The WORST Article about Nintendo EVER...

[jfrost]

I hate exclusives. All games should be available on every platform possible.

The only issue with that, is that it means games have to be watered down to the lowest common denominator insofar as hardware is concerned. You end up with games that aren't developed to eke out the absolute most power of their proprietary hardware. You end up with games that don't take advantage of exclusive hardware features like motion control or 3D or dual screens. Ultimately in a system like you're describing you'd end up with every console and smartphone being the same architecturally, just to allow such software homogenization. What then becomes the differentiators between the systems available? Brand loyalty? Exclusives are ultimately what defines a platform, for better or worse. Enough exclusives and you start to give the console its own "flavor". For example, the Dreamcast has a very different flavor than say the GameCube. I'm a fan of diversity so I'm okay with exclusives.

This is a fair point. Insofar games require different hardware specifications, they should be exclusive. But I have a very hard time justifying exclusivity as it is done most of the time for just corporate agreements.

Pokémon would run great on an iPad, for instance. It's a slow paced RPG with touch controls.

Even when ports are not optimal I have a soft spot for them.

When I was little, I had a PlayStation and dreamed of playing X-men vs Street Fighter on a Saturn and on the arcade all the time. Capcom pumped out a heavily gimped version for the PS1 in which you couldn't switch your character. They eventually did the same with Marvel Super Heroes cs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom.

Did these version suck? Objectively, yes. They missed critical features, had sprites chopped up, and the frame rate dived often.

But 12 year old me was glad to have it. Purity be damned.

[samsonlonghair]

Nintendo would never dream of porting one of their classic franchises to inferior hardware.

Just trollin'
I know there was no NES when this cart was released.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Interestingly enough though, if GameFAQs is to be believed, the Atari 7800 and 8-bit versions of Mario Bros. were released in 1987 and 1989.

[samsonlonghair]

That's kind of ridiculous.

[irixith]

Interestingly enough though, if GameFAQs is to be believed, the Atari 7800 and 8-bit versions of Mario Bros. were released in 1987 and 1989.

Wasn't the Atari 7800 version a result of Atari obtaining their Mario Bros. arcade license from a different company than Nintendo?

[Erik_Twice]

There may be temporary revenue and growth for a company to chase in the mobile market, but the author forgets that 3 million copies of a game, plus the uptick in console sales...that's exactly why Nintendo's in the console market and not the mobile one. It doesn't need to be anywhere else, and as you say Erik, it can diversify in other ways that don't impact on any core properties/brands in a negative way.

Yeah, we see eye to eye here.

That's kind of ridiculous.

Google "Super Mario Bros special". (Warning: Ugly port ahead)

Still, Nintendo was always an oddball in that regard. Sega, for example, didn't keep their arcade games as exclusives.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yeah Sega arcade games are EVERYWHERE. Even on the NES / Famicom. I especially enjoy playing Out Run on the Commodore 64.

[samsonlonghair]

That's kind of ridiculous.

Google "Super Mario Bros special". (Warning: Ugly port ahead)

Well that was hideous.

Still, Nintendo was always an oddball in that regard. Sega, for example, didn't keep their arcade games as exclusives.

Yeah Sega arcade games are EVERYWHERE. Even on the NES / Famicom. I especially enjoy playing Out Run on the Commodore 64.

I recall a Tengen cartridge with Afterburner. I wonder if Sega made any money from that, or if Tengen was just ripping everybody off.

[Tanooki]

I wonder if they'd have success putting the Virtual Console on mobile phones.

I think this would be the ONE wise thing that really would set them apart on all these online services. If they'd just take the stuff they've been shoving on their hardware and place it on Android and IOS and they'd make bank.

It ties back to that other post before this one, 'I see all these kids using their mobile devices...' EXACTLY! You don't see many people like you would even just 5 years ago now with their handheld Nintendo and Sony devices all over public places in the numbers you used to and I doubt it'll improve. While they sell big numbers still, they're not the big numbers of the DS and GBA eras at all because of the tablet/phone market kicking their way in on their multi-purpose devices. Nintendo shouldn't put their primary games at all on other devices as it would kill their handheld division and turn them into a watered down software maker that kind of sucks, like Sega. The Virtual Console would be huge because it would get a lot of franchise awareness not just for Nintendo but all their other licensees that participate.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I recall a Tengen cartridge with Afterburner. I wonder if Sega made any money from that, or if Tengen was just ripping everybody off.

I don't know much about Tengen, but from what I can tell they published ports of Sega, Midway, and Namco arcade games for the NES.

Unlike other unlicensed crap, these were legit good games. A few years ago I read up on the legal issues Nintendo had with Tengen, but I can't recall it all at this moment. Sega and Commodore didn't seem to mind Tengen games on their platforms.

The Tengen-published Sega games are After Burner, Alien Syndrome, Fantasy Zone, and Shinobi.

Unrelated to Tengen, but Space Harrier and Altered Beast had Famicom ports. There's also a Famicom version of Fantasy Zone that's different from the Tengen NES version.