Were there any reasons why the N64 COMPLETELY lacked any 2D fighters?

[Joe Asakura]

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???

[Eduardo24]

Fighter´s Destiny says hi..... or not.

[Spralwers]

Killer Instinct Gold was on N64. Good times.

[10x]

snipI 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.

[jswey]

mk trilogy

[Marty]

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.

[ToyRobotTerror]

i remember a 2d fighter that looked like it had been done with crayons

EDIT:
Rakugakids

also

Clayfighter 63 1/3
Killer instinct gold
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
War Gods

EDIT2:

Did Mortal Kombat 4 go fully 3d or was it on a 2d plan?

[4649]

i remember a 2d fighter that looked liek it had been done with crayons

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!! :party::party::party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

[polarity]

i remember a 2d fighter that looked liek it had been done with crayons

rakuga kids

edit: damn beaten

[Gouki7]

Flying Dragons was fun as hell.

[Jaurenlo]

Didnt COMPLETELY lack 2d fighters...but...

Lets just leave it at N64 lacked alot of things.

[Giza]

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.

[ToyRobotTerror]

Flying Dragons was fun as hell.

wasn that 3D?

[Mixah]

Why would you want to play a 2D fighter on N64?

wasn't there a game that you could choose between 2d and 3d?

[pherai]

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.

[10x]

Did Mortal Kombat 4 go fully 3d or was it on a 2d plan?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.

[Biolink]

Smash Brothers 64 was the shiz back then...

[sir_arthur]

Didnt COMPLETELY lack 2d fighters...but...

Lets just leave it at N64 lacked alot of things.

like RPGs too

[ToyRobotTerror]

like RPGs too

Shadowgate64
Hybrid heaven
Ogre battle
Harvest Moon
Aidyn Chronicles
Holy Magic Century
Paper Mario?

[kev_the_bev]

wasn't there a game that you could choose between 2d and 3d?

wtf. sounds interesting.

[Johneh]

I'm glad the Dreamcast got all the good ones anyways. Now I can play CvS2, MvC2, and SFIII:3S all off the same CD.

[Hanzo_Hasashi]

War gods was FULLY 3d while mk4 was 2d with sidesteps.

[Weecho]

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!! :party::party::party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

Holy hell. I never even heard about this game before.

[Zaelar]

Topic

Way to go on and on about MK trilogy for N64 right after saying there are no 2d fighters for N64.

[Alzarath]

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!! :party::party::party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

I fucking love this planet :rofl:

[plasmakill]

I'm sure the shitty cartridge format played a pretty big part in the lack of 2D fighters, same thing can be said for RPG's.

[bbq sauce]

Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

[Rhio2k]

Can someone tell me why the n64 only displayed PASTEL?? I mean, seriously, wtf was THAT about? Was that more of Miyamoto's trademarked insanity?

[JubeiNinja69]

I'm sure the shitty cartridge format played a pretty big part in the lack of 2D fighters, same thing can be said for RPG's.

well the n64 was also kids machine and 2d fighters and rpgs can't be taken seriously on it. same with the other system that came after it.

[Tigerboi]

No, I think it's becuase of the N64 didn't sell well in comparison to the ps1. At the time there was no real reason for a third party to even develop a game for the n64.

same with the gamecube and that's why it died.

[jae hoon]

The Fucking Controller

[goodm0urning]

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.And it was accompanied by a loud swish sound effect, as if to say, "HOLY SHIT YOU CAN SIDE-STEP NOW!!! WE ARE TRULY CUTTING EDGE AND SHIT."

[Overworld]

Also 3D fighting games were coming into vogue, it used to be just VF and Tekken but in that generation a lot of new (mostly horrible) ones cropped up.

War Gods or Dark Rift, pick your poison.

[Rioting Soul]

That D-Pad was murder.

[Joe Asakura]

Notice how I mentioned NON-MOTION CAPTURED 2D fighting games. I was talking about traditional, hand-drawn 2D fighting games like Capcom/SNK fare. I never said there weren't any fighting games at all on the N64, yet people were still thirst to go and neg rep me, geez............

[Tigerboi]

Quiet, you.

[Faight]

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!! :party::party::party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

This game needs to be at EVO. Cart, rom, whatever, it needs to be there.

[Vynce]

Why would you want to play a 2D fighter on N64?

wasn't there a game that you could choose between 2d and 3d?

It's not an N64 game, but were you thinking of Savage Warriors? It had an option to switch between a lower-res (and bigger character) 3D mode, and a more 2D, "SVGA" mode that added background elements to it. It had a pirate girl, dinosaur creature, and generic white dude with baseball bat. The intro was animated. It wasn't great, but it was pretty all right if Primal Rage refused to work on your computer.

[Spralwers]

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

How did I miss that game...

And how did I get negative rep just from mentioning KI Gold? Wow.

[Ephidel]

I didn't like N64's MK Trilogy, playstation one was better to me.

[Nocturnal]

MUTHAFUCKIN' RAKUGA KIDS!!! :party::party::party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMt0vKn6-8

Looks like Val might be top tier in that game haha.

[Dios <-X->]

Mischief makers was awesome 2-d goodness.

[Biolink]

I agree with whoever said that the controller was made for Aliens.

[rukawa_kaede]

lack of enough storage.

games like resident evil 2 had to compress the FMVs so the game could fit in the cartridge.what made the videos lose quality. Don't know if 2d games require that much storage though

[Gasp]

well the n64 was also kids machine and 2d fighters and rpgs can't be taken seriously on it. same with the other system that came after it.

oh god quest 64
:(

[Wellman]

Honestly, I don't know about this talk about the controller, I didn't have any more problem with playing with it. But I never got the chance to play many 2D fighting games with it, so maybe...

I think the cartridge was the main hurdle, with the advent of CDs, arcade quality music and animations could get crammed in by the boat load with no hassle or extra cost. Why do the extra work and pay Nintendo to put out a version of a 2D classic when the game won't sale that much (if anything at all) on the N64 in the Japanese market.

The N64 had a decent number of 3D fighters (actually better than GC) but I think any possible 2D fighters at that time would be scared off by the amount they would have had to pay to put out a decent game, since I remember hearing the bigger the game, the more they had to pay.

[JubeiNinja69]

well i don't know if lack of space on the cartridge counts because most of the rom file sizes for games like street fighter alpha 3 or xmen vs sf can easily fit in the 30-50 mb space of the n64 cartridge.

[TS]

Maybe it was because Nintendo are dicks to people who make games for their systems?

[Gouki7]

wasn that 3D?

Had a 2D and 3D mode I'm pretty sure. How the fuck did I get neg repped? :lame:

[NeoPenny]

the 6 buttons always made me wonder if there would be a fighter eventually coming out (from capcom) but then, I had second thoughts due to capcom not interested in making games for the 64.

other than that im going with TS on this one, I think Nintendo for some reason never shared a lot of knowledge to third parties. Most of the time leaving them in the dust.

As for 2d on the 64, i think tha towards the end of its life a few 2d schumps began surfacing, ironically the only one that comes to mind is bangai o.