A legacy of failure.

I must have thought I was pretty cool as a young lad with a sleek Sega-CD nestled under my Genesis and a sexy 32x sitting proudly on top. Alas, both add-ons proved to be huge commercial flops, earning them both spots on Casualty Gamer’s 6 worst console add-ons list. I don’t mind giving those two away early. We all knew it was coming, just like we all know you’re about to skip to number one anyway. Let’s get on with it.

6. The Sega CD

The Sega CD was easily the most successful console add-on of all time. It moved a few hardware units, though not nearly enough to be considered a commercial success, and it had a few very solid games released for it. Unfortunately someone at Sega decided FMV games were the future. Not only was the hardware way underpowered for running FMV, but, as we found out years later, FMV games just suck anyway.

5. The Game Boy Camera & Printer

The pictures kind of suck and it requires a *lot* of batteries to run these things, but apart from that, there’s not a whole lot wrong with the Game Boy printer and camera. So why is it here? Well we never could figure out what exactly the point of these things were. Obviously Nintendo loves accessorizing, but generally their products add some sort of functionality to certain games. The Game Boy camera and printer were completely frivolous and stupid. At best they managed to amuse a few primary school students over lunch break for a couple of days.

4. Sega 32x

Told you it was coming. I can remember cracking one of these guys open on Christmas morning one year along with a bundled copy of Star Wars Arcade. I was so excited. The very next day we went in town to pick me up a new game only to be informed by the toy store attendant that the 32x had been discontinued and games would no longer be available at most major retailers. Oh, the look on my father’s face when he heard that. If only I had my Game Boy camera handy then.

The 32x ended up being a decent piece of hardware, but, as Sega is prone to doing, when it didn’t smash any sales records in it’s first few months it was abandoned. Luckily, those of us who were duped into buying one were then able to pick up those few titles that were available at rock bottom prices.

3. Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player

Sure sucks to be the guy who ran out and bought one of these things on launch day. They’re available for around $10 a pop at Target right now. Not to mention you can pick up a half decent HD-DVD collection for next to nothing. There’s only one problem, though, it’s a dead format. Like Betamax and the laser disc before it, HD-DVD has gone the way of the dodo. Unfortunately this nifty little add-on had only been on the market for around a year when HD-DVD went under. Need a little salt for that wound? We didn’t think so.

2. The 64DD

Didn’t anybody tell Nintendo that 64DD sounds like a breast size measurement? The name of this add-on alone may have resulted in a public relations nightmare for Nintendo had it ever been released in any English speaking countries. The 64DD was supposed to solve the storage problem presented by the N64’s cartridges by using new high-density discs. For whatever reason, Nintendo decided that the 64DD would likely flop and basically gave up on it before it even came out.

It did see a limited release in Japan tied to a basic online service, but sales were as slow as Nintendo expected they would be and very few games were even released.

Here’s the kicker, the 64DD was probably singlehandedly responsible for killing the Earthbound series. Earthbound 3 had been in development for it for some time, but ultimately never saw the light of day. We haven’t seen series protagonist Nes on a proper home console outside of Smash Bros. since. What a shame.

1. The SNES CD

This one actually never saw a release in any territories, but that doesn’t stop it from making the number one spot on our worst add-ons list. It also may have been the biggest mistake in Nintendo’s history. There’s a long and sordid story behind this one, but here’s the short version; Nintendo decided to make a CD add on before the Sega CD was even being considered over at Sega. They were initially working with Philips, then Sony, then Philips again, then (allegedly) both, but in the end Nintendo decided licensing fees for any CD based system made the format too unattractive so they abandoned the project.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, Sony, who had been conspicuously absent from the console scene, now had their eye on the market. They started developing the Playstation shortly thereafter and ultimately took more market share away from Nintendo than Sega, Atari and Panasonic combined ever could. Ouch.

Also, Nintendo’s love for proprietary formats can probably be traced back to the whole SNES CD debacle. If there’s one deciding factor that more or less put Nintendo out of the race for a full two console generations prior to the wii’s release, it’s there stubbornness when it comes to paying license fees for a non-proprietary format like CDs or DVDs.

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Honorable mentions go to the Game Gear TV Tuner attachment and the Atari Jaguar CD, both of which suffered from abysmal sales, but became appreciated years later, if only for their cheesy retro appeal.

Remember guys, next time that hot new attachment for your favorite console comes out, give it a little time before you take the plunge. You just never can tell.