Absolutely wrong. Blue Storm and Avalanche were better games. And I love the originals too. The changing water levels in Blue Storm was mindblowing how it would change the entire level.
Howard Lincoln: Kicking Ass Before Reggie Came Along
- Thread starter guek
- Start date
Absolutely wrong. Blue Storm and Avalanche were better games. And I love the originals too. The changing water levels in Blue Storm was mindblowing how it would change the entire level.
refresh
Synth_floyd
Banned
It's a bunch of guys in Kyoto who fucked up, not Reggie. He's not exactly pulling out any miracles but he's not entirely to blame either.
Right, so if anyone ever tries to defend Iwata and Reggie again, just throw this link at them: http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/03/14/howard-lincoln-kicking-ass-before-reggie-came-along/
There's no better argument to support why the 90's Nintendo management was better than the current one. Yes, the Wii and DS were extremely successful, but their successors show up how bad they (Iwata and Reggie's management) stand compared to Yamauchi and Lincoln.
Although of course it would be better to have the best of both worlds, with the charisma and expansive strategies of Iwata and the freedom given by Yamauchi to NoA/E to go after developers to pursue alliances, funding teams or simply shopping for games (day 1 ports).
There's no better argument to support why the 90's Nintendo management was better than the current one. Yes, the Wii and DS were extremely successful, but their successors show up how bad they (Iwata and Reggie's management) stand compared to Yamauchi and Lincoln.
Although of course it would be better to have the best of both worlds, with the charisma and expansive strategies of Iwata and the freedom given by Yamauchi to NoA/E to go after developers to pursue alliances, funding teams or simply shopping for games (day 1 ports).
Pyrrhus
Member
I liked them for what they were. I might even agree Avalanche was better than its predecessor, but not Blue Storm. It got the difficulty curve all wrong. The AI opponents were cheap and the course designs weren't as flexible and repayable. All opinion of course, but from what I understand, most people see it that way.
Wow at the Tetris and throwing Sega under the bus parts. He was brutal.
In my opinion, this article suggests that Nintendo's japanese studios were not that happy about Rare's (and the other guys like left-field) huge success as second party. Iwata (who is a developer at heart) quickly burned so many western bridges as soon as he became CEO and developed alliances with japanese people like Capcom, Namco and Sega to bring the mature titles during the GCN days. Also, if I remember correctly, Miyamoto never liked the DKC series.
In my opinion, this article suggests that Nintendo's japanese studios were not that happy about Rare's (and the other guys like left-field) huge success as second party. Iwata (who is a developer at heart) quickly burned so many western bridges as soon as he became CEO and developed alliances with japanese people like Capcom, Namco and Sega to bring the mature titles during the GCN days. Also, if I remember correctly, Miyamoto never liked the DKC series.
TreasureHunterG
Banned
Oh memories... the time NOA actually was properly managed and really went after third-party support.
AuthenticM
Member
Wow, what a great article. Don't you love how candid the guy was ? I'm not solely talking about his arrogance, but how he was admitting that one of the failures of the N64 was its lack of sports games, while the PSone had tons of third-party and first-party sports game. We don't see anything like that anymore.
Wait what?
Nintendo gave them "by the number" tasks.
Do the port/remix of the Ridge Racers that appeared on arcade/PS1 for N64.
Do the sequel of the two racing simulation established by EAD on the previous systems for GC.
Do the port of RR64 on DS.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong is probably the biggest task they got with Metroid Prime for DS.
Again I'm not talking the scope or the end quality (as I previously said that Excite 64 and Eternal were good games but LF and SK weren't really necessary for Nintendo).
Pyrrhus
Member
Like I said before, the way Lincoln, Arakawa, and Yamauchi behaved in the '80s and '90s paved the way for Nintendo's downfall in the N64 era and beyond. People got sick of being bullied and threatened. Got sick of yearly game quotas and the politics and one-sided risk of cartridge manufacture. You know how people say Panic Mode Nintendo is the best Nintendo? It's because they're real dicks when they're winning.
Plenty of companies have reasons to let Nintendo flap in the wind even before you consider they've turned in a technologically moribund toy company. For all of Nintendo's problems, a return to 1980s Gordon Gecko dick swinging and skullduggery isn't the cure.
dr3upmushroom
Banned
Holy shit at GTA3 being developed for GC. That would have been a big game changer, I feel that the new higher ups wanted to keep a "friendly" focus on their system... Although they did have RE games, seems like they were to focused on themselves and didn't see how much PS2 would carve out both Western and Eastern games, and Xbox bringing about a bridge for console and PC games.
MisterHero
Super Member
He was a subject of a Norman Rockwell painting. Howard Lincoln is Americana personified!
This was around the time he was told to completely redo Yoshi's Island because it didn't looke like DKC.
There's a quote about him along the lines of "People will buy mediocre games with good graphics."
This was around the time he was told to completely redo Yoshi's Island because it didn't looke like DKC.
dr3upmushroom
Banned
He didn't like that people where focusing more on graphics, he found it gimmicky, his response was Yoshi's Island.
evilromero
Member
http://www.nowgamer.com/features/895227/the_making_of_donkey_kong_country.htmlGregg Mayles said:
Miyamoto however resented that NCL management tried to convince him to change the art style of Yoshi Island to the one adopted in DKC.
Really fun book with some great Lincoln moments.
Which is very strange. Why burn all the western bridges they had built over the past 8 years? Did he think that relying solely on Japanese alliances was enough?
What were Iwata's reasons to forsake western relationships and turn NoA/E into marketing/distribution divisions? Iwata's obvious bad decisions didn't really come into the spotlight until the Wii faded out. It was now the turn for the new console, with a new gimmick (which is no where as popular as the Wii's gimmick was) and the lack of western relationship is taking its toll right now.
Nintendo needs a drastic change on the way they work in America and Europe, they need to become a global company, because being so Japanese centric will hurt them badly.
I do agree with what you say, that attitude towards other companies and retailers hurt them really bad, but Iwata has done even less than them to improve such relationships.
That's why I mentioned that the ideal situation would have the best of both worlds, and that certainly doesn't include Yamauchi/Lincoln bullying and neither Iwata/Reggie obliviousness towards having strong and close relationships with western developers.
MrCunningham
Member
Yeah I get this feeling too. I think Hiroshi Yamauchi generally hired much more aggressive people for Nintendo of America and gave them a lot longer of a leash to let them do whatever was nessicary to make NOA strive. I honestly think key people back then like Howard Lincoln, Howard Phillips and Kenn Lobb were much more active in Nintendo of America than people like Reggie are now.
Howard Lincoln's war on Sega was pretty epic though, he used a lot of underhanded tactics to make Nintendo look like a white knight in the game industry while demonizing people like Tom Kalinske at Sega. It's funny that he used Night Trap as an example of a game that wouldn't pass Nintendo's guidelines, even though the game was originally planned for the SNES Playstation CD add-on at some point.
One of the Night Trap developers; Rob Fulop had this to say about Howard Lincoln's "guideline" quote:
"The Senate brought in Howard Lincoln, then president of Nintendo, who claimed emphatically “I’d like to state that Night Trap will NEVER appear on a Nintendo system, obviously it doesn’t pass our guidelines.” This was a great example of the true meaning of the term “weasel.” I mean, it’s a joke … I was in the room when Nintendo passed on the opportunity to distribute Night Trap, because their platform could not support FMV. So Howard Lincoln was correct in stating that Night Trap “did not pass Nintendo’s guidelines,” but what he meant was that the game did not pass Nintendo’s TECHNICAL requirements."
From here: http://www.sega-16.com/2007/09/interview-rob-fulop/
Man, Howard Lincoln was relentless...
I'M FINISHED!
Um exCUSE me Sakurai but CLEARLY the best choice for Smash Bros would be my fav niche character HOWEVER you are clearly INCOMPETENT and
My insanity doesn't recollect the PS1 and Saturn offering serious competition in the FPS genre.
Seriously, I can't even remember any great FPS games that the PlayStation or Saturn had.
N64 had tons of FPS like Doom 64, Quake 64, Quake II, Duke Nukem 64, Perfect Dark, etc.
Haha thanks for catching that. Forgot about Quake 2!
evilromero
Member
Don't forget Quake 2, which had 4 player death match. Easily the best port.
Dear ignorance.
The console version of GTA3 appeared on PS2 in 2001, Vice City in 2002.
Microsoft got the two on Xbox in 2003.
Guess why.
In 2003 the (for the most part poor) multiplatform third-party support for GC vanished after the system missed by far sales targets (so much that Nintendo stopped the production lines).
Didn't help the kid friendly image the system had.
NintendoGal
Member
As an M's fan, you certainly should!
Nice catch.
NeoGAF's determination to villify Miyamoto-San at almost every opportunity is baffling yet sad at the same time.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
I knew some of these stories but I had no idea Howard Lincoln was involved in getting Retro Studios.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Eh, didn't the Nintendo 64 do extremely well in the US? Like better than 60% of it's total worldwide sales came from America? I'd say NOA did a pretty good job with what they were given considering they were handed a system with no CD drive.
MisterHero
Super Member
Peer Schneider, Steven Kent and G4's Icons series lied to me then
http://youtu.be/xL83Ko0vYrw?t=14m5s
FWIW, I don't care. Miyamoto had Yoshi's Island, Mario 64, etc. and Rare made great games too.
Shikamaru Ninja
任天å ã® å¿è
Nintendo of America used to have a powerful production and design group. Ken Griffey MLBPA, Super Play Action Football, Tin Star, Uniracers were all produced and co-designed there. Not too mention NOA produced and coordinated all the big RARE games amongst all North American and European based Nintendo games.
Now Japan took over all of the production.
Now Japan took over all of the production.
N64 20.63M in America (40.78M PS1), coming from the SNES 23.35M, so not bad at all, specially compared to Japan.
Numbers from Video Game Sales Wiki
In US:
5,0M N64 Goldeneye 007
1,3M N64 Perfect Dark
1,2M PSX Medal of Honor
1,1M N64 Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
1,0M N64 Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
0,6M PSX Medal of Honor: Underground
From what I know, Quake 2 for N64 was quite shoddy while Quake 2 for PS1 was an impressive achievement.
Well, I do have a rather skewed point of view seeing as I'm from the UK, where Sony's tactic of gaining a massive foothold in PAL-land worked as absolutely everyone had a PS1+2
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Yup, and only 5 mil in Japan. The Saturn beat the N64 in Japan. Kinda crazy. Guess the lack of RPGs didn't help.
But the UK has always been Anti-Nintendo land. Before Sony it was Sega, after Sony it is MS now. The UK has been Nintendo's hardest territory to break into.
For some context, according to Wikipedia, ps1 sold 40 million in Europe while n64 sold 6 million in "other"
That's why I said I had a skewed point of view, I only knew a few people with N64s back in the day
MrCunningham
Member
Rockstar likes to go where the money is, and I'm sure MS gave them some pretty nice moneyhats to port the GTA series over to their XBox. Along with the XBox's beastly hardware specs (at the time), I'm sure it was easy for Rockstar Games to get onboard.
Reggie as head of NOA makes a great deal of sense from the perspective of new management that wants to consolidate all the power in Kyoto. It's a little bit amazing that they managed to undo basically everything that Lincoln did.
You can't turn hamburger back into a cow, though.
You can't turn hamburger back into a cow, though.
I don't think the GameCube would've done well, even with the old guard at the helm. I've Microsoft bought both Rare, who made GoldenEye & Perfect Dark, and Bungie, who made the Mac's Marathon Trilogy, and being the creators of Windows, every PC FPS developer already had a good relationship with them. Microsoft pretty much owned the FPS market by the time the Original Xbox launched, either through owning studios outright or by having a good relationship with them due to Windows. There was nothing Nintendo really could do to keep the FPS audience the N64 had or even gaining the PC developers who all had a good relationship with Microsoft which led to the popular third-party franchises we have today.
The funny thing about your opinion was that all those deals with japanese publishers like Triforce (Sega/Namco), Resident Evil (Capcom), Q Fund (Squaresoft) were signed by Yamauchi.
In general Iwata had not as a big role on GC masterplan as he had on Wii masterplan.
I would say however that for NCL is simply easier to get and manage japanese partners.
The "old guard" launched the GC and shaped what it would become.
I agree with you that MS would surely (and it did) impact Nintendo business in US.
EDIT:
To clarify, in the post you quoted I didn't say that Nintendo could have retained the console FPS market.
TreasureHunterG
Banned
This is what Iwata's apologysts and defenders of Nintendo's current direction can't see or try to hide. What Nintendo's western branch has become under Iwata and what was before. Specially now that the gaming industry is heavily western centric.
This is another decision from Iwata which had bad long-term consequences for Nintendo and why he needs to step down.
Compared to the competition, sure it was
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
If this article is to be believed, one of the reasons Rare started shopping buyers is because Lincoln left Nintendo and they felt like they didnt have anymore "allies" there.
Kimishima was put in place by Yamauchi.
Arakawa retired in January 2002, and sort of gave Yamauchi a nudge that maybe it was time for him to retire, y'know, if his kids were already retiring. Kimishima was installed immediately as Arakawa's replacement, which means Arakawa told Yamauchi ahead of time.
Yamauchi stepped down in May 2002, and put Iwata in charge.
Reggie was hired in December 2003 as Peter Main's replacement, and became a popular meme after his first E3 appearance in May 2004.
Reggie jobbed to Iwata at E3 2005 and tried his best to give him some of that meme status, so Iwata promoted him to NOA President in 2006.