Nintendo treated the European market as an afterthought throughout much of the ‘90s, with many releases in major franchises arriving months, if not years, later than the rest of the world. A handful of key SNES titles such as Earthbound, Kirby’s Dream Land 3 and Super Mario RPG even skipped this region entirely. It was a very different era to today’s social media driven landscape, when games launch digitally almost to the hour worldwide.
Nothing exemplifies this cast aside nature better than the Nintendo 64’s launch. After numerous delays, the cartridge-based powerhouse made its debut in America during September 1996. European gamers had to wait until 1st March 1997 to finally get their hands on it, meaning Nintendo fans across Europe were stuck with the Super Nintendo and Game Boy during Christmas ’96 while American and Japanese fans were enjoying the likes of Super Mario 64, Pilotwings, and Wave Race. It’s no surprise that many diehards took to importing, doubtlessly fuelled by glowing import reviews of the N64’s launch games in the likes of EDGE and CVG.
When the N64 finally launched in Europe it had the biggest selection of games available on day one, albeit barely. The Japanese launch was accompanied by three titles, one of which was based on the board game Shogi, while the US launch saw just two: Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. European gamers had those critical hits to choose from, along with Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Acclaim’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, priced at a princely £69.99, arrived three days later (4th March) to coincide with the US release. As we’ll see going forward, simultaneous N64 releases across regions were seldom seen. In fact, European gamers had to endure a release schedule that can only be described as drawn out, with even software from the UK based Rare not launching in their home turf until months after the US.
Now is a good time to mention that many sites have blatantly incorrect information for N64 software, often mixing up the European and Australian dates. This makes sourcing correct information a tricky task. One common mistake is listing Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey as a European launch title, when in fact it didn’t appear until around August – as noted by the cover of N64 Magazine issue six. Blast Corps is often listed as launching 22nd December (the Australian release date) while nobody can agree when FIFA 64 released. Some sites say 1st March, making it a launch title, while others claim 20th March. It wasn’t reviewed until the April issues of the new slew of N64 magazines, so the 20th seems more likely…unless EA purposely kept copies away from the press. Which was a possibility as it wasn’t very good.
The information gathered here mostly comes from scans of Future’s reliable N64 Magazine and EMAP’s timely Official Nintendo Magazine, along with UK sales chart data from Teletext’s Digitiser, who published weekly charts. Even though the charts were a week in arrears, it’s still possible to make educated guesses as to when games launched, especially when software routinely hit store shelves on a Friday in the UK.
Getting back on track, it seems that Nintendo was very tactful when it came to releasing new N64 software in Europe, employing a drip-feed strategy. US N64 owners had around twelve games to choose from by the time the N64 hit Europe. These were slowly released over a six-month period on European shores, at a rate of around two per month. As tempting as it is to use the term ‘controlled rate’ it seems reasonable to suggest that third-parties had some say in when their titles should launch. It’s also worth bearing in mind that they may have needed additional localisation work for the European market.
There’s reasonable logic behind this drip feed strategy. Sure, swamping shelves with every N64 game released in the US so far would have given Nintendo a larger shelf presence and provided more consumer choice, but would have harmed sales in the long run. Launching Wave Race 64 and Mario Kart 64 in the same month, for example, would have cannibalised sales of the former. The slow feed also helped keep the N64 in the public’s eye, while giving the few existing titles on store shelves a long tail. At £59.99, N64 games certainly weren’t cheap, and it seems not even Nintendo expected gamers to buy more than one title per month. Quality control was also seemingly in place, with Cruis’n’ USA initially denied a European release due to its poor reception in the US.
Once pencilled in as a launch title, the end of April saw the release of Wave Race 64, which was praised for its water physics, vibrant visuals, and alternating course design. It appears to be the only new release that month, leaving the Nintendo magazines to fill their pages with import reviews and previews instead.
In May there was Killer Instinct Gold. Rare’s silicon graphics rendered brawler wasn’t bad but couldn’t quite match the arcade version due to cartridge space limitations. Most critics were satisfied despite it feeling a bit dated – plus the Super Nintendo had already received a competent port of KI. It was the last we’d see of the franchise until the Xbox One reboot in 2013.
June saw Konami’s International Superstar Soccer 64 hit the streets, gaining impressively high scores and really hammering home FIFA 64’s shortcomings. Again, it was the sole new release that month. It wouldn’t be wrong to say the system was ‘starved of new software’ by this point.
The almighty Mario Kart 64 arrived in July; something US gamers had been playing since February. Nintendo pushed the boat out slightly for this one, knowing they had a system seller on their hands. It was clearly hoped to give the system a second wind now that three months had passed since launch. It was joined by Mortal Kombat Trilogy, which didn’t fare well critically, billed as SNES spillover. Many sites have the bloody brawler listed as a 14th March release, but I’d have to disagree – it wasn’t reviewed until the July issues of N64 Magazine and the Official Nintendo Magazine, both of which state it was due out that month.
The typically quiet month of August (summer game droughts were common in the ‘90s) finally saw NBA Hangtime and Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey arrive. While basketball had a reasonably strong following in the UK, helped by the popularity of Michael Jordan, ice hockey hadn’t (and still struggles) to find an audience. All signs point to Midway and GT holding these two back until the console’s userbase grew.
Depending on which sources you trust, the end of the month also saw the 3D fighter Dark Rift; the first of its kind on the system, developed for the N64 from the ground up rather than being a conversion. Published by Vic Tokai, reviews were mixed, including a 5/10 from EDGE and a 72% from N64 Magazine. Wikipedia, amongst others, claim that it launched in both the US and UK in July, yet reviews suggest it launched in the Autumn. Backing this up, N64 Magazine reviewed it twice, a few issues apart, with scores differing between the US and UK versions.
For those not keeping track, we’re now into September – six months into the console’s launch – and yet we’ve only just reached the milestone of twelve titles. The knock-on effect of Nintendo’s drip feed is that the second wave of first-party titles were now trailing behind. Star Fox 64 and GoldenEye 007 had just hit the US but didn’t arrive until October and November in the UK. The wait for these two was nothing short of painful. In their absence was Rare’s Blast Corps, finally arriving on 1st September in Europe.
Things gradually improved towards late 1997, going from 1-2 releases a month to 3-4. Acclaim’s futuristic racer Extreme-G arrived close to the US launch. DOOM 64 and Hexen 64 hit store shelves barely weeks apart, with the former running six months behind, while F1 Pole Position (known as Human Grand Prix in Japan) underwent localisation via Ubisoft. The 3D brawlers War Gods and Mace: The Dark Age provided Dark Rift with competition, while the Ocean published Multi Racing Championship and Kemco’s Top Gear Rally went head-to-head. The system was also delivered a dud in the form of Interplay’s ClayFighter 63⅓. Like Killer Instinct Gold and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the small cart size limited the frames of animation per character. It could also be argued ClayFighter was never a great franchise.
The N64’s first Christmas in Europe was a bit of a strange one. Diddy Kong Racing was granted a rare (no pun intended) simultaneous release, following on from being announced just a couple of months prior. Nintendo themselves also put out Treasure’s side-scrolling Mischief Makers (nee Go Go! Troublemakers) just in time for Christmas. Duke Nukem 64 was a more than proficient conversion but oddly timed, clashing with DOOM and Hexen. Titus arrived on the scene with Automobili Lamborghini, which went to become of their better N64 games. It was pitted against the superior San Francisco Rush, which appears to have been more popular. EA was also back with FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup and Madden 64. Yes, two N64 FIFA games in one year. Sunsoft also localised the above average 3D platformer Chameleon Twist.
After this busy(ish) Christmas the release schedule reverted to being sporadic. In fact, the only game reviewed in the January 1998 issue of N64 Magazine was San Francisco Rush. Even Nintendo themselves were left scrambling for software in early 1998, dusting off Cruis’n’ USA to simply plug a gap, finally releasing Tetrisphere some six months after its US launch, and grabbing the rights to Atlus’ Snowboard Kids before poising it as the next Mario Kart. Cruis’n’ USA arriving 1st March 1998 technically means it took Europe precisely a year to catch up with the software avaliable in the US.
Looking back at the European launch period today is pretty fascinating. You’d think taking six months to amass a catalogue of twelve titles would have harmed sales, but it doesn’t appear to have been too damaging to the N64’s image as around half those titles were worth playing. Super Mario 64 was a consistently strong seller, routinely found in the UK top ten, and most new arrivals topped the chart. It seems reasonable to suggest that gamers knew the N64 was about quality over quantity; a mantra it was able to maintain for a while. Until Titus and THQ started pumping out terrible licensed games, at the very least.