Was there ever a real killer app for a handheld?

saadman

saadman

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After the announcement of Dragon Quest IX for DS this got me wondering....

There have been amazing games for handhelds over the years. Has there actually been a killer app as huge as Dragon Quest for a handheld?

I remember the original Pokemon craze was pretty big, but seriously think.....has there ever really been a killer app of like...a Dragon Quest exclusive type magnitude to ever come to a handheld?
 
Probably nothing as big as Dragon Quest is in Japan prior to it getting released.

I mean there are hundreds of fantastic games on portables, but a regular entry in the Dragon Quest series really may be the "biggest" game (in Japan) to ever hit a portable.
 
I remember having to own a GameBoy for Tetris. Simple graphics on a bulky machine with Frankenstein-attachments to add light to the screen, but damn if I didn't waste hours of each day with that game.
 
The original pokemon games.

I know that you mentioned these, but almost every kid I knew had pokemon and the in japan true pokemon games tend to sell like 4 million copies (when you combine both versions).
 
[quote name='Wlogan31']Ummmm - Tetris for the original GameBoy no doubt![/quote]

Winner! I remember "borrowing" a rich friend's Game Boy and copy of Tetris. I still have that bad boy in a storage unit somewhere.

The only other game is Lumines. It's electronic crack.

As you can see, I'm a huge puzzle game fan.
 
Uh, tons. Talking strictly big name franchises, you've got Mario Land, Link's Awakening, the Pokemon series and possibly Metroid. Using killer app to describe any really awesome game that demands to be played nets even more games.
 
[quote name='Noodle Pirate!']card fighters or match of the millenium for NGPC[/QUOTE]

nice one. i still have my NGPC...match has to be one of the better fighting games for portables periods.
 
GB: Tetris, Super Mario Land, Metroid 2, Pokemon
GBA: Golden Sun, Super Mario Brothers 3, Wario Ware, Pokemon
DS: Meteos, Mario Kart, Nintendogs, NSMB, Brain Age

and many more on all of them!
 
I don't think anyone realizes the length Nintendo went to land Tetris for the Game Boy. Company executives were literally flying into Russia to meet with the developer in order to buy the rights to the videogame rights for that game. I believe they were buying the government officials vodka and a whole bunch of other shit, trying to do it extremely secretly and under the radar so that no other company would get wind of the fact that they were trying to land the videogame and handheld rights for the game. Atari owned the arcade rights and assumed that covered videogame and handheld rights as well.

There hasn't really been a system seller like that since then. There''ve been attempts like Nintendogs but nothing beats the original Tetris.

~Ahmed~
 
Pokemon wasn't a draw before it was released. I think that's the point the original poster was making.

And yeah there have been TONS of great games, but Dragon Quest is on a whole different level in Japan, and I'm not sure a handheld has ever had a game that big before.
 
[quote name='Wlogan31']Ummmm - Tetris for the original GameBoy no doubt![/quote]

Winner! If you remember 1989 at all (or if you were even alive - damn I'm old) you wouldn't even have to ask this question. Tetris was somewhat new (it debuted around 1985 for the PC, I think) but the Gameboy version was simple to set up, freaking perfect and a "must-own-buy-the-system-for-the-game-killer-app." Systems were flying off shelves so people could play this one game. Tetris DX (basically the same game but in color) is still one of the top 5 portable games of all-time, IMO.
 
Tetris on the original game boy. That is the only true killer app for a portable I can think of. The Pokemon games for the GB and the Yu-Gi-Oh games for the GBA come close, but tetris is, without question, the biggest.
 
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[quote name='Z-Saber']Pokemon, and Nintendogs was the initial boost for the DS in both Japan and America.[/quote]

let's not forget the Brain games.
 
[quote name='hiccupleftovers']let's not forget the Brain games.[/quote]Yeah, that and NSMB were the DS Lite boosting games.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Pokemon wasn't a draw before it was released. I think that's the point the original poster was making.

And yeah there have been TONS of great games, but Dragon Quest is on a whole different level in Japan, and I'm not sure a handheld has ever had a game that big before.[/QUOTE]

Pokemon was a huge draw for people in the know. I remember buying a new Game Boy Color to play Pokemon (yes I know the original wasn't in color, but they had just come out). Besides, killer aps can be non-killer after they get released. I remember that the original Super Smash Brothers got off to a slow start.
 
[quote name='ahmedmalik']I don't think anyone realizes the length Nintendo went to land Tetris for the Game Boy. Company executives were literally flying into Russia to meet with the developer in order to buy the rights to the videogame rights for that game. I believe they were buying the government officials vodka and a whole bunch of other shit, trying to do it extremely secretly and under the radar so that no other company would get wind of the fact that they were trying to land the videogame and handheld rights for the game. Atari owned the arcade rights and assumed that covered videogame and handheld rights as well.

There hasn't really been a system seller like that since then. There''ve been attempts like Nintendogs but nothing beats the original Tetris.

~Ahmed~[/quote]

Were you there? Because you sure give alot of details. And isn't the buying of vodka for the russians just a tad bit stereotypical? And flying from Japan to Russia? What is that? 2 hours?

And if you know anything about the laws, if Atari had the legal rights to the handheld too it wouldn't matter whether or not they found out about the deal before or aftert he contract was signed, they would still have a legal remedy.


Anyways. A killer app. tetris could be considered even for the DS. I bought it for the DS for the multi player capabilities.
 
Red Zone, i think thats what its called, For Virtual Boy
Strider Returns (or whatever the strider game was called) for Game Gear

Red Zone was kinda cool
definately hurt your head and eyes if you played too long and was definately not portable at all.
 
[quote name='chimpian']Red Zone, i think thats what its called, For Virtual Boy
Strider Returns (or whatever the strider game was called) for Game Gear

Red Zone was kinda cool
definately hurt your head and eyes if you played too long and was definately not portable at all.[/quote]Red Alarm.
 
[quote name='furyk']Pokemon was a huge draw for people in the know. I remember buying a new Game Boy Color to play Pokemon (yes I know the original wasn't in color, but they had just come out). Besides, killer aps can be non-killer after they get released. I remember that the original Super Smash Brothers got off to a slow start.[/QUOTE]

But Pokemon wasn't a killer app when it was released in Japan at all-it developed in to that. Dragon Quest 9 is a starts off bigger than any other portable game has ever been (in Japan) which was the original posters point I think.
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']Were you there? Because you sure give alot of details. And isn't the buying of vodka for the russians just a tad bit stereotypical? And flying from Japan to Russia? What is that? 2 hours?

And if you know anything about the laws, if Atari had the legal rights to the handheld too it wouldn't matter whether or not they found out about the deal before or aftert he contract was signed, they would still have a legal remedy.


Anyways. A killer app. tetris could be considered even for the DS. I bought it for the DS for the multi player capabilities.[/quote]
See. People have invented these things called "books". If you read them, you get this stuff called "information". I know you're attempting to insult me through sarcasm, but if you knew about these "books" and "information", you would already know what I'm about to tell you.

In 1993, around the time the Super Nintendo was being released, a writer by the name of David Sheff released a book titled "Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children" with official support from Nintendo. That has complete details in regards to the Tetris matter I spoke about before. Read it or otherwise shut the fuck up. There is no third option.

In regards to Atari. Atari bought the arcade rights to the same and assumed that those rights would also cover home console and hand held rights as well. Nintendo felt differently and went to Russia and bought those specific rights from under Atari. There was a lot of manipulation in regards to those right as there was with a certain gentleman (who had no affliation with Nintendo) whose name I can't remember who completely fucked up securing the rights to the game which allowed Nintendo to stealthily step in and buy them. He may even have been working for Namco. Anyway, being that Russia is communist, Nintendo had to secure them through the government. In the end, when Atari took Nintendo to court, Nintendo won.

By the way, I highly suggest this book to everyone. It's an amazing history of the company including the barebones way that Nintendo was started up in the US. It's totally worth the cost.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-American-Industry/dp/0679404694/sr=8-1/qid=1166042151/ref=sr_1_1/103-1079360-2458216?ie=UTF8&s=books

~Ahmed~
 
there is also a one hour documentary on this you can find it on google video.

What Ahmed is saying is true, check out the vid on video.google.com just search for tetris it's a one hour documentary, really interesting
 
[quote name='bardiya27']there is also a one hour documentary on this you can find it on google video.

What Ahmed is saying is true, check out the vid on video.google.com just search for tetris it's a one hour documentary, really interesting[/quote]

Thanks for backing me up. I think one of my favorite parts of the book was when the Nintendo executives would get drunk while negotiating a deal. I believe Howard Lincoln was one of the men who went up there. The other was Yamamuchi's son-in-law Minoru Arakawa and both of them ended up becoming good friends with [SIZE=-1]Alexey Pajitnov. But yeah. While negotiating for the Game Boy's kill-app, NOA's President and their top lawyer got plastered. ^_^

~Ahmed~
[/SIZE]
 
[quote name='ahmedmalik']Read it or otherwise shut the fuck up. There is no third option.
[/quote]

Oh, illogical one, of course there is no third option... you didn't give me a first or second option idiot. But seriously, it's my opinion and I can express it.

And even if you have your "books" it doesn't hurt my argument.

Even if the lawyers and ceos got plastered is there a reason to mention the russians got vodka other than being stereotypical?

And even if they flew to russia, my opinion was and remains that it's not that big of a deal for me to hear some business man flew 2 hours to a meeting. Even if they flew from america it's not a big deal.

Which brings me to my main point, what does the fact that nintendo really wanted tetris have to do with it being a killer app? Killer app's are defined by gamers and not by businesses. Lots of business make games they really want to be popular and go through great lenths to do so, but that does not make them killer apps.


So overall, even with your books it doesn't invalidate my opinion. Whatever you said has nothing to do with whether tetris is a killer app. and I am not impressed by nintendo's normal business practices in aquiring a game...


that and I have better things to do than read a book about nintendo...
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']Oh, illogical one, of course there is no third option... you didn't give me a first or second option idiot. But seriously, it's my opinion and I can express it.

And even if you have your "books" it doesn't hurt my argument.

Even if the lawyers and ceos got plastered is there a reason to mention the russians got vodka other than being stereotypical?

And even if they flew to russia, my opinion was and remains that it's not that big of a deal for me to hear some business man flew 2 hours to a meeting. Even if they flew from america it's not a big deal.

Which brings me to my main point, what does the fact that nintendo really wanted tetris have to do with it being a killer app? Killer app's are defined by gamers and not by businesses. Lots of business make games they really want to be popular and go through great lenths to do so, but that does not make them killer apps.


So overall, even with your books it doesn't invalidate my opinion. Whatever you said has nothing to do with whether tetris is a killer app. and I am not impressed by nintendo's normal business practices in aquiring a game...


that and I have better things to do than read a book about nintendo...[/QUOTE]

Yeah, like hanging out on a video game message board and refuting what are, by all accounts, facts. Admit you're wrong, save some face, and maybe we can all get through this without hearing any more of your baffling bullshit.
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']Oh, illogical one, of course there is no third option... you didn't give me a first or second option idiot. But seriously, it's my opinion and I can express it.

And even if you have your "books" it doesn't hurt my argument.

Even if the lawyers and ceos got plastered is there a reason to mention the russians got vodka other than being stereotypical?

And even if they flew to russia, my opinion was and remains that it's not that big of a deal for me to hear some business man flew 2 hours to a meeting. Even if they flew from america it's not a big deal.

Which brings me to my main point, what does the fact that nintendo really wanted tetris have to do with it being a killer app? Killer app's are defined by gamers and not by businesses. Lots of business make games they really want to be popular and go through great lenths to do so, but that does not make them killer apps.


So overall, even with your books it doesn't invalidate my opinion. Whatever you said has nothing to do with whether tetris is a killer app. and I am not impressed by nintendo's normal business practices in aquiring a game...


that and I have better things to do than read a book about nintendo...[/quote]
What is wrong with you? ::walks away::
 
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