I always liked the ergonomics of the N64 controller. The recreation of those ergonomics using the Wiimote+nunchuk was one of my favorite things about the Wii lol
The nunchuck was sublime (when it worked), but the ergonomics of the wiimote were ridiculous. Pointing at the screen required an unnatural wrist angle that wasn’t sustainable for long gaming sessions, and trying to turn it horizontal to use as a standard controller was simply ass.
I doubt you’ll get any disagreement on your take for the controller. It was definitely an odd and experimental one, though I do remember thinking it was really cool looking when it came out. I was also 6 and not the best judge of functionality.
That having been said, the cartridge decision was in line with Nintendo’s recent plays at the time that had paid out for them in a big way, and that they continue to follow today. They had made a gamble on the Game Boy a few years prior that absolutely blew up in their favor. When the Game Boy came out, the Game Gear was it’s competitor and Game Gear had a color screen and a lot more screen real estate. Nintendo made the choice to focus on power efficiency (up to almost a half a day of playtime on four double-A batteries versus the Game Gear with about three and a half hours of play time on six double-A’s) and production cost reduction. Some of those design philosophies carried forward to the N64.
Additionally, something a lot of people seem to be unaware of these days is how absolutely stark the difference in loading times was between something like the PS1 discs and the N64 cartridge. I grew up on the SNES and N64 and when I first played a PS1 game the load times made me not want to touch a Sony console for quite a while.
Anyways, that’s my two cents. No disagreements here that cartridges held the N64 back in some ways but the tradeoffs made it an amazing system and miles above the competition for me, personally. Good gameplay and quality of life will always beat more power in my book.
Cartridges were also a very solid copy right enforcement mechanism. By contrast PlayStation games were much easier to pirate although manufacturers kept adding on new mechanisms to prevent just that as time went on.
I believe the N64 was huge in the US, Canada, and Japan, but PlayStation dominated that generation overall. I always preferred the PS graphics, the library, and the controller personally.
It’s kinda weird that the N64 seems to have a much bigger legacy. I think it’s because of Nintendo’s ability to make timeless games that are remembered more fondly than PS ones, but I would argue that games like Spyro, Tekken 3, GT2, and SotN aged just as gracefully as the N64 classics like SM64, Smash, Mario Kart, and OoT. Plus you can play them on a normal controller.
Hard disagree. Most trailblazing console ever with one of the strongest lineups of first/second party games we’ve ever seen. Yes there were some shoddy third party ports but you didn’t buy it for those.
People moan about the controller but forget it was the first time a joystick was used and the only real issue was the redundant left prong. Loved the feel of the Z button for shooting games coupled with the Rumble Pak.
It’s a really difficult console to go back to. The peak of the N64 was one of my personal video game peaks. I was in high school and staying up all night at a buddy’s house playing GoldenEye was the BEST.
Many years later, I tried to scratch that itch and buy a used console and some games. We played it for maybe a week, but it was rough, and we didn’t really get any value out of it.
It’s hard to describe how disorienting Super Mario 3D was the first time I played it. 3D open worlds were very new and we were discovering it in the only way available, with a three handed controller.
Now that 3D games have been refined, the N64 looks like a hot mess, with very few actually good games, but at the time, it was like an experimental space craft going to new worlds, we learned how to work it, and we appreciated the ride!
The controller sucked. It sucked then; it sucks now. But it had ports for four of them, so that console had tons of four-player multiplayer games, and they were great. PS1 could technically support it, but no one had a multitap, and because no one had a multitap, practically no games supported more than two players.
Cartridges were expensive and couldn’t hold much data on them, but you basically never saw any loading times. Long load times were a thing I associated with the PlayStation brand up until the PS5. Loading times were definitely an expensive trade-off for that console, and it didn’t help them in the market, but it certainly made the N64 stick out for it.
I’ve been getting back into Guild Wars 2 lately! Nobara Linux has made the game run the smoothest it’s even been, and ReShade has it looking even better.
Always a great game to get back into. Or get into in the first place.
The latest patch was kind of disappointing and I hope they do tweak some of the issues, but I’m still looking forward to the new expansion reveal tomorrow. The teasers were pretty neat so far.
Since you’ve gotten the answers, I have a question.
How are you liking the game? Are you playing the one from 2021 where you play as Star Lord? If so, I honestly kinda fucking loved it. From the gorgeous scenery and visuals, to the way the characters were written and voiced. I felt the game was just long enough to be great and not overly long, but tbh I kinda want a sequel.
Just started the 3rd public release of Pokemon Vanguard. The almost all the regionals in the game look absolutely fantastic. Doesn’t follow the standard 8 gyms, fight evil team, defeat them, elite 4 pattern from most official and fan games I’ve played. In this one you end up going to some trainer school (vanguard academy), becoming a legal pokemon trainer in the region, and do assignments. So far I’ve only done one and it’s a pretty fun game.
It has 3 difficulty options, options for turning every battle to be a double battle (I assume this doesn’t work on wild pokemon but I have no clue), doing a monorun of every type that won’t let you catch anything other than the type you’re using, and a streamer mode that replaces music that could get you copyrighted. All before you begin the game. Also, I think you can find just about every starter from any of the games, with most of them being regionals with new types, like poison fire chimchar. Even has gen 9 pokemon, which I’m glad is becoming more common.
Oh nice, I haven’t heard of Vanguard! I love how creative some fan games are, especially compared to the main games that have gotten a bit stale. I’m definitely adding it to my list now, thanks!
The game is separate to the movies. There’s nothing to need to know before hand. Plus the movies are based on comics anyway and didn’t require prior knowledge to watch them, the game is also based on the comic characters. The origins of the characters in the game differ somewhat to the movies as well so there isn’t any benefit or advantage you’re missing by not having seen the movies.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne