I\’m in the mood to start a flame war on the site, thats what seems to be happening now adays when you mention the word Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. As many of you know, I\’m a Nintendo fan. I\’m not always about the best, nor have I always been about the latest. For the most part, I stand for consistancy. The debate about what video game system is the best has existed since the days of Sega.
In fact, that\’s why I am a Nintendo supporter. I remember the day that my best friend at the time traded in his Nintendo (with punch out and ice hockey) for the latest and greatest Sega Genesis. It must have been 1989/1990, because I knew the SNES wasn\’t out yet. I have to admit his sega provided us some fun on the release of Sonic (which was in 1991) but until then, I didn\’t understand why he switched. Some of the games seemed to have better graphics, but hey, when we both had nintendos we could share games.
Well, turns out Nintendo pulled a Sony and just about killed Sega right there. They waited until 1991 to release a system with similiar hardware to the Genesis. The difference was, they had Super Mario World. This game in my mind is the game that took Sony out. They had sonic, but he couldn\’t hold up. Add on Mario Kart, Zelda, Star Fox, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man X as well as some fun things like Mario Paint, and suddenly you wonder if anyone can name as many smash hits on the Sega (I can\’t).
Of course, this is where Sony stepped in with a product that Nintendo had been developing with them. This is where I vowed not to buy a sony system. For those of you who dont know, the Sony Playstation started off as a the Super Nintendo CD. Nintendo Backed out, changed companies, backed out again, changed companies again, and then decided it was the wrong move at the time. This is what I believe let Sony get to market. Nintendo also screwed up with the release of the Nintendo 64. I wonder to some degree if they had released on time, if Sony would have stood a chance against games like Mario 64 and Goldeneye. No way to tell though.
In my mind, Microsoft doesn\’t really compete against Nintendo. They are targetting 2 different markets entirely. Nintendo targets kids to adults, where as Microsoft tends to focus mainly on adults. There just aren\’t that many KA games on Xbox… But thats neither here nor there. If anyone is going to stop Xbox, it won\’t be nintendo, it will be Sony. If anyone is going to damage Nintendo, it will be Sony. But I think there is something to be said for what Nintendo is about to do.
Nintendo is stick to the small and fun model as opposed to the latest hardware. They have said that Revolution is fully backwards compatable with the Gamecubes discs and memory cards. It even sounded to some degree that the controllers were also going to work, but I\’m kind of doubting that. The other thing that Nintendo has said is that Revolution will play ALL nintendo games from previous systems. That means N64, SNES, and NES should all work from the Revolution. Now, to some people that doesn\’t mean much, but there are games on the N64 I know I never got to play either because I couldn\’t find them or because I couldn\’t afford them.
Let me interject here: This does not mean I plan to stop collecting Nintendo games on the release of Rev. I still plan on somehow getting every single Nintendo game.
Now, Sony has a lot of new hardware technologies as well as Microsoft, but there has always been one thing Nintendo trys to beat them both at, and that\’s price. I fear with Nintendos late release date, they might not have this advantage, but we shall see.
I think MS will be in trouble though if Sony is going to do the same thing they did to Nintendo in the handheld market. Xbox is rumored not to be backward compatible. I\’m not sure if Sony is or not. In either case, I just hope Nintendo makes it to market alive. It took awhile for Sega to die, and I fear that without Mario, Pokemon, Smash Brothers, etc. Nintendo would have gone as well.
It\’s only a matter of time before we get back to 8bit gaming anyway isn\’t it ;-).
Oh and for what it\’s worth: I think the Gameboy Mini idea is silly. especially at the price its at.
There\’s my flame for the day. Here\’s some more reading if you would like:
www.engadget.com
www.engadget.com
www.engadget.com
www.g4tv.com
biz.gamedaily.com
Oh, one more note: If you haven\’t seen the Dobly Digital DVD of Zelda: Twilight Princess, ask me the next time your over. The game is going to kick it.
Comments on this entry are closed.
do you think competition helped the market? i mean, if it had just been a nintendo monopoly, where would we be?
further along? in a different direction?
When it comes to gaming, I like to consider myself by this title:
"The Glorious Simland Grandmaster Gamer"
Get it? if not then you are not even close to being a grandmaster gamer so 😛
Xbox is superiorly prepared for the future by having a strong multiplayer contingent. The new system will be sold in 2 different models, oddly enough. One is a barebones at 299 and the other contains lots of nice (and "required") accessories for 399. The games are supported by great graphics and hit or miss game play.
Playstation has a huge loyal fan base. In the new console wars they will be releasing about 6 months after Xbox 360. Their system is supposed to be incredibly powerful. The playstation has always had a huge contingent of games which gives them more opportunities to have decent games.
Nintendo is going to trail behind in the release date department but be capable of playing all the classics. You will have to buy the classic titles and they will be on disc. That means you can't use your old media(cartridges) to play them. To me this is really cool but as cheap as I am, there are other means such as emulators that have been doing this for quite some time. One thing Nintendo does reign supreme is the handheld area. I hope this never changes.
This is my prediction Timeline of gaming prowess:
November-February: Xbox 100%
February – Nintendo Release: PS3 55% Xbox 45%
Nintendo Release: PS3 40% Xbox 40% Nintendo 20%
It's a guess because it all really depends on if quality games are delivered.
That's my 2 cents for now, The GM of Games is outta here.
Xbox 360 will be backwards compatable only if you buy the 400$ package (which comes with a 20 gig hard drive), or if you buy the hard drive seperatly, because thats what you need to play original Xbox games.