The Little System that Couldn't + The Big Company that Can = Success?

by BL Alien 

Submitted by:	blalien@aol.com (BL Alien)
Spelling	1
Grammar	2
Coherency	2.5
Strength of Arguments	2.5
Presentation	2
Originality	3
Penalties	0
Total	13
Grade

A long time ago, in 1995, a new video game system was released. This system offered 3D graphics to a world accustomed to 2D, as well as a nice starting lineup. What are you thinking about right now? The little gray box named Playstation? Or how about the other system that is now but a shadow in our memories? The little system, neither console nor portable, that offered amazing 3D graphics represented in red lines? That's right, I'm talking about the Virtual Boy. Nintendo's promising thing that could have weakened the line between virtual reality and reality. But most of us know about its poor, poor fate. Sure, it had its flaws, but then again, don't all systems have their flaws? The original Game Boy had horrible grayscale graphics. The Nintendo 64 limited creativity with a small 64-megabyte cartridge. The Playstation only offered 2 megabytes of VRAM. The Game Gear was about the size of my cat at the time. All of these systems were or still are extremely popular. Why couldn't Virtual Boy steal the spotlight for a while? Why couldn't it have its time to shine? Imagine what would have happened if the third party developers could look past the limitations and release amazing games that used the system for all it was worth. For example, what would the video game industry be like if Squaresoft had decided to program for the small, red system?

It seems that every system that Squaresoft has programmed for has proved extremely successful. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), with its three Final Fantasies, was admired and respected by all. Today, many adults consider the NES to be their favorite system, if only because it was the one they grew up with (because of its great games). The Super Nintendo (SNES) was an even bigger craze than its father was. In almost every poll, the SNES has pulled out as the system with the best RPG's ever. If you go to the archive of polls on RPGamer, and look at the poll that took place on March 29, 1999, you'll see that the three most popular RPG's for the system were all programmed by Squaresoft. In fact, if you look at the three polls before that, you'll see that every RPG that even got a considerable amount of votes were from Squaresoft. I don't think I even need to mention the Playstation, which holds the majority of the industry at the moment thanks to its amazing RPG's. This shows that Squaresoft can take any system and turn it into the latest craze.

Imagine if you could have seen the Final Fantasy series continue onto this monochromatic system. Imagine the hours you could spend staring into that visor with your senses dedicated to nothing but chasing down Sephiroth to the Northern Crater. Think of the fun you could have hooking up three or four Virtual Boys together and playing a port of Secret of Mana. You'd have no proof that these people were even in the same room as you except for seeing their characters running around with you trying to make the world a better place. The system could have helped Squaresoft dive into other genres as well. A first person shooter would have been the perfect genre for the system, and Squaresoft is more than capable of making excellent games for perfect genres.

I wonder why the company overlooked this promising unit. It couldn't have been because of the Squaresoft/Nintendo rivalry, because Squaresoft games were being released for the SNES long after the Virtual Boy's release. Perhaps, Squaresoft looked at the system and realized that it didn't look like it could be successful in terms of RPG's. But the developer didn't realize that it /decides/ which systems could be successful in terms of RPG's. If Squaresoft had decided to "test the water" for the Virtual Boy like they did for Wonderswan Color, the system could have been more successful. If the system could have been known as a bearer of great RPG's, Enix would have followed and released a few games of its own for the gaming machine. Maybe Natsume would have followed with a new Harvest Moon Game (imagine Harvest Moon in a first person view!), and Atlus, Blizzard, and Bioware could have made the most of the Virtual Boy as well. This system could have pioneered virtual reality RPG's! Today, instead of popping a disk into a gray box and holding a controller, we could be putting on a set of gloves and a helmet, grabbing that sword out of the virtual stone, and saving the world ourselves. Think about your favorite RPG villain. Imagine taking out your favorite weapon and striking him until he no longer breathes. This could have been a reality if the past were different. It's kind of amazing what one can imagine when one asks himself, "What if?", isn't it?

Notes:
Certainly an... interesting editorial, and something I don't think I've ever seen before. The Virtual Boy, now basically extinct, with RPGs on it? Full marks for originality, and some of his ideas are good, even if they may no longer be feasible. However, the argument that Squaresoft singlehandedly consolidate consoles is more than a little suspect.

Spelling marks are lost due to "RPG's", which expands to "Role Playing Games's", obviously wrong in the context of a plural. Presentation was lost a little for the sheer size of the paragraphs - some breaking up of the larger sections would have possibly been preferable.