The Nintendo 64 will always have a special place in my heart. It was the first video game console that I and my brother ever owned. I have a lot of fond memories of that system. I still remember as our jaws dropped when we left Kokiri Forest and experienced the vastness of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Or as we cracked up when we flushed down a toilet in Banjo-Kazooie. And of course all those multiplayer sessions with friends in games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark or Mario Kart 64.
The Nintendo 64 had truly groundbreaking games. Unfortunately the console wasn´t as successful as it could have been.
Sure, selling over 32 million is no small feat, but when you compare it to the 49 million the SNES sold in the previous generation, the picture looks a bit different. It is especially depressing when you compare the N64´s numbers to the sales of the Playstation. Sonys first console sold a whopping 104 million!
Many experts claim that it was the lack of third-party support that hurt Nintendo. A lot of supporters from the SNES era jumped ship. Konami, Capcom and Square, are just a few publishers that sided with Sony in the 5th generation of consoles, releasing only a few or no games on Nintendos 64-bit-monster. The problem was that Nintendo chose to stick with the cartridge-format instead of going with CD-ROMs. Third-Parties on the other hand preferred the disc-based medium as it offered more storage and was cheaper to produce.
In the end the Nintendo 64 received just a bit over 350 games, whereas the Playstation had a library of over 2500 titles.
Of course there could have been more cartridge-masterpieces. A lot of projects have been cancelled and in this article I want to highlight 5 of these. One or two might have even been able to increase the sales of the console:
5.) Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
Yes, this PS2-exclusive was actually in development for the Nintendo 64. Development was eventually moved to the Dreamcast and then to the PS2. The 3D-follow up to the Ghosts n Ghoblins-series stuck to its roots in terms of difficulty. You play as Maximo and have to rescue Queen Sophia from the evil clutches of King Achille. Unlike its predecessors you can freely choose which level you want to play first and you can save the game (Thank, god!!!). Upon its release in 2002 the game received favorable reviews, resulting in a Metacritic score of 84.
4.) Dead or Alive
The fighting game genre was one the Nintendo 64 was lacking in. Sure there was Smash Bros and some good Wrestling games, but beyond that it looks pretty empty. Dead or Alive would have been a great addition to the library. Unfortunately the sexy fighter never got out of the planning stage for the Nintendo console. The game was only ported to the Sega Saturn and the Playstation.
3.) Project Dream
Rare was without a doubt one of the greatest developers in the 90s. This project from the premier game maker was about a boy named Edison, his dog and his parrot who had to escape a group of pirates. The game was originally intended for an SNES release, but was moved to the Nintendo 64. Unfortunately the unreleased RPG was technically too demanding. Rare made the best out of it and used the assets to create Banjo-Kazooie; one of the greatest platformers ever created. Here is an interesting video that shows the transition of the game:
2.) Grand Theft Auto
Yes, the original Grand Theft Auto was in development for the Nintendo 64! This version got scrapped along with the Sega Saturn one. At least Nintendo fans got a Gameboy Color port ;)!
1.) Final Fantasy VII
The Nintendo 64 wasn´t just lacking in fighting games, but also RPGs. All we got was Paper Mario at the tail end of the systems life cycle.
It really hurt Nintendo when Square moved the seventh installment of its popular series to the Playstation. The game sold close to 10 million copies and was considered the first mega-hit for the Sony console. Square would not release another Final Fantasy game on a Nintendo system until 2003.
Here is some footage from the cancelled N64 version:
That concludes my first article on steemit! I hope you enjoyed it. If you think I missed an important game, please let me know in the comments below. Looking forward to your opinion. Thanks for reading!
Yours
I Am K