not that capcom is eliminating their support for the GC ala Acclaim, but retracting previous "exclusives" and making them multi-platform really hurts. Just shows that GC software sales aren't where developers expect them to be.

People get caught up in a lot of side arguments and don't see the full picture. Yes, Acclaim makes mostly sucky games. However, losing their support isn't a good thing. Nintendo has lost almost all third party support, and the ones that do support it typically just 'quick port' over a game from X-Box or PS2. Which means that the game is almost always better on the other consoles.

However, Nintendo does have incredible first party titles. But hardware and software don't have to go hand in hand. Basically, Nintendo charges a $150 premium for the first Nintendo title you buy. How much more money could they make if they offered their games on both X-Box and PS2 and got out of the hardware business completely? Honestly, the only compelling reason to buy a Gamecube is to play the first party Nintendo stuff. Most families can't afford two consoles and very few can afford all three. While the games are great, to give up playing all of the other vast third party libraries for the sake of playing Mario and Zelda is a pretty huge sacrifice.

Is Microsoft like Sega? Sure, possibly. With one huge difference. Microsoft has the bankroll to simply outspend everyone else in the marketplace -- and it's how they've always done business and they are very, very good at it. While X-Box has lost money, Microsoft knew it would lose money, expected it to lose money, and whatever it cost they were going to chalk up to 'research and development' and 'gaining market share'. I can promise you that no matter how much they did lose, it was a drop in the bucket to them. I don't expect to see a 'serious' push by Microsoft until X-Box 2 or X-Box 3. Don't underestimate Microsoft, you think this is the shock troops, when all you've seen are the recon scouts

Nintendo is content to do things their way, and that will ultimately be their downfall. They don't think about what the consumer wants to buy, but rather what they want to build, and then they try to sell that to the customer. They missed the boat on CD-ROM, and it looks like they are going to miss the boat on online gaming (the next nintendo box won't be online enabled from the factory). Even their 'fantastic' game boy is the same thing they've sold us since 1990. Oh, it's been upgraded, but it's still the same box, with very little to no innovation. Of course, there's been no real competition either. It will be interesting when Sony releases their PSP.

In short, Nintendo needs to stick with what they do well -- making good games. They should get out of the business that isn't going so well -- selling consoles.

Franchise, the thread you pointed to was started several months ago, and if you read the whole thing it becomes clear that the latest developments show the Capcom exclusives are still that...exclusive.

Seriously folks, buy the games you want to buy and play on the consoles you like. Nobody's forcing you to get a Gamecube. I don't understand why folks on this forum are so eager for the console to fail just because they don't feel macho playing cartoony games on a purple cube.

I'm eager to for the Gamecube to fail so I can play cartoony games on my other gaming consoles instead of having to pay $150 + accessories + tie up another set of inputs just so I can play them on a purple cube.

The first party games are great, but there's no other compelling reason to use it.

the classic "kiddie" commentary IS based in reality and is not a sign of someone being "misinformed". There was a significant stretch of time, starting sometime in the 8-bit Nintendo and running through most of the N64s lifespan where a massive majority of the games were didnt contain adult material (and thus are "kiddy"). I mean, lets look at Mortal Kombat. The games developers clearly had no probs with blood/guts... the arcade game was gore-filled... the Genesis one was gore filled... the SNES version... well, it was Ninny-kid-ified. Thats a classic example but there are lots of other things out there that add up to the while kiddy feeling. I mean when u see kirby, pokemon, mario, yoshi etc its hard to think of anything non-kiddy. Naturally, at some point during the PS1s lifetime, nintendo figured out that young adults actually liked to play video games too... the ps1 was rolling with tomb raider, resident evil, silent hill, and all that kind of stuff.... blood and gore and stacked women everywhere... just what 20-something gamers wanted. They tried to counter by bringing RE to N64, but by then no one cared. With the gc, thankfully, they have remedied this problem to some degree. There are the RE games, and other mature-rated stuff as well. Games like BMX XXX (i know its a crap game, thats not the point) were edited down for the GC version... which still shows there is a little kiddy left in em over at Nintendo, but by and large they have finally figured out that a kiddy image doesn't work with older gamers. Just think, someday maybe Nintendo will release a 1st party light gun again. lol!! personally, Id be happy with a 2d console-based Metroid...

j

I love my Cube... it fits nicely on a shelf behind my dvds, and it doesn't matter that it is hidden because they have the greatest controller ever, the Wavebird! Granted I loved my PS2 as well, and I miss playing GTA3 and GT3, but overall the Cube is a great system, with many of my favorite platform games that I will continue to love for a long time.

This is flat-out wrong. The Sony version was the edited one. The Xbox and Cube versions were "uncut."

I know where Nintendo got the "kiddie" image from. That is beside the point. I personally had just as much fun with Mortal Kombat on my SNES as others did on the Genesis. (Until Tekken 3 came along that is.) Anyway, the point is, just because a game doesn't have stacked women and blood and guts doesn't mean it is a "kiddie" game. Just because Zelda:WW is cel-shaded people automatically assumed extreme ease and stupid kid games. Well they were far from the truth, and most of the reviews I have read on this board seem to back me up. If people would just try it out rather than brush it off as a kid game, then they would see that. Nintendo doesn't like to worry about niche markets, they want parents to be able to buy games for their kids without having to worry about any of that stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love a good stacked woman as much as the rest of you, as well as the occaisional blood and guts, but I have plenty of movies to get that stuff from. I would love to see another console 2D Metroid as well, but the GBA version will have to do for now.

I could say the same for the X-Box to myself. I haven't tried it, but frankly there just aren't enough games to warrent me buying one. Nobody I know owns one either, so I have nothing to get me jealous, which is fine by me... I can't afford one anyway. I am sure that if I had a lot of extra money, then I would have all 3 systems, but that isn't the case. (Just trying to prove that I am not a Nintendo fanboy or anything like that).