Why Is Nintendo Sitting On Its NES Catalog? (1 Viewer)

[Jason Quillen]

I've been thinking about this for a while, but playing Zelda this past weekend inspired me to post about it.

Why is Nintendo sitting on their old video game catalog? It seems to me these games are an unrealized goldmine.

I've had a Nintendo system in my house / dorm since the original NES, which my fantastic parents got for me in 1985 / 86, so I was about 5. I can't even count the number of classics on those systems, theres just too many. So wheres the problem? The cartridges. If I want to play a NES game I have to dig the old boy out of the attic, (probably buy some new parts to get it hooked up to the TV correctly), hook it up, and play. But thats too much trouble - I've run out of space in my entertainment center with the big 3 consoles to swap the old NES systems in and out on a whim. (Then theres the problem of the old NES not playing the games - so I blow on them until I make myself lightheaded, then maybe it will work.) Then when I play Zelda I will undoubtedly want to play A Link To The Past on SNES, so then we go through the whole process again. Same with N64. All for a little video game nostalgia.

Nostalgia that is completely worthwhile once I start playing the game - but getting me to go though all that, especially with more convenient options right in front of me, is nearly impossible.

But now that cartridges are a thing of the past, why hasn't Nintendo gone though hell and high water to get these video game gems ported onto the Gamecube? I'm not even talking about obscure hit or miss titles - I'd be more than content with the classics. Hell, I'd even be content with just the flagship classics - Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Dragon Warrior, Metroid... just to name a few - these games are all amazingly popular, have more than one sequel, and most are spread over multiple consoles. Why hasn't there been a Zelda Collection for any NES system? The same goes for every franchise listed above, the only exception being Mario, which had a collection for SNES (which I bought) - but we're left with the same cartridge / system problem.

I can't imagine Nintendo being afraid of sales. But if they are afraid of sales, why not test the water first - release a Mario or Zelda collection. If they made a Zelda collection, with all 5 games (up to and including Majora's Mask), the sales numbers would probably be staggering. Hell, a collection like that would even sell Gamecube systems. Even if the current CD format of video games goes out with the next generation - and they have no support for CD's (which doesn't seem likely), I still have Zelda collected in one place - on one console, not 3 different ones.

What else could be preventing these collections? A big speed bump is probably the individual companies that made the games - I don't know if Nintendo has any real right to reproduce them on another system. But hell, money talks - someone out there owns the rights, so throw some cash at them.

Of course, a case could be made that this area is currently being tested. The Sonic Collection from Sega is a good example - but I don't know how well (or poorly?) it sold. There was the Castlevania remix on PSX, but again, I don't know how it sold. Then we had Metroid appearing on Metroid Prime / Fusion - with the hitch of having to own both. But even with that catch the fact that Metroid was on there was a pretty big deal for a while. And, of course, most recently we got the Zelda Ocarina / Master Quest disc with Wind Walker. Again, this disc alone has sold copies of Wind Walker and as far as I've seen it has been selling pretty well. But I'm afraid Nintendo did this just because Wind Walker was cell shaded, and they wanted to gently push the apprehensive fans to it by tossing Ocarina on there with it for free. Regardless, hopefully Nintendo can read the writing on the wall and see how great these collections would be / sell.

All I'm saying is give it a try - toss all the previous Mario games (through 64) on a disc (maybe 2?) and sell it for $20 - $25 (+/-) and see what happens. What do they have to lose?

I know there are other solutions, like emulators, but that has its own issues, and I think it's too much of a gray area for HTF discussion. But the sheer popularity of emulators should show Nintendo that people are interested.

So, anyone have any thoughts on this? Why these collections haven't shown up yet, how they would sell, or anything at all along these lines?

With all that off my chest, I'm going to play Ocarina on NGC (and dreams of a Mega Man, Castlevania, or Zelda collection in the near future.)

JQ

 

[Romier S]

The Sonic Collection from Sega is a good example - but I don't know how well (or poorly?) it sold.

Sonic Mega Collection sold about 170k up until the end of December. I'd imagine its broken 200k by now if not more.

Casltvania Chronicles was produced in a limited run so I'm not exactly sure the sales figures on that. I'd have to look. Still waiting for the producer of the series to announce the next chronicles disc and release Rondo of Blood.

 

[Andre F]

I'd love to see more compilation discs released as well. On every system there is always at least a few gems that should not be lost, but on the NES there are quite a few classics that I would be very happy to play every now and again.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Or you could try the GBA where Link to the Past and most of the Mario games (sans Mario 3) have all been ported

 

[Jason Quillen]

Or you could try the GBA where Link to the Past and most of the Mario games (sans Mario 3) have all been ported

I'm not big on the handhelds. Something about those little screens give me headaches. Even if I did drop the $99 on one of the new ones (which I am considering) and then bought the connector (so I could play on the big screen) and each individual cartridge - it would still be damn similar to just having the SNES hooked up - only costing me more. The point of the collections is to have them all in one place. And who knows if Nintendo's console in....2008 will still support a GB connection? At least with Nintendo finally switching to CDs I can be somewhat confident that todays discs will be supported by consoles for a little ways down the road.

The good thing about GBA is at least there nintendo is supporting its past catalog. If I do pick one of the new ones up, I can still go back and dig out the GB games I had as a kid.

JQ

 

[Jason Quillen]

Oh, I forgot something important:
I'm not talking "remix"'s here - I want straight ports of these games. No Legend of Zelda with Link in a hot pink tunic and multi colored sword set to techno music, please.

Just keep them the way they are. If Nintendo wanted to fix a few technical things - like the the slowdown when too many enemies are on the screen in the original, thats cool. The sharpening of OoT for this release was perfect - they left the game alone and just cleaned it up a little, which is fine by me. (I seem to remember OoT being slightly more...clunky...when I played it on 64 ((for lack of a better word)) ).

JQ

 

[Mike_G]

Well, you can get Animal Crossing which gives you a few games, but it's not the solution you or I really want.

I agree that Nintnendo should put out collections to keep their old catalog alive. Hell, Activision, Atari, and Namco did it with their titles.

Mike

 

[Craig S]

I'm not big on the handhelds. Something about those little screens give me headaches. Even if I did drop the $99 on one of the new ones (which I am considering) and then bought the connector (so I could play on the big screen) and each individual cartridge - it would still be damn similar to just having the SNES hooked up - only costing me more.

Or you could drop $40 on the Game Boy Player which is due later this spring - it will snap onto the base of your Cube and let you play GBC/GBA cartridges using the Cube's controller & video out. No GBA or extra video connector needed.

That said, I agree with your premise and would snap up collections like you propose without hesitation. In addition to those you named, a "Donkey Kong Country" collection would be great as well. At the very least, I hope we get more OOT-like ports of N64 classics like "Majora's Mask" (which I never got to play) & "Mario 64".

 

[Aaron Copeland]

They don't want to release a compilation because they want to continue to release their old games one by one on their GB machines and continue to charge us a ridiculous $30+ USD for them. And since there is little else worth a damn on the GB systems, everyone will buy them. Yeah, I'm sick of the whole portable scene...in case you didn't notice

 

[Allen_Appel]

I also wish Nintendo would port the old NES/SNES/N64 titles over, simply because I never owned any of these systems. Unfortunately, I think Nintendo (IF they ever do this) will take the Namco/Atari route and put just a few games on a disk and charge $40-$50 for it. If emulators can fit hundreds of these games on a disk, paying such a high price for just a few is gouging. You also have to wonder if the market is really there for such ports. Young gamers probably won't get past the old graphics and simplistic gameplay to find the fun within.

 

[BrianB]

[snip]

 

[Romier S]

Young gamers probably won't get past the old graphics and simplistic gameplay to find the fun within.

Screw 'em

 

[Morgan Jolley]

One problem with the list in the first post in this thread is that some of those aren't Nintendo games. Nintendo can only touch their stuff (Mario, Metroid, Zelda, etc.).

For SNES, they had Super Mario All-Stars. I would love for them to do something like that for the GameCube. They could do a compilation disc of Mario games, Zelda games, Metroid games, and so on. They could even make a disc of games that are lesser-known titles (like the stuff in Animal Crossing).

Whatever they do, I don't mind. I'd prefer something like this, but I can live without it.

 

[Jason Quillen]

I also wish Nintendo would port the old NES/SNES/N64 titles over, simply because I never owned any of these systems.

Another good reason for these collections. For as many young gamers out there that would turn their nose up at these for some BS reason, there are twice as many that never got to really play these games - for whatever reason.

 

[Allen_Appel]

I'd be more than willing to pay $50 if these collections were done right - a disc or two for each franchise (Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc) - and the disc contained all the games through SNES or 64 - and the games kept 99% the same. But if they just randomly tossed a bunch of filler games on a disc - with one or two different classics (just as a real selling point) I wouldn't pay that much.

I don't mind the price, as long as the content justifies it. I enjoyed Pac Man and Asteroids et al, but the Namco and Atari re-releases did not justify the high price tag. It was nice to see Super Mario Bros. offered with Super Mario Advance, but disheartening to see it offered again with Super Mario World.

Does anyone know how well the e-reader cards with the NES games are selling?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Hopefully, when the OOT bonus disk sells out, the message that the gaming public is interested in the classics will be noted

The problem is that OoT is not exactly a classic in the same sense as any other Zelda games. It's classic, but it's from the last generation of consoles. If anything, this is like an update to the game than a rerelease.

I personally hope that they decide to do like they did with Zelda for other games (like get a similar disc when the next Mario comes out). After that, they could start releasing compilation discs.

What would be really cool is if they reworked those games like they did for OoT; give the players the original version, spruced up to look better and work for the new hardware, and then make a remix that they can play.

 

[DonRoeber]

Recently, I was on the train on the way home, and playing Legend of Zelda on my laptop using an emulator. it's something that I enjoy doing from time to time. Anyway, there was a young boy sitting next to me. He was between 5 and 8, I suppose. He had a GameBoy in his pocket, with Pokemon in it. He couldn't understand why on earth I was using my nice computer to play something as ugly looking as Zelda. He wanted to know what I wasn't playing CounterStrike.

*sigh*


By the way, does anyone have any information on how well the older Final Fantasy games are selling for the PlayStation? I realize that the Final Fantasy franchise is a little different from the regular video game market, but they must be selling okay for Square to release all of their old product (Final Fantasy Origins is due out in may, I think. It's got FF1 and FF2 on it, for the PSX).

 

[Drue Elrick]

I've mentioned it before, but here goes again...
Nintendo e-reader for Gameboy Advance

They have NES games on cards that you swipe through the reader and they are just like the originals. The reader is $40ish Canadian and the game cards are $5-$7 Canadian, so it should be quite reasonable to buy the ones you want. Pair all of this with the new GC GBA add-on, and you have NES joy using your GC controller.

Games available: Donkey Kong Jr., Excitebike, Balloon Fight, Pinball, Tennis, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber, Mario Bros., Urban Champion, and Baseball. They also have various Animal Crossing cards, Pokemon, and Mario Party-e

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Drue-

The thought of playing NES games using a GameCube and the GameBoy Player is quite intriguing. Hmm...

 

[Jason Quillen]

the game cards

I've been thinking of picking up one of the new GBAs when they come out in March, but I was curious about these cards. How do these work - I mean, if I swipe the first mario card and play for a bit then get to level 3 - does the GBA tell you to swipe the next card? In other words, do you have to keep these cards handy in order to continually swipe?
If so I'd be afraid of the cards getting bent up or de-magnetized (somehow) to the point of the E-Reader not being able to use them. I tend to keep my video games neatly organized, but if we're talking about something thats like a baseball card, it won't take much to mess with it.

JQ