In 2003, Nintendo's performance, and more specifically, that of the GCN, could have been considered underwhelming. After the quality (and quantity) of 2002, with such huge franchise titles as Super Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil, an original 3D Metroid, a new Legend of Zelda overseas, Star Fox Adventures, and the highly critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Eternal Darkness, expectations were high for the future. Nintendo was on a roll.
E3 came and went. However, it was widely thought (and generally accepted) that Nintendo disappointed. Connectivity was the name of the game–one that was highly criticized and ultimately poorly received. Rumors of big titles at the show fell flat. And at the end of the day, very little transpired in 2003. Mario Kart: Double Dash obtained extremely strong sales numbers, and a price drop of the GCN hardware resulted in a temporary upswing in sales. But that was it. In the end, 2003 was the year of the multi-console title. High-profile titles like Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Soul Calibur II, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, XIII, Beyond Good & Evil, True Crime, Metal Arms and others, numbered among the most successful titles (critically or commercially) of 2003.
And here we are today. Another year has passed since then, and with it, many announcements, many positive, but definitely some negative.
Last year, if nothing else, was a newsworthy one. Things were not quiet at Nintendo. From a realistic Zelda, to a different variety of handheld, to GameCube-exclusive entries in the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear franchises, to the departure of the much-talked-about Silicon Knights, many things transpired. And, to top it all off, a business plan that, just one year beforehand, was so committed to preaching the word of connectivity, seemed to veer in a different direction.
THE HIGH-POINTS OF 2004:
It was probable that Nintendo went after an older audience in 2004. With titles like Metroid Prime 2, the new Zelda, and Resident Evil 4 receiving the majority of Nintendo's focus on the console front, it looked like the "kiddy" and irrelevant Nintendo of 2003 got its ass kicked out the door, for better or for worse.
In 2004, the most surprising announcement was a cryptic one. In January, Nintendo quietly announced what was described as "a dual-screened handheld". No one was quite sure what the hell was going on. Speculation was mixed, and ranged from, "It will be the future of handheld gaming," to "Virtual Boy 2".
E3 finally saw the advent of the machine. Buzz increased. A gorgeous Metroid Prime-style multiplayer Metroid, a revamped Super Mario 64, and promising third-party support, notably from Square Enix and Tecmo's Team Ninja, suggested that Nintendo was pulling out all the big guns for their new system. Today, we still don't know what the future will hold in that regard, but the system is performing well, and still shows the promise that it did at E3; something that may solidify this January, when Nintendo is expected to make some major announcements about the DS.
Even today, it still isn't quite certain whether or not it will be an innovative machine/improved way to play games, or if the gloom-and-doomers were right. But there's a lot of potential here just waiting to be tapped into. And that's irrefutable.
But the GCN was still the biggest subject of interest. In 2000, no one expected that we would ever see a MGS or Final Fantasy title exclusive to Nintendo's hardware, much less several exclusive Resident Evil games. Nintendo worked, seemingly harder than ever, at obtaining third-party support in 2004, most notably with Konami, Square, and Namco. And it paid off to some extent, with Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, and Star Fox Assault from Namco, plus talk of another exclusive title from Square Enix. Although much work remains to be done in this area, and it is still extremely underwhelming when compared to the PS2 or Xbox, 2004 was one of Nintendo's best in terms of high-profile third-party support.
The new Zelda promised something major, and hype was huge, even at a preliminary stage. It took little more than a one-minute trailer to put GCN owners in a Pavlovian trance, and arguably a justified one.
Not one, not two, but three Metroid games made it perfectly clear that Nintendo has revived the Metroid franchise. After a decade of nonexistence, one of Nintendo's most applauded franchises was back, and Nintendo had no plans to send it back into the shadows. They were in it for the long haul.
Resident Evil 4 was finally playable at E3, and it ended up being a jaw-dropping, complete reevaluation of the series. Nothing was sacred in this reworking, and it doubtlessly paid off, as it went on to become one of the biggest titles of E3, winning "game of the show" from several publications.
Unexpectedly, Namco's two GCN-exclusive RPGs went on to become quite successful with critics and GCN owners. Tales of Symphonia was arguably one of the best RPGs of the year, and Baten Kaitos, at the very least, removed some of the stigma attached to card-based titles. Both were extremely high profile, well-polished products. And they were exclusive to a system notorious for its lack of quality RPGs, where sales were uncertain.
Plus, asses were kicked and names were taken. The "Reggielution" became the talk of the town for a while, and gave everybody a temporary, utterly esoteric catchphrase. At one point, we even had a Reggie board and somebody pretended to be him and posted here. Some of you even bought it.
There was quite a bit of positive news in 2004. It is hard to justify calling 2004 a bad year for Nintendo. It simply wasn't. It was a great year, and possibly the GCN's best to date, from the standpoint of the announcements made and games released. But that doesn't imply everything was perfect.
THE LOW-POINTS OF 2004:
After creating two excellent GCN exclusives that, unfortunately, proved commercial failures, Silicon Knights, probably by necessity, judging by the audience their games were clearly geared towards, left Nintendo. Although there exists no official reason for the departure, poor sales of two adult-oriented killer-apps and a fundamental difference in philosophies were two huge, non-overlookable hurdles that couldn't easily be remedied. Silicon Knights was creating games for an uninterested audience.
The Capcom Five became the Capcom One. After announcing five promising GCN exclusives for the GCN, Capcom seemingly went back on their word. Viewtiful Joe was ported to the PS2. Dead Phoenix, to use a ridiculously, perhaps maddeningly obvious analogy (so sue me), died before it could spread its wings. Killer 7 went multi-console. PN03 failed critically and commercially. And Resident Evil 4, in a decision that was widely criticized (and I agree with that; by announcing a PS2 port so early, it served to do nothing more than piss off GCN owners, decrease the hype level, and further contribute to a negative image of Nintendo's success with third parties, whereas a port announced after release wouldn't have made waves), headed to Sony as well.
And EA, presumably with the guidance of the supreme evil religious figure known as "Satan," put a vice grip on the industry's nuts, by purchasing Renderware and signing an exclusivity deal with the devil (NFL) and ESPN, which, judging from the reaction of many gamers, is soon to usher in The Armageddon.
There was more that I have not listed, of course. There always is. Completeness is relative. Regardless, I thought 2004 was a great year.
The best moment of 2004, for me, had to be the unveiling of the new Legend of Zelda, followed by the DS's announcement and release within less than a year of each other. I'd have to give Resident Evil 4 an honorable mention–until E3, none of us were really that sure just how it would turn out. I don't know if it was much of a surprise to find out that it quickly turned into a new killer app for the GCN, but it was fantastic news nonetheless.
The worst moment, as I see it, was definitely the departure of Silicon Knights. Although I have a pretty good idea as to why it was justified and can perfectly rationalize the whole thing, it disappointed me. Nintendo had a great, adult-oriented developer on their hands, capable of making intelligent, story-driven games; something the GCN was extremely weak at, otherwise. As I've said a million times before, Eternal Darkness is my favorite GCN game, and it was a tough blow for me at the time to realize that one of my most anticipated GCN games, Too Human, probably wouldn't end up on a Nintendo system.
I've since gotten over it, and I'm actually looking forward to it more now that Silicon Knights has complete creative freedom, but when the announcement happened, I was just shocked. As rational as it seemed, I never expected it.
(Bear in mind, also, that Silicon Knights will make a major announcement on the subject of their departure in early February. Nintendospin will have that information as it happens.)
And there's RE4. I wasn't surprised. When the game got delayed until January 11, I was suspicious that it was a contract dodge to void the exclusivity agreement. I don't know if there's merit to that, but the result was the same. I don't consider it the worst moment in 2004 for Nintendo, however, because it really doesn't matter.
Ten months of exclusivity is huge. RE4 is still essentially exclusive to the GCN, and sales won't be affected at all. Capcom simply handled things wrong: I would have rather seen them wait until the GCN version had already been released, rather than detracting from the much-deserved hype the game was garnering. It's an image issue more than anything else.
And in the end, Nintendo improved over 2004. It was a night-and-day difference when comparing '03 and '04. All that remains to be seen now is whether Nintendo can retain the momentum in 2005 with the DS and the announcement of the Revolution. All in all, not too bad. Not too bad at all.
But that, as they say, is that. What did you think of 2004? What were your most significant good/bad moments? Send your responses via e-mail to aristotlekh100@yahoo.com for possible inclusion in a future article.
E3 came and went. However, it was widely thought (and generally accepted) that Nintendo disappointed. Connectivity was the name of the game–one that was highly criticized and ultimately poorly received. Rumors of big titles at the show fell flat. And at the end of the day, very little transpired in 2003. Mario Kart: Double Dash obtained extremely strong sales numbers, and a price drop of the GCN hardware resulted in a temporary upswing in sales. But that was it. In the end, 2003 was the year of the multi-console title. High-profile titles like Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Soul Calibur II, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, XIII, Beyond Good & Evil, True Crime, Metal Arms and others, numbered among the most successful titles (critically or commercially) of 2003.
And here we are today. Another year has passed since then, and with it, many announcements, many positive, but definitely some negative.
Last year, if nothing else, was a newsworthy one. Things were not quiet at Nintendo. From a realistic Zelda, to a different variety of handheld, to GameCube-exclusive entries in the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear franchises, to the departure of the much-talked-about Silicon Knights, many things transpired. And, to top it all off, a business plan that, just one year beforehand, was so committed to preaching the word of connectivity, seemed to veer in a different direction.
THE HIGH-POINTS OF 2004:
It was probable that Nintendo went after an older audience in 2004. With titles like Metroid Prime 2, the new Zelda, and Resident Evil 4 receiving the majority of Nintendo's focus on the console front, it looked like the "kiddy" and irrelevant Nintendo of 2003 got its ass kicked out the door, for better or for worse.
In 2004, the most surprising announcement was a cryptic one. In January, Nintendo quietly announced what was described as "a dual-screened handheld". No one was quite sure what the hell was going on. Speculation was mixed, and ranged from, "It will be the future of handheld gaming," to "Virtual Boy 2".
E3 finally saw the advent of the machine. Buzz increased. A gorgeous Metroid Prime-style multiplayer Metroid, a revamped Super Mario 64, and promising third-party support, notably from Square Enix and Tecmo's Team Ninja, suggested that Nintendo was pulling out all the big guns for their new system. Today, we still don't know what the future will hold in that regard, but the system is performing well, and still shows the promise that it did at E3; something that may solidify this January, when Nintendo is expected to make some major announcements about the DS.
Even today, it still isn't quite certain whether or not it will be an innovative machine/improved way to play games, or if the gloom-and-doomers were right. But there's a lot of potential here just waiting to be tapped into. And that's irrefutable.
But the GCN was still the biggest subject of interest. In 2000, no one expected that we would ever see a MGS or Final Fantasy title exclusive to Nintendo's hardware, much less several exclusive Resident Evil games. Nintendo worked, seemingly harder than ever, at obtaining third-party support in 2004, most notably with Konami, Square, and Namco. And it paid off to some extent, with Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, and Star Fox Assault from Namco, plus talk of another exclusive title from Square Enix. Although much work remains to be done in this area, and it is still extremely underwhelming when compared to the PS2 or Xbox, 2004 was one of Nintendo's best in terms of high-profile third-party support.
The new Zelda promised something major, and hype was huge, even at a preliminary stage. It took little more than a one-minute trailer to put GCN owners in a Pavlovian trance, and arguably a justified one.
Not one, not two, but three Metroid games made it perfectly clear that Nintendo has revived the Metroid franchise. After a decade of nonexistence, one of Nintendo's most applauded franchises was back, and Nintendo had no plans to send it back into the shadows. They were in it for the long haul.
Resident Evil 4 was finally playable at E3, and it ended up being a jaw-dropping, complete reevaluation of the series. Nothing was sacred in this reworking, and it doubtlessly paid off, as it went on to become one of the biggest titles of E3, winning "game of the show" from several publications.
Unexpectedly, Namco's two GCN-exclusive RPGs went on to become quite successful with critics and GCN owners. Tales of Symphonia was arguably one of the best RPGs of the year, and Baten Kaitos, at the very least, removed some of the stigma attached to card-based titles. Both were extremely high profile, well-polished products. And they were exclusive to a system notorious for its lack of quality RPGs, where sales were uncertain.
Plus, asses were kicked and names were taken. The "Reggielution" became the talk of the town for a while, and gave everybody a temporary, utterly esoteric catchphrase. At one point, we even had a Reggie board and somebody pretended to be him and posted here. Some of you even bought it.
There was quite a bit of positive news in 2004. It is hard to justify calling 2004 a bad year for Nintendo. It simply wasn't. It was a great year, and possibly the GCN's best to date, from the standpoint of the announcements made and games released. But that doesn't imply everything was perfect.
THE LOW-POINTS OF 2004:
After creating two excellent GCN exclusives that, unfortunately, proved commercial failures, Silicon Knights, probably by necessity, judging by the audience their games were clearly geared towards, left Nintendo. Although there exists no official reason for the departure, poor sales of two adult-oriented killer-apps and a fundamental difference in philosophies were two huge, non-overlookable hurdles that couldn't easily be remedied. Silicon Knights was creating games for an uninterested audience.
The Capcom Five became the Capcom One. After announcing five promising GCN exclusives for the GCN, Capcom seemingly went back on their word. Viewtiful Joe was ported to the PS2. Dead Phoenix, to use a ridiculously, perhaps maddeningly obvious analogy (so sue me), died before it could spread its wings. Killer 7 went multi-console. PN03 failed critically and commercially. And Resident Evil 4, in a decision that was widely criticized (and I agree with that; by announcing a PS2 port so early, it served to do nothing more than piss off GCN owners, decrease the hype level, and further contribute to a negative image of Nintendo's success with third parties, whereas a port announced after release wouldn't have made waves), headed to Sony as well.
And EA, presumably with the guidance of the supreme evil religious figure known as "Satan," put a vice grip on the industry's nuts, by purchasing Renderware and signing an exclusivity deal with the devil (NFL) and ESPN, which, judging from the reaction of many gamers, is soon to usher in The Armageddon.
There was more that I have not listed, of course. There always is. Completeness is relative. Regardless, I thought 2004 was a great year.
The best moment of 2004, for me, had to be the unveiling of the new Legend of Zelda, followed by the DS's announcement and release within less than a year of each other. I'd have to give Resident Evil 4 an honorable mention–until E3, none of us were really that sure just how it would turn out. I don't know if it was much of a surprise to find out that it quickly turned into a new killer app for the GCN, but it was fantastic news nonetheless.
The worst moment, as I see it, was definitely the departure of Silicon Knights. Although I have a pretty good idea as to why it was justified and can perfectly rationalize the whole thing, it disappointed me. Nintendo had a great, adult-oriented developer on their hands, capable of making intelligent, story-driven games; something the GCN was extremely weak at, otherwise. As I've said a million times before, Eternal Darkness is my favorite GCN game, and it was a tough blow for me at the time to realize that one of my most anticipated GCN games, Too Human, probably wouldn't end up on a Nintendo system.
I've since gotten over it, and I'm actually looking forward to it more now that Silicon Knights has complete creative freedom, but when the announcement happened, I was just shocked. As rational as it seemed, I never expected it.
(Bear in mind, also, that Silicon Knights will make a major announcement on the subject of their departure in early February. Nintendospin will have that information as it happens.)
And there's RE4. I wasn't surprised. When the game got delayed until January 11, I was suspicious that it was a contract dodge to void the exclusivity agreement. I don't know if there's merit to that, but the result was the same. I don't consider it the worst moment in 2004 for Nintendo, however, because it really doesn't matter.
Ten months of exclusivity is huge. RE4 is still essentially exclusive to the GCN, and sales won't be affected at all. Capcom simply handled things wrong: I would have rather seen them wait until the GCN version had already been released, rather than detracting from the much-deserved hype the game was garnering. It's an image issue more than anything else.
And in the end, Nintendo improved over 2004. It was a night-and-day difference when comparing '03 and '04. All that remains to be seen now is whether Nintendo can retain the momentum in 2005 with the DS and the announcement of the Revolution. All in all, not too bad. Not too bad at all.
But that, as they say, is that. What did you think of 2004? What were your most significant good/bad moments? Send your responses via e-mail to aristotlekh100@yahoo.com for possible inclusion in a future article.
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