Dumbest/Stupidest/Shittiest/All-around worst Nintendo console

[BlueBMW]

I actually enjoyed Mario Sunshine... felt somewhat like Mario 64 to me and so for that reason I liked it

[nat]

Anyone who likes Mario 64 a lot I suggest give Super Mario Galaxy a spin. It does everything Mario 64 does, only better.

I haven't played SMG2 yet, though, so I can't comment on that one.

[Mathius]

Galaxy 2 is more of what Galaxy 1 was, but lost a tiny bit of magic along the way.

Galaxy 1 is the best of the 3D Marios though!

[CrackTiger]

Anyone who likes Mario 64 a lot I suggest give Super Mario Galaxy a spin. It does everything Mario 64 does, only better.

I haven't played SMG2 yet, though, so I can't comment on that one.

SMG seemed pretty cool, but it's like playing with a broken controller.

[Mathius]

Anyone who likes Mario 64 a lot I suggest give Super Mario Galaxy a spin. It does everything Mario 64 does, only better.

I haven't played SMG2 yet, though, so I can't comment on that one.

SMG seemed pretty cool, but it's like playing with a broken controller.

I am as old school as they get, but trust me when I say that I got used to the control scheme very quickly.

[PunkCryborg]

I never progressed past the SNES. I borrowed a 64 at one point in time and I really enjoyed Mario and the first Zelda and Tetris. Gamecube has absolutely no appeal to me and it's pretty pointless altogether especially since the wii is backwards compatible. I never bought into the 3d thing at the time and Nintendo has lost me altogether with the types of games they release. Wii is alright but I don't think I'd ever own one

[JoshTurboTrollX]

I can't get into the N64, never could.  Super Mario64 was NOT as fun as NiGHTS on Saturn. 

If the Virtual Boy was on this list, I'd still say N64 was the worst system.

What was the Virtual Boy continuing the legacy of?  Nothing, it was a new concept, and I loved Wario Land VB! 

The N64 was carrying on the tradition of the SNES, and COMPLETELY dropped the ball!  Where were all the Fighting/ RPG's/ Shooters?  We got some FPS's and 3D platformers... actually from what I remember the only thing the N64 did wel WAS First Person Shooters and 3D platformers... well, and some racing games.  Diddy Kong and F-Zero X were great.

[NecroPhile]

It's not even close - N64 all the way.  Even if the V.B. were a choice, it was a separate project and not a replacement for the Game Boy, so its failures are more easily forgiven.

As for people picking the GameCube or Wii over the N64: you guys are nuts.  The Wii has last-gen hardware, gimmicky shit controllers, a shovelware heavy library, and pushed overpriced download-only gaming a step further, yet it still has more than enough positives to place it head and shoulders above the poorly executed N64.

[Bernie]

hmm..  This is a hard one for me.  I have always loved what Nintendo put out.  If I had to choose one console they completely failed on, it would be the Virtual Boy, but thats not one of my options in this thread.

I love the N64, as a matter of fact, I had pre-ordered mine and waited in line on launch day to get it along with Super Mario 64, which I also loved a lot!!  I was a little disappointed they decided to stay with the cart format, but hey..I still enjoyed the system, and still do from time to time. 

The Gamecube....hmm...  another awesome console, IMO.  Super Mario Sunshine was certainly a different way to do a Mario game, but I thought it was genius!  I put a lot of hours cursing, throwing tantrums, ect..into this game.  The Zelda series on this console was also one of the reasons I actually bought the system.  Windwaker was IMO one of the best games in the series.  I loved how they did something, different. 

Now, my Wii...  Although I do enjoy my Wii, it is the least favorite of the Nintendo consoles for me.  I realize the Wii wasnt made for power, and I have no beef with that.  My thing is the amount of crap games compared to the amount of decent games out for this system.  The small handful of games I have bought for this I have enjoyed, such as the Zelda series and Super Mario Galaxy.  However, if it wasnt for the ability to play Gamecube games, and the ability to download for the Virtual Console, I wouldnt really use it.  I also use it for NetFlix, but thats another story.  It does have its uses.  I can download my Final Fantasy II and III for SNES and not have to worry about battery back-up on the cart.  Up till I started buying heavily in the TG-16 library, I was grabbing those as well.  My Wii is actually fired up more than my Xbox 360!!  For the price, and what it has to offer, I think its done its job.

[termis]

No question - N64.  Nat's assessment in the original post is spot on.

[DragonmasterDan]

I can't get into the N64, never could.  Super Mario64 was NOT as fun as NiGHTS on Saturn.

I love NiGHTS Into Dreams but really... I mean really....

[shabba]

Yeah I have to agree with the few folks who said the SNES was their final foray into Nintendo. I only purchased an N64 in 2005 when I was working as a Family Therapist and used video game therapy with one of my clients. I was not impressed. My parents bought me a Gamecube for for birthday in 2002 and my wife and I bought a Wii in 2006 for the kids. I see the value in all of them, but for me, the worst was the N64 by far. Sure, I loved the Zelda games and Mario 64 was cool, but there wasn't much more. Forsaken? Doom? No thank you, I have a PC for that.

[bartre]

I can't get into the N64, never could.  Super Mario64 was NOT as fun as NiGHTS on Saturn. 

I love NiGHTS Into Dreams but really... I mean really....

I gotta go with turbostar on this one, NiGHTS was pretty much perfect.
I just COULD NOT get into mario 64 though, that is, until i found out about all the glitches about 10 years later, and then i just like messing around, still never beat it.

[Jesse813]

N64 Got my vote. I always thought its graphics looked horrible and the controller sucked especially the analog stick.

[SignOfZeta]

I can't get into the N64, never could.  Super Mario64 was NOT as fun as NiGHTS on Saturn. 

I love NiGHTS Into Dreams but really... I mean really....

I gotta go with turbostar on this one, NiGHTS was pretty much perfect.
I just COULD NOT get into mario 64 though, that is, until i found out about all the glitches about 10 years later, and then i just like messing around, still never beat it.

That's not the point though. I love both games (I clear Xmas NiGHTS evey winter) but they aren't comparable to anyone who isn't trying to make NiGHTS out as some sort of Saturn mascot. Mario 64 is a massive action platform game with a TON of stuff to do and loads of exploration and such. NiGHTS is basically a score attack game. You might as well be comparing Tengai Makyo with Star Solider.

I'm not saying either game is better than the other, I'm saying it's not fair to the games themselves to compare them.

[bartre]

I can't get into the N64, never could.  Super Mario64 was NOT as fun as NiGHTS on Saturn. 

I love NiGHTS Into Dreams but really... I mean really....

I gotta go with turbostar on this one, NiGHTS was pretty much perfect.
I just COULD NOT get into mario 64 though, that is, until i found out about all the glitches about 10 years later, and then i just like messing around, still never beat it.

That's not the point though. I love both games (I clear Xmas NiGHTS evey winter) but they aren't comparable to anyone who isn't trying to make NiGHTS out as some sort of Saturn mascot. Mario 64 is a massive action platform game with a TON of stuff to do and loads of exploration and such. NiGHTS is basically a score attack game. You might as well be comparing Tengai Makyo with Star Solider.

I'm not saying either game is better than the other, I'm saying it's not fair to the games themselves to compare them.

you make a good point, but mine is the same as my evaluation with all games -
I had more fun with NiGHTS, and got more play out of it.

so yeah, it's a bit like saying megadeth is better than the beatles, but hey, we all get opinions.

[BlueBMW]

....(I clear Xmas NiGHTS evey winter)....

Good to know I'm not the only one....   Though I also play through Banjo Kazooie on N64 (at least to Freezeezy Peak) every winter.  If you pop in Nights on Wii and go to your dream on Christmas you get a familiar Xmas Nights tune

[PunkCryborg]

lol my good friend says hes been playing Christmas Nights every year for Christmas since he got it  in like '97. I did it last year. That's pretty awesome other people make that tradition!

[DragonmasterDan]

I also play Christmas Nights every winter, it actually changes seasons with more than just Winter. I also really love the music.

[Mathius]

Man, I gotta get in on this!

[BlueBMW]

Even though Christmas is a hella long time from now...  Lissen

[Joe Redifer]

I just can't get into Nights.  Boring game.

[RR1980]

yeah nights and x'msa nights are pretty repetitive games but it is pretty neat that the games are programed to take into account the set date on your console to effect the game play that was pretty neat

[Joe Redifer]

Too bad the battery only lasts a year.

[DragonmasterDan]

Too bad the battery only lasts a year.

I've had those 2032s last a few years actually.

[VestCunt]

Cool thread.

The N64 controllers are flawed, but Nintendo deserves props for breaking ground yet again and making controllers actually designed for 3D games.  Weren't the Playstation Dualshock and other analog sticks made later, in response to the N64 controller?

I've seen a lot of broken sticks, but it personally took me 9 days on Perfect Dark and countless hours on other games over the course of ten years to wear down the controller I bought new.

Meanwhile, the cartridge-based hardware is very durable.  I'll take a $10 control stick replacement over trying to fix a PS1 deck any day.

I can't speak for the Saturn, but N64 3D is much better and the colors more vibrant than recycled Playstation polygon dung. 

So, really, the only thing that majorly sucked about the N64 was the library.  It needed 2D games, it needed shooters, and it needed RPGs.
I certainly wouldn't take the N64 library away to a desert island, but it makes a good supplemental system.  I have more than enough shooters and RPGs on the Turbografx.  I keep my N64 around for 3D-racing games and FPS.

Finally, one strength we shouldn't overlook is the wealth of multi-player games - four built-in ports really helped make it a party system.

[SignOfZeta]

Too bad the battery only lasts a year.

I've had those 2032s last a few years actually.

If you buy good ones, they last quite a while, probably 4-6 years. In a Dreamcast VMU however...those things will kill two 2032s in 3 or 4 months.

[DragonmasterDan]

Cool thread.

The N64 controllers are flawed, but Nintendo deserves props for breaking ground yet again and making controllers actually designed for 3D games.  Weren't the Playstation Dualshock and other analog sticks made later, in response to the N64 controller?

I've seen a lot of broken sticks, but it personally took me 9 days on Perfect Dark and countless hours on other games over the course of ten years to wear down the controller I bought new.

Meanwhile, the cartridge-based hardware is very durable.  I'll take a $10 control stick replacement over trying to fix a PS1 deck any day.

I can't speak for the Saturn, but N64 3D is much better and the colors more vibrant than recycled Playstation polygon dung. 

So, really, the only thing that majorly sucked about the N64 was the library.  It needed 2D games, it needed shooters, and it needed RPGs.
I certainly wouldn't take the N64 library away to a desert island, but it makes a good supplemental system.  I have more than enough shooters and RPGs on the Turbografx.  I keep my N64 around for 3D-racing games and FPS.

Finally, one strength we shouldn't overlook is the wealth of multi-player games - four built-in ports really helped make it a party system.

The big difference with the N64, besides the higher polygon count is that it has anti-aliasing so it's capable of much less jagged looking polygonal models than the Playstation.

As far as the Saturn goes, most of the good 3D on the system was done using quadrilaterals.

[Sparky]

I do not have much love for any Nintendo system i have to say guys but the original NES and the SNES do get some love out of me from time to time but the N64 can lick it!!

Never liked the look of the system, the controller and the way it handles and then they got even worst when they went all translucent.... sweet jesus that green was just awful!!! Also the games seemed to me to be all young kid driven and way to much mario for my liking <<shrugs>>

Now, i do own the system for crus'n usa and for a couple pokemon games my little girl and i play but that is it !!!

 

[guyjin]

whoever picked the SNES should be banned on principle. ANYTHING 16 bit is better than the N64. including the CD-i.

[Arkhan Asylum]

including the CD-i.

whoa now, lets not get ahead of ourselves lol.

[1980-20..]

Love the N64 and Gamecube based on their physical design and that includes the controllers for both systems both have pretty weak catalog of games though. In fact i think id say the same about the Wii as well. The SNES is just awesomeness as it introduced me to Street Fighter and ZELDA.

So i think i will have to vote NES as i was a Master system owner way back when.

[Joe Redifer]

The N64 console itself was freakin' ugly!  Possibly only the Master System 2 is uglier.

[OldRover]

I would vote N64 for sure.

Nintendo has always taken shortcuts when making consoles. Amusingly, the N64 is the one they took the fewest shortcuts on, followed by the Gamecube. All of them were severely hindered by one or more crippling design decisions...

-The original NES was crippled by bad overall hardware design, giving it a high hardware failure rate in terms of software loading. The re-release fixed it, but by then, the system was already obsolete. This is the only console in the list, IMO, which was crippled by bad physical attributes rather than electronic moronicism. Of course, one might also fault it for the lackluster color encoder, but it was usually only Commodore 64 fans who bitched about this.
-The SNES had an amazing graphics processor for its time, and the same can be said for its sound processor. Its shortcut comes in the form of its pitifully slow CPU and lack of VRAM. The system could have been the slayer machine, but the low VRAM and terrible CPU speed, and not to mention the horribly slow ROM access time, crippled it. "But it had the same VRAM as the other machines of its time!" Yes, it did... and that made it underwhelming for what it could have become.
-The N64 can be only faulted for its lack of system RAM and its adherence to solid state storage in an age where it was being readily replaced with cheaper media. The latter wasn't a crippling factor but the former was.
-The Gamecube was primarily crippled by its inferior graphics processor and foolish media choice.
-The Wii... wow, where to begin here... it's little more than a Gamecube with an additional GPU and some more system RAM... the ultimate shortcut machine. By the time the Wii went to manufacturing, the components had become so cheap that Nintendo started *making* money each console sale rather than losing it... a phenomenon not really seen since the Atari 7800.

Now, these are all relative to other consoles of their respective eras, so keep that in mind. Most consoles throughout history have suffered from some kind of limiting factor that could have been avoided... the Genesis and its pitiful color palette, the Playstation and its terrible 3D hardware, etc... but there are also consoles which hit the formula perfectly when compared to their direct competition... the Dreamcast (slaughters the Playstation and gives the PS2 a serious run for its money) comes to mind here, as does the console this site is based on... the PC Engine (slaughters the NES).

If only hardware perfection translated into software quality... but alas, it doesn't, and each console's success has always been based not on technical prowess but software viability. Even when a game SUCKS MAJOR ASS, if you convince enough suckers to buy it, it's a success.

[Joe Redifer]

The Gamecube was primarily crippled by its inferior graphics processor

How so?  It was much better than the PS2 and inferior only to the O.G. XBOX.  Most games were 480p and did not have many of the issues the PS2 did.

[OldRover]

How so?  It was much better than the PS2 and inferior only to the O.G. XBOX.  Most games were 480p and did not have many of the issues the PS2 did.

Now, these are all relative to other consoles of their respective eras, so keep that in mind.

[Joe Redifer]

Yes, that is exactly what I asked.  How did it have an inferior graphics processor compared to the PS2 and Xbox?

[blueraven]

I can't believe I missed this thread.

In absence of the Virtual Boy, the Gamecube.

I liked Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and a few others for the N64.

[Mathius]

Yes, that is exactly what I asked.  How did it have an inferior graphics processor compared to the PS2 and Xbox?

The Gamecube is in the same generation as teh PS2 and XBOX, Rovie.

[OldRover]

I'm aware of that. The original Xbox has graphics capabilities far superior to the Gamecube. The GC's graphical abilities are only slightly better than the PS2. Of course, you could always argue specific details and make a case either way... for example, the PS2 can display much higher resolution than the GC and overall has a much higher pixel fill rate, but the GC has dedicated 3D features not found on the PS2 that have to be implemented via software, plus the GC's graphics processor has a slightly higher clock rate than the PS2's. However, the Xbox puts them both to shame without even trying... its graphics capabilities are phenomenal in comparison and makes the GC and PS2 both look like the toys they are.

[Mathius]

I'm aware of that. The original Xbox has graphics capabilities far superior to the Gamecube. The GC's graphical abilities are only slightly better than the PS2. Of course, you could always argue specific details and make a case either way... for example, the PS2 can display much higher resolution than the GC and overall has a much higher pixel fill rate, but the GC has dedicated 3D features not found on the PS2 that have to be implemented via software, plus the GC's graphics processor has a slightly higher clock rate than the PS2's. However, the Xbox puts them both to shame without even trying... its graphics capabilities are phenomenal in comparison and makes the GC and PS2 both look like the toys they are.

I wonder why the XBOX always seemed to display a hazy picture in some games. Yes, it was a powerhouse, but whenever I think back to the XB I think about the milky graphics, as apposed to thinking of Rebel Assault's drool inducing fx on the GC, and Metal Gear on teh PS2.

[Joe Redifer]

One thing the PS2 can do that the Xbox cannot is 240p.  Not sure if the GC can do 240p, but I have heard (though not personally verified) that the Wii can for it's Virtual Console games.  But I'd say the Gamecube's abilities fit nicely in that generation.  The Wii, on the other hand...  is the Wii even as powerful as the original Xbox?  Personally, I like the O.G. Xbox more than the 360.  It has more games I like.

[OldRover]

The PS2 has the widest range of resolutions of that console generation. I don't know about the Wii's purported 240p mode, though there seems to be some TVs that don't work properly with VC and it's asserted that it's because it's displaying in 240p.

The Wii falls far short of the original Xbox, just as the Gamecube did. But I will still state that the Gamecube is only comparable to the PS2. It might not be terribly crippling, but it certainly fails to raise the bar, as the Xbox did. We all know Sony's history of cheaping out, but Sony isn't in question here, Nintendo is... though it seems like both companies wanted to see if they could outcheap the other while Microsoft decided to say 'fuck you both' and built a graphical powerhouse.

[DragonmasterDan]

The Wii, on the other hand...  is the Wii even as powerful as the original Xbox?  Personally, I like the O.G. Xbox more than the 360.  It has more games I like.

In some ways yes, in some ways no. The same goes for the Game Cube actually. The Game Cube with effects (effects meaning textures, anti-aliasing, lighting) running could if properly utilized produce a higher total poly count than the original Xbox (I could go into a long rant about dev kits but I am leaving this out), however, the original Xbox had more RAM and more video RAM, could do pixel shaders and other graphical effects in hardware than the GameCube could not. The Wii has a PPC processor at the same clock speed as the original Xbox (but PPC for the purposes of a game console is a better choice than an X86 based Celron like the original Xbox used), but a faster video processor (though still there are some graphical effects the original Xbox could do, that the Wii can't) and more RAM than the Xbox.

So in most instances it would be correct to state that in general Wii is more powerful than the original Xbox, but there are a few things here and there that the original Xbox can do in hardware that the Wii can't do in hardware.

Added in Edit: Some Clarifications added

[Arjak]

My answer: None of the above.

The worst Nintendo console by far was the Virtual Boy. Why?

1. It wasn't even in color, unless you count red. Everything was red, and ONLY red.

2. It gave people headaches.

3. It had no games that were worth the purchase.

4. It was discontinued in less than a year.

5. It was such a huge failure that I've heard the designer was demoted. He's also dead now, but that wasn't the Virtual Boy's fault...OR WAS IT?

Seriously, all the consoles in the poll are masterpieces compared to the VB. People like to point to Sega as the poster child for bad console ideas, but I'd take a 32X over the VB any day. I'm dead serious.

[Joe Redifer]

The VB wasn't a console, it was marketed as a portable.

[SignOfZeta]

The VB was pretty shitty, but a couple of the games were pretty good, the controler is actually pretty great, and it only gives headaches to weaklings.

The 32x however...just sucked.

[SignOfZeta]

BTW, these people who say the NES and SNES sucked worse than the N64 are out of thier fucking minds.

[Mathius]

BTW, these people who say the NES and SNES sucked worse than the N64 are out of thier fucking minds.

Even though I like the N64 I would have to agree.

[CrackTiger]

The Gamecube can do clean, clear, colorful/vibrant and smoother/less jaggy 3D with decent textures. The PS2 may technically be able to do higher resolutions, but every game I've seen looks messy/rough compared to decent GC and Xbox games.