I was just wondering. IIRC, in the last 15 years of consoles I think the Atari Jaguar and the Nintendo 64 were the only (notable) ones which lacked any (notable, non-motion captured) 2D fighting games. Coincidentally, both consoles had controllers that were ill fit (to say the least) for 2D fighters.
Back to the N64, I was pondering whether the lack of said 2D fighters on N64 was due to the piss-poor third-party support it received (the worst of any Nintendo console to date) or because…the N64 was more “2D-retarted” (in the words of the late, great GameFan) than even the mighty PS1. When I was younger I used to think that with all of that raw horsepower and oodles of system RAM (especially when you throw in that Expansion Pak) that the N64 could handle even Naomi fare such as MvC2 and CvS2 almost effortlessly (the 3D BG’s would take a hit no doubt). So I wondered that with so much RAM under the hood, what’s up with the lack of Capcom or SNK?
In recent years however, I’ve been reading how all of those oodles of RAM within the N64 are heavily bottlenecked by slow latency access rates (whatever that means) and supposedly how it’s hardware was almost incapable of producing 2D, which would explain the handful of mediocre-looking 2D titles the system has (like Mischief Makers) and why the N64 port of “Mortal Kombat Trilogy” looked and moved like crap with all of those missing frames and washed-out colors and whatnot…the port even used SUPER NINTENDO backgrounds for some of the older MK1/MK2 stages. Yes, backgrounds from the SNES ports of MK1 and MK2. Check out “The Dead Pool” on N64 and see for yourself. The orange glow from the “Kombat Tomb” stage behind the wall gates? Only on SNES and N64 and no other version. And for ages I thought that’s how the original arcade stage was…
With all of that said, would you guys say or at least figure that the N64 would’ve been a good system for 2D fighters, or was it best that things ended up going the way they did???
I think you just answered your question. N64 was not good at 2d hence no 2d games…including 2d fighters. Well atleast, graphically there were no 2d games.
I think a lot of people forget about smash, which is essentially a fighter on a 2d plane with 3d graphics.
Another reason was the time, games like Tekken were big and it took 2d fighters out of the limelight in the states. There wasn’t a lot of money in making those kind of games, much less making one on a system that was hard to develop for. I mean, developers of 2d games would want to put out something that could wow people over 3d games, and that’s just not something the N64 could do.
Gee guys, why don’t you get a lot of people picking things up with their penises? It probably has something to with the hands being better at that sort of thing, but let me know what you think.
Saturn kinda ruled over PS1 and N64 when it came to 2d fighters at first because it was the easiest to port the games to the Saturn’s arcade-like system. N64 didn’t completely lack 2d fighters though, its about the same as the gamecube had. So lacking yes, but not completely.
Maybe if the controller wasn’t designed for aliens some decent fighters would have come out on it. I liked the n64, but could never understand that monstrosity of a controller they built for it.
Well most of the fighting takes place on a 2d plane, but you have the option to sidestep left or right using the L or R button or something…The side step was pretty slow and generally lame.
The levels themselves were 3d and junk but it didn’t really add any strategy.