Console Pack-In Games: What worked, what didn’t, and why these video games stopped
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- Опубліковано 11 жов 2024
- Once upon a time, video game console manufacturers regularly shipped their new consoles with pack-in games. These games were designed to highlight a consoles power, show off a new control scheme, and ensure that gamers had the best that a console had to offer. Indeed, when done right, these pack-in games could encourage video game players to buy more games or tell their friends to buy the system.
We’re going to look at the best of console games, including what worked and WHY they worked so well. Of course, we’re also going to tackle THE question about pack-in games: Where the hell did they go? Why did they stop?
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#videogamehistory #videogames #videogameconsole #retrogaming
Great work! But small thing: R.O.B. might technically be an acronym, but colloquially he was just called "Rob". Might even be officially called that, since the announcer in Smash Bros calls him that. :)
PS1 came with pack-in demo discs. I think those were very clever. Give new owners a taste of a variety of games without giving any full game. Then hope they will go out and buy one, or a few of those games.
Did not find that! Thanks for letting me know.
Yeah, those were actually really cool back in the day.
I did used to pay the hell out of the demo of Jumping Flash on that disc. I still had it until about two moves ago, around 2005-2009. I lost it somewhere in there.
@@slightlyevolved I wish I still had mine, but they got lost or thrown out in my 6 or 7 moves over the last 20 years.
demos don't count bro ... that said you are right the PS1 was the offical first console to not include pack -ins it was followed by the N64 , nintendo's first console to not include pack-ins (at least not at initial launch as later nintendo did relase versions of the system with pack ins)
I accidentally slung my Wii controller directly into the center of my tv screen. It didn’t crack the screen, thankfully but it was quite an evening closing event. 😮
Altered Beast had a co-op mode so it technically wasn't just a single player game.
The problem with Wii Sports was that, in many cases, it was the only game many Wii owners had. Despite selling the most consoles, the Wii had the lowest software sales of that generation. Many people (those people who weren't interested in video games) just bought one as a novelty, played Wii Sports for a month or two and left it to collect dust. I'm not trying to diminish it, but the Wii was a fad.
Even though the Wii had plenty of legit games, ones that were proper installments of video game IPs. It also had many M-rated video games.
@@ChazStarkey-c3z No doubt, the Wii did have some good games. But the attach rate (the average amount of games the console owners bought) was much lower than PS3 and 360. That's probably the reason a lot of 3rd party publishers didn't support the Wii U and why 3rd party support for the Switch was actually kinda slow at the beginning.
@@fattiger6957 The Wii was also more powerful than both the PS2 and the original Xbox.
Resident Evil 4 on the Wii was the only way to play that game
@@ChazStarkey-c3zcap
Something you only hinted at: online stores. The role of “something to play when you get home” is served by all those free games on the platform’s store. Not that they’re _good_ or anything, but they are free.
growing up as a kid in the 80's. it was coolest thing when the consoles came with a free game or two. to tie you over until you saved up enough money to buy a new game that you like or wanted
I remember it felt like a crime the first time I bought a console and it didn’t come in with a pack-in title. Even when I was a teenager when the XBox 360 didn’t come with one, you still got slapped in the face with demo’s as soon as you went online.
EXACTLY.
dude the first systems with no pack-in games was the N64 and the PS1 . while they did eventually have a versions of teh consoles with pack-ins the initial launch systems lacked a game. i remember when i got my n64 and having to shell out an extra 50 bucks to get zelda 64 . it felt like a kick in the nuts considering the prior console i bought was the Snes that launched with two versions of the console both featureing differnt pack in games (one offered super mario world , the other a link to the past)
@@DenverStarkey N64 didn’t come with Mario 64? Maybe I just remember it that way because I was 4 and my parents bought Mario with it
@@nothingsacred8684 not on launch it ddin't about a year and half after launch nintendo started offering pack -in versions of the N64 , that also came in different chasis colors and costed a little more than the standard gameless N64. it's likely your parents got you one of these , or if they bought you one when it first launched , then yeah they bought the game as seperate purchase.
Virtua Fighter was a very memorable one for me with the Saturn because 3d was new and the game was okay but the flashyness of the 3d graphics was like oh my god
Suprised that the Master System 2 didn't get a mention considering it was sold with Alex Kidd In Miracle World built in
Pack in games downfall was the internet for sure as you could offer a digital game on the console if the company wanted to these days
actually the interent wasn't the down fall of the pack-in games. considering the death of pack in games occured prior to the internet booming. the first systems to launch defau;lt with no games were the N64 and PS1 . later they did release versions of the consoles with pack-ins but initally you just got the hardware. the enxt gen after that saw no pack-in what so ever except from nintendo , but againt that was later than the GC's initial release.
Pong gives me anxiety. Big anxiety!
5:25 happy that you and your GF stuck around that long and you have someone that shares your hobbies.
I know people that bought Wiis that didn't even play games before because of Wii Sports.
9:53 - Cruel and unusual punishment! Cutting away 1.5 seconds before we would see four rows cleared?! ...That's just mean, man. ;)
Lol I had the same reaction
Quest essentially included Horizon Worlds as a pack in game.
my ps1 came with a weird game called "Forsaken" controls were very weird
I had Combat as my Atari 2600 pack in. Previoulsy had a Pong clone
3:15 "this was a choice" 😂
LMAO. I had that as a kid. Always tried to win by bluffing, because I didn't understand poker yet 😂
Omits the greatest pack in game in history. Halo: Combat Evolved.
As far as Intellivision coming with blackjack, weren't home consoles at that point sold less like kids products and more like board games or cocktail party games? I mean the Odyssey II did come with chips and all the physical stuff that would be in party games.
I wasn't alive yet, so I have no first hand experience, but I've read that during that period game consoles were something adults would buy and have their friends over to play. Considering the price (when you take inflation into account) I doubt the Atari, Intellivision and those other early consoles could be easily lumped in with kids toys.
Yup! Exactly. I made sure to talk about that in the video.
I was alive during that time and remember when the Atari 2600 was brand new, although I was only about 7 years old at the time. But yes, you were correct. At that time, most of the games where either sports oriented or ports of popular arcade games at the time, so was targeted to an older audience. For example, it was Space Invaders that really sold the Atari 2600. I do remember that there were often times there were warnings on these game consoles (either in the manual or on a sticker affixed to the unit itself) proclaiming it is "NOT A TOY" and suggest adult supervision when setting up and using these things. Even though my parents had no problem letting us kids setup and play the Atari, I've had plenty of friends that would indicate something like "I have to ask my dad to set up the Atari before we can play" when wanting to play a game my friend may of had, but I did not. Do remember suggesting, "well, lets take the game to my house and we can play it there", only to get a response like "I can't take any of the games out of the house without permission".
Also, at the time, there was typically only one TV in the household, and it was usually the adults, such as my father, that controlled it, thus it was they that got to dictate when to get to play video games. I remember how my father pretty much monopolized the one TV we had, so it was nice when he was not around, such as during the day during summer vacation when he was at work, when my brothers and I got to bust out the Atari and play some video games. Or at least until my mother would make us shut it down and tell us to go outside.
How did you forget Astro on PS5
What was that shooting game after astro
"horse armor from Skyrim" that occurred in Oblivion. Did the narrator play any games in her last 20 years?
Nintendo need new game package to compete with Playstation GTA 6 bundle.
Switch still offers pack in games...
*In Europe and Hong Kong the shop owners were nasty they took the FREE game out the boxes in the shop and sold them separately and STILL selling the machine the same price!* 👎 💡 👎
loved the SNES when it launched it had 2 options for pack-in games (that i know about) and later got two more
There was of course the standard one that came with Super mario world
then there was Zelda : alink to the past , the version i got .
later i think there was a Donkey kong country version relased as well as a star fox version.
N64 is where thing started to change
they released the standard deck with no game
and then a version a few months later that included Super mario 3d for about 30 bucks over the standard gameless system.
@3:09 dude you obviously are NOT gen X "parents weren't about letting their kids play gambling games"
our parents TAUGHT us gambling games to play with them. hell, i was late GenX (born 1979) and even my parents did that so they'd have some one to play those gambling games with. god damn man ... do some research , our parent's would leave us to the yard to play with lawn darts and drink from water hoses for god's sake ... that's gambling period. They sent us to buy their cigarettes with notes , feeling oh so secure that we wouldn't nick us a pack of our own. just for the love of god DO reaeach on what you talk about !!!
The telltale signs it's a zoomer is when they compare a retro game with some game that is considered whatever today. The zoomer plays Super Ghosts N Goblins on Snes, then compares it to Dark Souls😂
@@yeahyeahwowman8099 yeah. it just annoys me when people talk about what this or that was like durring X year , when they weren't even freaking alive back then to have any actual knowledge on what life was like back then.
and here this guy is talking abotu parents of the 1970's and 80's worrying about us playing gambling games ... they didn't give a shit about us pl;aying gambling games (not saying they didnt care about us kids)
but they were more worried about rather or not we launched that giant ass mega fire cracker at the house on the 4th of july , ins tead of in the air.. that';s the stuf they worried aobut raising us , and hell they didn't even take the damn supre firework thing away from us , just told us not to pont it at things.
we rode bycyles every where , with no damn helmet and all they ever said was be home by supper ... me my brother and our cousin used to regularly ride 7 miles over to the next (and bigger town) town to spend our allowance.
you think our parents were worried about us playing a gambling video game when they let us do that?
sorry i'm ranting but yeah i freaking hate zoomers telling us what life was like for us.
*Street Fighter II as it was the most expensive game a year before that!* ⭐️ 💡 ⭐️
I love the idea of 2600s pack-in, if you’re going to enjoy a free game, you’re going to advertise our system for us! Muhahahahaa!
Why would any parent care about their kids playing a gambling game, with in-game money that wasn't real money?
Whats the game at 10:50 and 10:56
Super Mario Odyssey!
the classic xbox came tetris and starwars 1
Altered Beast isn't single player.
How can you mention pack-in games and not fully cover Super Mario World on the SNES.
Super Mario World is arguably the best pack-in game of all time, and it delivered on absolutely everything a great pack-in game is supposed to do: A true system seller; included the most famous gaming mascot character of all time; great graphics that showed off some of the unique features and capabilities of the system; excellent audio that showed off what the new-fangled PCM sampling could bring to the table; used all the inputs on the controller; had/has some of the best gameplay of all time; was the highest selling game on the console and of the entire 4th generation of games consoles; was universally critically acclaimed; still appears on every single Best Games of All Time list to this very day; is still one of the most influential and popular games in the platformer genre to this day; etc.
You can't check any more boxes than that.
Sonic was basically invented to go up against Mario in direct response to the huge critical and commercial success of Nintendo's mascot and his games at that time, and there has been no better direct competition between these two mascot characters than with Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog, of which Super Mario World both sold around five million more units and was also slightly higher scored overall as well as I recall (certainly in the most relevant and dedicated gaming magazines of the era). It absolutely deserved full mention in a video titled "Console Pack-In Games: What worked, what didn’t, and why these video games stopped".
Genuinely, how can you spend like a minute talking about Sonic the Hedgehog on Genesis yet somehow not even touch upon it being in the context of its intrinsic link and relation to its direct competition and ultimately winning counterpart Super Mario World on SNES. :-o
And, Super Mario 64 too. I don't think there's ever been a more impacting pack-in game in the history of the medium; it pretty much is the standard bearer of the paradigm shift point from 2D to 3D gaming. It also ticks almost every single box I mentioned above for Super Mario World too.
How can you not mention these two hugely important pack-in games in this video of all videos. :-o
Also, if Halo was ever a pack-in game, it thoroughly warrants a mention as well. If there was ever a single system selling, best-in-class, critically acclaimed game that basically defined a console--Halo: CE on Xbox. Although I can't recall if it ever was a pack-in.
Edit: OK, there was definitely at least one Xbox bundle with Halo as a pack-in game. Although maybe they were just late in the system's life or something, so possibly not in quite the same category as the other examples.
Edit 2. Just to add, the video was still very good, but some things just really niggle me. :)
I don't think Mario 64 was ever a pack in game.
@@teranokitty You may be right on that one. And if there was, it may be along the same lines a the Xbox Halo bundle, where it's something so limited that is maybe doesn't really count here. My bad on that one.
well the SNES had TWO options for pack-in game on launch
1. was super mario world
and 2 . Zelda: A link to the past
so really it's hard to call SMW the all time best pack in .,.. because many of us grabbed the zelda equiped system (like myself) and we'd argue it was the best pack-in.
hell i stil got my OG copy of Zelda : a link to the past had to buy SMW for teh first time jsut last year.
@@DenverStarkey Hey, both would count as all-time bests in my book.
@@inceptional true . though i stil think ALTTP is a better game than SMW just my opinion.
Literally
It went away cuz the companies are cheap and greedy
Precisely.
Altered Beast "wasn't a bad game". 🤣🤣🤣
It actually wasn't bad for its time and the arcade version was popular.
@@dtester Exactly. It didn't age as well as other classics, but at the time, it was a pretty smart pack-in title for the Genesis.
There was NOTHING revolutionary about the Wii. It was nothing but Nintendo resurrecting all their failed gimmicks from the past and repackaging them. The hardware itself was essentially a redesigned GameCube. Its success can be owed to one thing: Undiscerning boomers and kids who fell for the marketing. The library was 95% shovelware, and its best games weren't even that great. If ever there was a video game system that deserved to be called a toy, it was the Wii.
Not revolutionary? You're kidding, right? You do realize motion controls are still used? You also realize Nintendo inherently forced both Sony and Microsoft to utilize motion technology, right? Tell me now what kind of controls do VR sets use? If something isn't revolutionary, people wouldn't copy it. 😂
@@JamesBeatsGames Motion controls were around long before the Wii. The Wii was just the first time they were ironed out enough/effectively marketed to sell. And what video games still regularly implement motion controls? Sony and XBox jumped on the fad during the Wii era and haven't really touched them since. After the novelty is over and recognized for the unnecessary gimmick it is, players just want to sit back and use a regular controller/joystick like they always have, not swing around and try to manipulate a controller like a flailing idiot.
@dreamlandnightmare if you're referring to the powerglove, u-force, and the activator, I'm well aware. Anything before that time were junky sticks that utilized mecury..I've been a gamer since 1987, and my knowledge is vast. So the most recent games that implemented motion controls that I've played would be metroid prime remastered, 123 switch, warioware, skyrim, horizon vr, well really every ps5 vr2, metaquest etc use motion controls. There are also controllers that have gyroscopic controls that are, in fact, motion controls.
@@dreamlandnightmare not all gamers use controllers. There is a pc master race that would beg to differ about the use of a controller. 🤔
@@dreamlandnightmare You could say that about just about everything that Apple has done over the last 40 years. The fact is that they made them good enough that people actually wanted them and it completely shifted the paradigm for a period afterwards.
8:38
Why did you say *"single player"* while showing that it was instead a 2 players game?