Some Stupid or Bad Decisions and/or Moves Nintendo Has Made

[Zap!]

Very interesting read, Fox. I usually don't read such long comments, but I read every word. Just two things I disagree with though, one a little, and one more than anything in life. :)

First, the little thing. It's 2010. The Wii doesn't need an Ethernet port, we all have wi-fi, and if we don't, we should.

The second thing is one I ADAMANTLY disagree with you on. You say that they should have gotten it right the first time, and that they shouldn't have had to release Wii Motion Plus. That is beyond wrong. In technology, no one gets it right the fist time. If that's the case, why was a hard drive in the 60's as big as a refrigerator, with less that 1 meg capacity? Why didn't they get it right the first time? Why was TV in the 1950's black and white? Why didn't they get it right the first time, with 1080p full color? Why were the first video games, like Computer Space and Pong, so simple? Why didn't they start off with Grand Theft Auto on a Blu-ray? Why was Zack Morris' cell phone so huge? Why didn't the companies get it right the first time? Why didn't he have a PDA or an iPhone? Why was my printer dot matrix in 1991? Why not full color of the highest resolution? Why didn't they get it right the first time?

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

[FoxNtd]

Very interesting read, Fox. I usually don't read such long comments, but I read every word. Just two things I disagree with though, one a little, and one more than anything in life. :)

First, the little thing. It's 2010. The Wii doesn't need an Ethernet port, we all have wi-fi, and if we don't, we should.

I disagree. Wireless networking is plagued with flawed security. The current encryption standards are so weak, it takes within 5 minutes to break into most of them even with an ordinary modern machine. Plus trying to setup decent control to keep others from getting on your network when they are within range is tough, especially if they know how to break the pitiful encryption. (I didn't make that number up. If you want, I can go dig up the article that goes into detail describing the experiment that yielded the under 5 minute mark.)

Wired connections do not have this vulnerability, period. Without physical access, there is 0% chance they can get to your router without a physical breach. Plus a wired connection will always have better or equal latency and throughput compared to wireless, but never worse.

Seeing that it is 2010, I can understand paying extra to get a dial-up adapter for the Wii. (As far as I know, no such adapter exists. But if it did, it would most likely cost extra since so few Wii owners would need to get it.) But to use something as trivial and heavily, widely accepted as wired Ethernet networking support, it should be built in, or freely included to somehow make the connection.

If you still feel it's 100% acceptable to lack wired networking support without paying extra.. I'm not sure I know what else to tell you. I find that rather peculiar.

In my home I have only a wired router and I have a very good pipe coming from my ISP since I do use quite a bit of bandwidth both up and downstream. I have absolutely no intention of buying a wireless router. I have a cable for my two desktop machines, a cable running to my Xbox 360, and, when I use it, my laptop gets a wire jacked into it which I have coiled up near the router when needed. If I were to buy a Wii, I would happily share the wire between the 360 and it, but apparently I cannot jack in a Wii without shelling out for a cheap little adapter. I was disappointed to learn about this shortcoming.



The second thing is one I ADAMANTLY disagree with you on. You say that they should have gotten it right the first time, and that they shouldn't have had to release Wii Motion Plus. That is beyond wrong. In technology, no one gets it right the fist time. If that's the case, why was a hard drive in the 60's as big as a refrigerator, with less that 1 meg capacity? Why didn't they get it right the first time? Why was TV in the 1950's black and white? Why didn't they get it right the first time, with 1080p full color? Why were the first video games, like Computer Space and Pong, so simple? Why didn't they start off with Grand Theft Auto on a Blu-ray? Why was Zack Morris' cell phone so huge? Why didn't the companies get it right the first time? Why didn't he have a PDA or an iPhone? Why was my printer dot matrix in 1991? Why not full color of the highest resolution? Why didn't they get it right the first time?

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

That is a lot of examples. Many of them involve the limitation of technology at the time for each example.

Motion sensitive devices are not a brand new technology. Nintendo did not invent this from scratch. There may not be an existing device that behaves precisely like a Wiimote, but there are surely very similar machines.

My point with saying "why wasn't it done right the first time?" is that, with the handful of times I have had a chance to play a Wii and use the Wiimote's ability to aim at the screen, I feel such latency and difficulty striving to keep up with the Wii's delay with what I'm doing. I played Target: Terror with someone, and I tried Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at a trade shop and both times I felt as if I was trying to be ever-so-slightly ahead of where I need to be so the Wii could keep up with exactly what I want to do. Maybe this is not what's going on, and I'm just crazy and was having trouble getting positioned right and such, but precision still was a pain in the butt.

Trying MP3 made me want to grab a Gamecube controller instead but sadly, that's not an option. I need to try the MotionPlus to see how it is improved. (Unfortunately, I must play a game that actually supports it or I won't see it in action at all.) The Wiimote at launch felt like a beta of what they meant to make, as if it was unfinished and released as "good enough".

Even if the Wii library was absolutely wonderful, I'm still afraid to ever get one just because I dread the thought of having the primary input control frustrating me no matter what I am trying to do. The only thing I played for Wii that was excellent was New Super Mario Bros. Wii because I did not need to point at the screen. The shaking/tilting felt responsive to me; maybe because this is a simpler motion and requires less processing than trying to figure out where exactly the Wiimote is pointing at the screen with respect to the motion sensor bar.

(For the record, I have yet to play a Wii using the Wiimote as a pointer on a CRT TV. For all I know my problem is directly due to A/V lag, and not processing lag on the Wii. I really, really hope that is what the problem was. I seem to be hyper-sensitive with rhythm games and anything beyond a 10ms offset will drive me absolutely insane.)

I would love to give the standard Wiimote another chance on a CRT. And would a Wii owner please let me know if there is a way to calibrate the console's audio/video latency settings, if they exist? (Edit: A buddy of mine with a Wii told me he did not find such a configuration option. Dare I add this as yet another Nintendo flaw...?) "Television sets" as they used to be called were screens with speakers built-in for sound, and CRTs have very low latency for video. These days we have television panels and external stereo systems. Different flat panels have different latencies, and different hook-ups of audio systems can introduce audio latency as well. For a console whose primary input device is dependent on what you see.. I'd imagine the console ought to offer some sort of configuration to compensate for A/V lag.

(Another Edit: Your example of B&W TVs vs. 1080p widescreen panels reminds me... Computer monitors are WAY ahead of TVs. 1080p is lame. I had my monitor at a better resolution in the 90's before 1080p even was conceived. I know this has a lot to do with pixels vs. lines, but why are TVs still TVs and not like monitors? I'd have to ask someone who knows more.) :)

(Edit v3, I'm full of 'em today: Dot matrix printers are not entirely obsolete. Modern printers still can't make multiple prints in one pass because of how dot matrix works. They're still used today to take advantage of this.)

[Hari Seldon]

I thought the SNES WAS indeed downwardly compatible, even though they never released an official accessory...I've seen 3rd party adaptors for NES carts...if it WAS, and they didn't do anything with it, VERY STUPID!!! [/QUOTE]

It wasn't, those adaptors are NOAC.

[nensondubois]

Here's a few right off the bat:

Cancelling Mother US release
Cancelling the Famicom Disk System release in the US.
Cancelling star Fox 2
Not releaseing FX Skiing in the US.
Not fully supporting the Super Game Boy
Cancelling the Virtual Boy.

[Sonicwolf]

Cancelling the Virtual Boy.

That was for the best. It was not a big money-maker and they should have been concentrating on the Nintendo 64 at that time, not splintering their divisions on another console.

[Famidrive-16]

Not fully supporting the Super Game Boy


Eh, it faded out after the initial hype, but quite a few of the final mono GB games had SGB borders, so I don't think it was ignored, it just had trouble grabbing as much attention as Nintendo's other products.



Not bringing over substantially significant games to other regions. Super Mario Bros. 2 comes to mind. Instead we got that SMB USA insult of a game. A slap in the face because we're too dumb to play something challenging apparently.

more like a great decision, god SMB2J is so overrated

[Seaquest]

Giving Pilips the rights to make high quality gaming gems like Hotel Mario or Wand Of Gamelon.

[The 1 2 P]

Cancelling the Virtual Boy.

I thought we were listing stupid or bad decisions Nintendo made, not good ones.

[Collector_Gaming]

hmm lets see

Virtual Boy would be one

I remember i wanted one when i was a kid though.
Then a few years later after getting the internet and looking it up and finding out that hey this thing has been making people have vision issues. Then i was glad i didn't get one (although collective wise i would love to have one to say i have one!)

It was a misshap that ruined the career of a famous admired designer/engineer for nintendo. the same guy who made the famous gameboys previous to this.
The virtual boy was his baby and like a captain going down with the ship he went down with the virtual boy sadly.

although that was a huge fuck up on nintendo's behalf.

The worst one was the problem with them tag teaming with sony to create their own version of the sega cd.
When they said no we'd rather focus on another platform our team of engineers designed that used carts called the N64. Sony said screw you we got this console with this great technology we are gonna go into the game buisness. and so brings forth the playstation and the rest is history.
Although sony has been kicking nintendos ass (sadly) since then with each generation. They got a lil too cocky with the psp. Not that theres anything wrong with the psp (hell i own one). Its just you can't knock nintendos baby down and has failed to compete with the DS (although after i played with my cousins when he had one i didn't really like them *shrug* couldn't get use to the mechanics on the games were played)

[Collector_Gaming]

I thought we were listing stupid or bad decisions Nintendo made, not good ones.

he probably enjoys seeing the world around him in nothing but red lol

[jammajup]

The N64 had a lot of faults, but i'm not sure It could be criticised for being too Kiddie, it was certainly the most adult orientated console they ever made.
(

:moon: Cannot believe i just read that lol,most games that were not first person shooters on the N64 were childrens games instead,they were incredibly basic,simple and at times the graphics were garbage.I mean if i designed games like Superman,Blast Corps and Body Harvest i would have felt too guilty to sleep ay night they were such trash.
Nintendo`s biggest mistake was the N64 system,its awkward controllers and making you pay for a exp pack to (enhance!?) the graphics from low res chocolate looking walls to high res chocolate looking walls on games