Dream Team: Ken Kutaragi Joins Nintendo

Chapter 14: A Battle to Behold Year 2003
Nokia was a phone provider that made the sturdiest of phones. After catching wind of Nintendo releasing their latest portable device in the GBA, they decided to release their own portable device. The portable device would be able to make and receive phone calls, giving more to the user than the GBA ever could. Nokia would reveal the device to the public:

390px-Nokia-NGage-LL.jpg

Introducing the N-Gage. It could play music and make calls as well. It would retail for $299 and had a plethora of games released for the system. The biggest contributor to the console device was SEGA with their Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle games. SEGA had no plans to release their own portable gaming device after the disaster that was the Game Gear, but they surely would help anybody competing against Nintendo in the same business sphere. Other games for the console included:
  • Super Monkey Ball
  • Call of Duty
  • Puyo Pop
  • Rayman 3
  • Bomberman
  • Sega Rally
  • Tomb Raider
  • The Sims: Bustin Out
  • Tom Clancy's video game series
  • Virtua Cop
  • Virtua Tennis
  • Crash Nitro Kart
  • Fifa Sports Series
The NGage had promising software and looked to be a good alternative to those that were looking for something different that Nintendo could not provide. There existed one issue with the console though, the games were located behind the battery meaning the battery had to be moved in order to replace the game in the console.

As this was going on Nintendo got into talks with 4Kids entertainment to release DVD collections of the Pokemon and Kirby series of shows for its GameCube. Just because Nintendo made mostly video games did not mean they would not try to add extra goodies for the console. Kirby and Pokemon would come out later as pack in titles for the GameCube and would help increase sales or that is what Nintendo had hoped.

Games released for the Game Boy Advance included Micro Games, Donkey Kong Country Advanced, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Metroid Fusion, Mario Super Circuit. These games helped the GBA total sold 25 Million as of now.

Silicon Knights was ready to unveil its competitor to Resident Evil. A Survival Horror game that would be able to shine on its own. Gaming like the world had never seen before with a unique system that takes advantage of the hardware the game is working on. The game was none other than Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. It would star heroine Alexandra Roivas as she investigates her uncle's mysterious death which leads her to the family owned mansion. In the mansion Alexandra discovers the secrets of the tomb of Eternal Darkness that was owned by her uncle and what other forces were out in the universe affecting the human race. Eternal Darkness would sell around 2 Million copies in its life time, not too bad for a newly made title.

Thanks to help from Play Tonic the games were finished. Retro Football was the first game that was finished. It had online play and players could make their own team of unique foot ball players. Football teams were fictional in order for Nintendo not to have to pay royalties to the football teams. The other Retro finished game was Raven Blade. Raven Blade starred a knight that would find the titular blade fighting against the forces of evil lead by the nefarious Beastlord. In this game the protagonist would also learn more swordplay and magic to increase his battle prowess given to him by towns folk.

Rare had also finished a new game called Donkey Kong Racing. It would star the titular character Donkey Kong and have online play. Here is a video detailing what the gameplay would be like:
Credit to Unseen 64

The time had arrived. Nintendo knew its servers would be ready to host the online gameplay that the GameCube was becoming well known for. A long awaited sequel to the platform fighter made up of Nintendo characters had finally been ready to ship to stores. The game being none other than Super Smash Brothers Melee. And here was as look at the roster:
Ken Kutaragi Melee Timeline.png

Here is a reason for character inclusions:
  • Peach - added for a unique moveset and due to a long legacy.
  • Zelda/Sheik - added due to the legacy of the Zelda series and provides a unique moveset.
  • Ridley - the reaction to the crowd seeing him in the games intro was more than enough to include him in the roster.
  • Ganondorf - unlike in OTL Ganondorf has a completely unique moveset based on his abilities from Ocarina of Time.
  • Diddy Kong - added due to popularity and unique moveset potential.
  • Mewtwo - legendary Pokemon that was added to flesh out the villain roster.
  • Rash - added for an unique moveset and to represent Nintendo's beat em up series of video games.
  • Banjo Kazooie - their legacy on the Nintendo 64 and fan base were why they were added.
  • Falco - added due to the popularity of Star Fox
  • Fulgore - Killer Instinct was a smash hit amongst Nintendo fighting game fans and the roster needed more villains.
  • Snake - Hideo Kojima wanted Snake in Melee and Sakurai got permission for it.
  • Megaman - Capcom's titular Blue Bomber was a hit among Nintendo fans.
  • Ryu - Made to represent the most popular fighting game series of all time.
  • Pac-Man - was added to show the relationship between Nintendo and Namco plus it adds more legacy characters.
In the game Snake had no codecs due to the focus being on the games roster. A character was cut and it was due to time constraints that character being Mr. Game and Watch, who would be the only 2D fighter in the game. As for series music and character themes here was those for the two characters:
Rash's stage theme
Rash's Victory theme
Fulgore stage theme
Fulgore Victory theme
Sir Daniel's stage theme Sir Daniel's Victory theme
Fulgore Moveset:
Untitled.png

Energy Bolt is a projectile that flies from Fulgore's hands and deals little knock back 3% damage per hit
Blade Dash is a forward Side B attack that pushes Fulgore forward into his opponent and bypasses projectiles deals 5% damage on a hit
Plasma Slice propels Fulgore 10 ft in the air and is used as a recovery but leaves him vulnerable after using it deals 7% damage
Eye Laser flies across the screen at 15 ft from Fulgore's position and deals 4% damage

Rash Moveset:
U 2.png

Frog's Tongue grapples the opponent and pulls Rash in. It temporarily stuns the opponent if it makes contact and has a range of 10 ft. It can also be used to grab objects
Bell Stomp Rash turns into a bell and rams the opponent in a direction of the user's choosing deals 10% damage
Motor Bike Rush Rash flies into the air in a vertical upwards position Rash is able to get knocked off the Bike and it deals 5% damage on impact
Hand Drill Rash turns his hand into a drill and burrows opponents it makes contact with deals 3% damage.

Sir Daniel Fortesque Moveset
Standard B - Axe a Rang - Dan throws a Battle Axe that acts like Link's boomerang but deals heavy knock back and %10 damage per hit
Side B - Green Hand - Dan place his head to a green hand, then starts to walk. This will stun the enemy in contact deals 5% damage upon contact and lasts for 3 seconds
Up B - Spinning Sword - Similar to Link's UP B recovery move but has greater knock back and deals 12% damage.
Down B - Shield - Dan pulls out a shield that blocks all attacks and projectiles for 2 seconds. It pushes any opponent too close to Dan away and can be grabbed out of.

Character stats: Fulgore has the same speed as Samus, fast combos like Pikachu and Weight like Bowser. Rash has stats like Mario but weight like Ness. Sir Daniel Fortesque weighs has combo speed and speed like Link in all categories.

The game also had added Event Matches:
  1. Robotic Blues - Play as Megaman to take on Dr. Wily's Lastest creation (Fulgore)
  2. Defend the Vulture - Play as Rash to guard the Vulture from Fox and Falco
  3. Collect Data - Play as Fulgore while fighting a team of Snake and Ryu
  4. Fever - Fight as Pac-Man to take on the likes of Mario and Megaman in a free for all
  5. Protect DK - Playing as Diddy Kong protect DK from bounty bunters Samus and Captain Falcon
Melee proved to be popular and would sell a total of 10 Million copies in its life time especially with its online game modes.

Upcoming Chapters:
Sir the Servers
The Year Nintendo Changed
Dual Screens Ahead
 
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Chapter 14: Sir the Servers Part 2 Year 2003
SEGA's Dreamcast was doing wonders for its father companies' profits. Not only were the games a big hit amongst fans but the Perfect Dark video game was doing very well. SEGA knew it would be best to keep up this momentum so they decided to come up with a new way to play games. Introducing the Sega Arcade Online or SAO for short. It would include all video games of SEGA's past that would be downloadable to consumers with each video game being purchasable separately.

By having internet connection players will be able to download video games of SEGA's past for a fee. It would also include arcade exact replicas of their arcade titles like House of the Dead. SEGA would also have certain games be usable via the VMU as to provide mini games for players to play while on the go.

While that was happening Level-5 had just finished their first video game ever called Dark Cloud

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Dark Cloud starred a character called Toan whom wishes to rebuild the world after the nefarious Dark Genie destroys the inhabitants of his village. Restoring the world and building weapons was the name of the game in Dark Cloud and once weapons broke they were gone forever. Instead of leveling up their character players would level up their weapons to take on further challenges. The sales for the game did a decent enough job to warrant a sequel and so Level-5 began work on Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle. The game would release for Nintendo's GameCube.

Speaking of the Nintendo GameCube more titles were released for the console. Mario Party 4 and Star Fox Adventures being notable examples. Despite the outcry from employees at Rare Miyamoto still insisted on Dinosaur Planet be remade into Star Fox Adventures due to what he said "It looks like Star Fox so make it Star Fox." The employees were upset but it was nothing that could not be fixed for their next upcoming game on Nintendo's next piece of hardware.

All was well at Nintendo. Their GameCube had sold a total of 40 million units thanks to Smash Brothers and the online capabilities of the game. There existed one problem however: Players were complaining about not being able to play online. Yes, as it turns out too many people were trying to access the servers of Super Smash Brothers at one time and were clogging up the servers. Nintendo then was reminded of their partnership with Namco and decided they should have Namco fix the problem. A couple of days later and the servers were back online letting people enjoy their copies of Super Smash Brothers Melee and Soul Calibur 2.

Speaking of Melee here was the tier list:
S-TierFox
Falco
Marth
Jigglypuff
Fulgore
A TierSheik
Captain Falcon
Peach
Diddy Kong
B TierSir Daniel
Yoshi
Ice Climbers
Pikachu
Rash
Samus
Mario
Luigi
Wario
C TierGanondorf
King Dedede
Megaman
Pac-Man
Ridley
D TierDonkey Kong
Link
E TierMewtwo
Bowser
Kirby

Butterfly Effects: SEGA has been the first company to push an EShop like service for home video game consoles beating Nintendo to the punch. Despite that the GameCube is selling handsomely. The SEGA Dreamcast has sold a total of 35 million units, XBox 21 million and Atari Midway Retron77 12 million.

Upcoming Chapters
The Year Nintendo Changed
Dual Screens Ahead
The Next Generation
 
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Moving on now, @Jaiken, has Nintendo, Sega and Atari taken advantage of their success for multimedia adaptations?
 
Chapter 15: The Year Nintendo Changed Year 2004
Thread theme

Many analysts were wondering what direction Nintendo would go in the ever changing video game market. Atari Midway and Microsoft were fighting over the Western market and SEGA was fighting over the Japanese market with Nintendo. Nokia was a part of combating Nintendo's hold in the handheld market and was attracting customers away from the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo had to think how to act fast before more momentum would turn away to its rival in the gaming sphere. Critics were skeptical Nintendo would be able to stay in the race that much longer despite its big presence. Being confronted on all sides in its console war space would prove to be difficult to overcome.

Nevertheless, Nintendo had a good partner in Namco whom had their back in making games and monitoring the online servers. Nintendo knew that partners like this did not come often in the business world and could easily be swept up by a rival company. That is when Nintendo thought of a good idea. Why not bring Namco on board with all of its subsidiaries? Namco may not have been that huge of a company but its expertise in making video games and arcade like experiences were exactly what Nintendo needed at the moment.

Nintendo also had to focus on the western market to overcome the likes of Atari Midway and Microsoft or lose the everchanging gamer mindshare with their franchises. Nintendo then decided to take a big risk. The franchises that Namco had and their expertise in video games were hard to come by in the gaming world. The Big N would acquire Namco for a total of $1.7 Billion making all of Namco and its subsidiaries first party studios. Nintendo would then restructure Namco into these companies:
Iron Fist ProductionsMakers of the Tekken franchise
Pac-Man FeverMakers of the Pac-Man franchise
Team Soul EdgeMakers of the Soul Calibur franchise
Ace PilotsMakers of the Ace Combat and Ridge Racer franchise
Monolith SoftMakers of the Xenosaga franchise
Joy EnterprisesMakers of the Arcade division in Namco
These subsidiaries would do nicely with Nintendo's future plans to expand their company. There was even an article written by IGN that explained how surprised video game enthusiasts were with how Nintendo was not scared to shake up the entire industry. There was one thing for sure, there was no going back for Nintendo from this decision and gamers were excited to hear the news. Nintendo now had an arcade division to play with among its home consoles.

On the other side of Japan a new Dynasty Warriors game was coming out for the GameCube called Dynasty Warriors 4. The game was a hack and slash made to appeal to the fantasy of mowing down soldiers in the Chinese Dynasty era as an one man army. Koei, the developers of the game, were hoping that the game would catch on with gamers and be successful.

Nokia knew that putting its cartridge slot behind its NGage batteries was a dumb idea so it made a new iteration of the existing console.

Nokia NGage Design 2.jpg

Nokia would have the price stay the same as its previous console. With help from Activision, SEGA and Electronic Arts, Nokia would invest more in the handheld console than they originally intended. Maybe just maybe they could put a dent into Nintendo's market share in the handheld console market. The Nokia was not doing bad for itself with the cost of games and with SEGA adding its Service Arcade Online to the console it gave it many games to play with.

The Video game console war was just getting more heated as time went on.

Upcoming Chapters:
Dual Screens Ahead
The Next Generation
NGaged to Handhelds
 
Chapter 15: Dual Screens Ahead Part 2 Year 2004
The ever changing face of the video game industry pushes innovation and new titles to capture audiences. Nokia's NGage did not get the 45 million sales that Nintendo's GBA had garnered, but it made enough where Nokia decided to invest in a new iteration of the console. Totaling 10 million sales, Nokia's NGage would live on in the form of a new and improved device that would come out in 2005 and that would capture the interest of gamers everywhere. Nokia would also invest in a standalone series for their phone console called Chouseishin Series or the Sentai series as it was known in Japan.

E3 2004 was a year when Nintendo would showcase their newest piece of handheld technology for gamers alike to enjoy. Standing up on stage Satoru Iwata would showcase all the upcoming games for their latest handheld device:
  1. Super Mario 64 DS
  2. Asphalt: Urban GT
  3. Ridge Racer DS
  4. Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits
  5. Zoo Keeper
  6. Polarium
  7. Ping Pals
  8. Spider-Man 2
  9. The Urbz: Sims in the City
  10. Rayman DS
These titles were not the most interesting, but it did garner interest of the gaming public in the stands. Satoru Iwata then pulled a device out of his jacket:

ds_lite_sys_ice_blue.jpg

This was the Nintendo DS. Unlike OTL the Nintendo DS Lite was the first iteration of the device's inception and it had better graphics. For better gameplay purposes it has a thumb pad for precise movement in 3D games. It also had internet connectivity via Wifi, but no browser for kids to look at inappropriate things. Games that had online were Ridge Racer DS and Super Mario 64 DS. The crowd was awestruck. Online gaming on the go? What more titles would be revealed and what more could they expect to see in the future? Only time would tell.

Upcoming Chapters:
The Next Generation
NGaged to Handhelds
First Falling Out
 
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Okay Konami's on board with the N-Gage. Now can we start coercing Capcom to bring something over ( Please let us get Megaman Legends ports for the N-Gage aland SAO). There's also Atlus with Digital Devil Saga (it got its first mobile port in February 2004).
 
Chapter 16: The Next Generation Year 2005
The year was 2005 and Namco was helping out Nintendo with the sales of the GameCube. Currently sitting at 50 million and tons of software Nintendo's profits equaled $17 Billion. Even though the profits were good for Nintendo Ken Kutaragi and Shigeru Miyamoto got into an argument about which way to take their next upcoming console.

To get an upper hand on the competition, Microsoft decided to release its latest console:
XBox 360.png

Microsoft's XBox 360 was a sight to behold amongst the gaming crowd. It was the first console revealed that had HD graphics and supported HDMI cables. The 360 uses HD-DVDs pushed by company Phillips. There existed one gaming company that Microsoft found out about and decided to bring aboard onto their time. The game developer in question was Santa Monica studio and they had just released a new game:

credit to thegamerkratos

But that was not the only title up Microsoft's arsenal. They paid Capcom to make the latest Resident Evil title exclusive for their new console.
credit to Gamer max channel

The console would release to a total of $350 and Microsoft was hoping their newest foray into video gaming would pay off as their last console on secured them $7 Billion dollars, a $5 billion off from their projections.

In Japan SEGA decided to get an upper hand on Nintendo by releasing their latest console to also fight off against Microsoft.

SEGA Nova.jpg

The console was the SEGA Nova and it was SEGA's first foray in HD and cost $365. It also came out with the highly anticipated sequel to Kingdom Hearts 2. Kingdom Hearts 2 had extra worlds at the beginning that starred the Disney Cartoon lineups such as Gummy Bears, Ducktales, Goof Trooop and Tail Spin. Sora, Donald and Goofy would venture the worlds.

Gummi Bears had the party team up with the Gummy bears to take on the forces of darkness. Duck Tales would have Donald visiting his nephews to help Scrooge fight against heartless. Goof Troop introduces players to Goofy's son Max and it explains how Pete fell to the darkness. Tail Spin would help Sora and the gang realize how to make their Gummi Ship more efficient. Gummi Ship sections were still kept out as players grew accustomed to the cutscenes of the flying ships. Kingdom Hearts 2 was a big hit for SEGA. The console also came out with a $40 controller:
Sega Controller (2).png


Nintendo and Ken Kutaragi had to come up with something fast to fight off against the likes of Microsoft and SEGA. What about Atari Midway? Without Resident Evil 4 for their console Atari Midway could not compete with the money of Microsoft and decided to drop out of the console race.

Upcoming Chapters
NGaged to Handhelds
First Falling Out
A Legendary Adventure
 
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Well that's a shocker. I thought Atari would have brought WB into the fold to keep fighting Microsoft.

Moving onto the questions:
1. Does Microsoft still have to deal with the Red Ring of Doom, seeing as they rushed the 360 out the door to start production of the Zune and was trying to get to 10 million units sold before the PS3 launched in otl?
2. Does the 360 use HD-DVD's as their format?
3. If so, who amongst the film and tech industries is willing to manufacture that format exclusively or neutrally?
4. Is Kutaragi pushing for project Cell (the PS3) or Project Tako (the hd pitch for the Wii with a prototype version of the switch's joycons)?
 
Well that's a shocker. I thought Atari would have brought WB into the fold to keep fighting Microsoft.

Moving onto the questions:
1. Does Microsoft still have to deal with the Red Ring of Doom, seeing as they rushed the 360 out the door to start production of the Zune and was trying to get to 10 million units sold before the PS3 launched in otl?
2. Does the 360 use HD-DVD's as their format?
3. If so, who amongst the film and tech industries is willing to manufacture that format exclusively or neutrally?
4. Is Kutaragi pushing for project Cell (the PS3) or Project Tako (the hd pitch for the Wii with a prototype version of the switch's joycons)?
Around this time Mortal Kombat wasn’t the money maker it used to be and Midway isn’t connected to Warner Bros at this time.

1. Nice noticing. Yes they do and it will bite them in the butt later.
2. Yes it does forgot to mention it.
3. Phillips is pushing for that format for the XBox 360 .
4. Ken Kutaragi and Nintendo want different formats for the Nintendo Dream but it will be answered in the future what happens.
 
Chapter 17: NGaged to Handhelds Year 2005 Part 2
While Nintendo's newest handheld console the DS was making headlines and already selling 30 million copies, Nokia had not the same luck when releasing their own video game handheld. Nintendo's latest video games for the DS were as follows:

Battle Toads: The Diode Crystal - An online beat em up for up to four players with new Red Battle Toad "Cyst" who is good with material arts joining in the battle. The Diode Crystal would serve as a mcguffin for the Dark Queen to accumulate ultimate power for her forces. The Battle Toads along with new comer must take down the Dark Queens army and save the day in Battle Toads fashion. There also was Tournament mode and versus mode where the Battle Toads fought against each other in a simulation to determine which Toad was the best. Total sales would equal 5 million.

Killer Instinct DS: Would focus on the titular series of Nintendo's fighting game and the characters that took place. The roster looked like:
  1. Jago
  2. Orchid
  3. Chief Thunder
  4. Spinal
  5. Sabrewulf
  6. Fulgore
  7. Glacius
  8. T.J. Combo
  9. Cinder
  10. Riptor
  11. Eyedol
  12. Tusk
  13. Kim Wu
  14. Maya
  15. Gargos
  16. Mira
  17. Eagle - Thunder's Brother that uses archery and spiritual powers to fight
  18. Shin Hisako - A ghostly samurai seeking revenge: utilizing spectral attacks.
The game would include online connectivity and gameplay among tournament goers. The tier list would be balanced and have constant updates to download onto the DS hardware to compensate for the ever evolving tier lists. Jago and Fulgore would be on top of the tier list with Cinder and Gargos on bottom. The game would total a sales of 6 million.

Nintendo would also reveal a Smash Brothers coming to the DS in its lifespan, but the title would still be about a year away. No idea of the roster was leaked and fans were eager to finally play smash brothers on the go.

Nokia realized these titles were something to behold for Nintendo and needed their own new handheld to combat the online craze of what Nintendo was doing:
Nokia NGage Elite.png

Introducing the N-Gage Elite. The Elite would have the same specs and power as OTL Playstation Portable, but with better online features such as downloadable video games. These games would include Call of Duty Nazi Zombie Mode, Sonic Rush and a portable version of Sonic Adventure. With these titles the N-Gage Elite would continue to be a thorn in Nintendo's side and make headwaves in the handheld gaming market place.

Upcoming Chapters
First Falling Out
A Legendary Adventure
First Portable Fighting
 
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