What do you miss most about old Nintendo consoles?
I’m talking pre-Wii era. My pick would be two face buttons. What about you. Let’s hear it readers: What do you miss most about retro Nintendo consoles?
40 Responses to What do you miss most about old Nintendo consoles?
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Sigma
MasterClaw
ethosoccer
Mynus64
Fatsack
_Sky_Pharaoh_
Tankooni
EP_Knothead
I miss the obscure titles, and the fact that not everything thrown at nintendo got the Nintendo seal of approval. It really made the libraries shine.
Game manuals decorate with fun illustrations of the game. I once stole a game manual from Blockbuster because they had a colored version of the Yoshi’s Island manual. I swapped it with my black-and-white version and got away with it. Heeheehee….
The D-Pad.. 🙂 Oh how it felt under my young thumb.. How horrible most dpads are now.. The 360’s is by far the worst. Wiimote is OK, but it wears easily. The GC was a joke… lol The DS line was pretty close though.
I miss seeing something that made you say, “Wow, these are great graphics!” like the first time you dunked in Double Dribble or saw the title screen for The Legend of Zelda.
To that point, I miss the occasional slowdown caused by having too many sprites on the screen. You’d think, “They’re really pushing the NES!”
Cartridges. Loved them. For some reason, opening the cardboard box and pulling out a huge hunk of plastic was a better experience than popping a disc out of the case. Specifically with the N64, I loved how some games felt heavier than others, and you literally felt like there was more game packed into it.
@Stan
I completely agree with that too. My favorite game manual by far is the Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow instructions. The design and the way they introduced Pokemon to you as if you were a real trainer receiving the handbook was extraordinary. You never see that whimsical style anymore
plugging in a game, hitting power and be playing in 5 seconds. Instant gratification.
3rd Party Support
The Wii has two face buttons.
Title Screen Cheat Codes.
I miss the fast loading times. I also, like Fuzz, miss the instant start-up of games. I don’t like that you have to go through channels, then select a game, and finally start the game just to start playing. I believe games should start automatically by default in all systems.
By the way, is Infendo radio ever coming back? I miss Derek and Blake hosting the infendo radio. I listened to the radio show from late 2009 to its ending.
What Fuzz, Mark, and Jon said!!
(Oh, yeah… and where did my Infendo Radio go??)
Cartridges. I love the way they feel. I like the quick load times and the feeling that they were tough and user friendly
I’m with Fuzz & Jon
I never bought a Sony Playstation because I couldn’t stand the ‘Now Loading…Please Wait screen’… I still do not like it on my PS3… That is the one thing I dread about all games today…
I have also always love the ‘Start’ button. I know the companies have also adopted it but all that their buttons do is get you to the next prompt.
16-Bit graphics
-2D RPGs
-Carts
-The GBA dpad
Nothing I have them all and extras.
Cmdg beat me to it. 3rd party support.
I miss the simplicity of just putting in a game and playing it. As good as all the online content is, sometimes its just a little too much.
SNES graphics.
The sound chip! Miss it!
I really miss the LACK of online gaming. Seriously! I LOVED getting some guys together to play Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Street Fighter II, Starfox 64, etc. in the SAME ROOM! You had to commit to spending the time together, rather than logging on and hoping guys on your friends list were online at the same time as you. Razzing each other and getting excited about huge moments were so much more exciting than just hearing somebody’s voice on your headset…
Online is cool in many ways, but I feel it’s largely killed the greatness that is LIVE multiplayer experiences.
i miss the way companies besides nintendo used to make games for them.
the old Rare studios…. they made great games
8 bit MIDI music.
I kinda miss not having motion controls. I kinda miss back when the handheld wasn’t 3D. (I do love the Wii and the 3DS… I just don’t really love their defining factors!)
i miss…
the red/black/grey color scheme
tons of great 3rd party games
shmups and beatemups
official nintendo arcade sticks like the NES Advantage
I have to agree with Stan: Well-illustrated, neat-o instruction manuals.
I have to say, though, that I would never trade what I have now for what I had then: I’ve actually had more fun with DS, Wii and (lately) 3DS than I’ve had with any other run of consoles…
…but 16 bit Yoshi’s Island remains one of the greatest games of all time.
I would definately say the top of the line Graphics. Wii should have been HD. Even if it was still underpowered compared to the other HD consoles it probably wouldn’t have gotten into so much bad shape at the end of its life. Something that will probably happen to the Wii U again with Nintendo not really pushing the boundaries with graphics capability.
I’m with Batmyke…getting together to play Goldeneye or Smash Bros or Mario Kart 64 was so fun…
Also the smell of new cartridges and new manuals.
Having time to play.
But serioulsy, 3rd Party Support and having the best version of the multiplatform games.
Wow… wish I owned one of the NES-101 systems shown in the article pic. Beautiful.
What do I miss most? Instant gaming with no loading times. The games weren’t always great, and anyone who ignores the massive piles of NES shovelware while talking about “Nintendo’s Seal of Quality” are fooling themselves… but it never took more than a couple of minutes to find out if a game was something worth coming back to play again.
Pixels-and-chiptunes 2D fun.
The N64 controller’s manly prong.
No, seriously. I’ve never found a joystick that was more comfortable to hold and use than the N64’s. The stick on the Wii’s Nunchuck is the only one which even comes close.
I miss fast loading, and the game starting as soon as you hit the power button-[instant loading]. I’d like if there was an option for instant loading.
I miss the cheat codes!
I miss the simplicity of just needing the system, a controller, a tv, a memory card and a game.
Of course I miss the fast loading, the cartridges, and most of all, the 16 bit graphics, which I believe was the greatest era of gaming.
A “normal” control interface. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind motion controllers and touch screens and the like. But I kind of miss the ability to sit down and play a game without any of the extra gimmicks. Gamecube controller options are always fantastic! <3