[INTRO JINGLE] Everybody knows about failed consoles, consoles that just didn't make the grade, didn't sell enough units, maybe they didn't have a killer app but there are a lot of consoles out there that are failed, that we remember. Things like the Dreamcast, the N-Gage, Atari's Jaguar. All of these systems are consoles that basically failed in the eyes of the public but are remembered in some unique way. But.. What happens when a console fails so fast and SO hard that nobody knew about it when it came out. Well, I think I found one. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Nuon. Nuon was developed by a company called VM Labs and released sometime in the Early 2000s The company was started by a guy named Richard Miller who at one point was the vice president of the Atari Corporation. In fact, some of the people who worked at VM Labs were also from Atari, and this is really important. If you remember your gaming history, Atari was responsible for the "Jaguar," a failed console that was marketed as the first "64-bit" system. Not to be outdone, and to replicate the obvious success of the Jaguar, VM Labs claimed that the Nuon was a 128-bit system. Unlike the Jaguar however, this system had a WAY better plan. You see, years prior to the release of the first Noun system. A guy named Trip Hawkins who was the founder of Electronic Arts released a console called the 3DO. Another failed system but not for lack of trying. The idea of behind the 3DO was to allow external parties to produce their console while the 3DO company would develop and publish games. This concept while unique and really interesting turned out to be a horrible idea. The companies that would build the 3DO like Panasonic, Sanyo, and Goldstar wouldn't see any of the profit from game sales. That meant that they would have to sell their consoles at seriously high prices. Initially, the launch price was said to be sold at 599 dollars in the US, and this damaged the system for making any real impact in the market, because that was really expensive. So why am I bringing up the 3DO? Well, the Nuon was pretty much marketed the exact same way. Only to be honest, the way that they did it was freaking genius. The Nuon was technology was built into a selection of DVD players produced by Samsung, Toshiba, and RCA. And back in the early 2000s, DVDs were a pretty hot item. So unlike the 3DO, it was easier to mass-produce a system bundled with a strange video game playing ability because somebody who needed a DVD player could still conceivably buy the thing without having any interest in playing video games. The model that you see here is the very first Nuon ever produced. It's called the Extivia DVD-N2000. It was released in July 2000 at a retailed price for about $349 USD. But there are several Nuon-capable DVD players that were released. However all of them are different and
some don't even play games but why would they release this technology on a DVD player without the ability to play games? Well, there's a reason for that. There
were four DVD movies produced that had special menus only accessible by watching them on a Nuon-capable DVD player. These movies included Dr. Dolittle 2,
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Bedazzled, and Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" remake. Ouch. I managed to get my hands on the
last two films on the list because seriously I didn't need those other ones.
And friends, it's nothing special. Pretty much all the Nuon features are limited to a special section accessible from the basic DVD menu. The features range from the ability to
zoom into footage, watch storyboards and art slides while a movie plays, and even
an early attempt at chapter selection with video playing to help identify
a scene. While it's true that regular DVDs of the time were not capable of these
features, the Nuon struggles to load these sequences, leaving you waiting for
sometimes a full minute before sequences can actually happen. Ever since the arrival of Blu-rays, the
special features for Nuon DVD movies pretty much faded, as Blu-rays could
produce better and more interesting experiences, with less of a loading
screen. Since I'm kind of a film buff, the selection of these four titles seems
really strange to me. I mean, if they had any hope of this
technology really taking off why would they use such unwanted films? It seemed like 20th Century Fox had some
interest in this technology even going so far as to make an announcement of its
use at CES in 2001. So why not use a movie like X-Men or
Independence Day, Die Hard, Alien, or even Fight Club as its
home video release was much more popular and sought after than its initial
release in theaters. There was a wealth of movies to pick
from. I mean, guys! They're 20th Century Fox! It's not like they're lacking. I mean, come on! Who runs out to buy a brand new DVD player loaded with all of this amazing
technology to watch some special features from Dr. Dolittle 2? Ugh! So
fine, if you weren't going to go get this for movies, what were the games like? Well, this is
where the story gets really, really sad. There are only eight Nuon games that
were ever released. Ballistic which is a port of a puzzle game available on the PlayStation. The game was packed in with one of the models of the Nuon. The Next Tetris is another bundled in game, also available on the PlayStation, and Iron Soldier 3, the third part in a series of games that came up for the Atari
Jaguar. Like the last two games though, this one is also available on the
PlayStation. But then we come to Space Invaders XL. Finally, a game not available on any other platform. However, it doesn't need to be. The game
is pretty much a slightly more colorful Space Invaders. Really putting that 128-bit chip to the limits with this game, why even bother? Now the next game is
funny. Technically, Nuon does indeed have
only eight released games but one of them was released on a Korean Nuon
system that was region locked. So unless you care enough for it, you can't play this game on any other
Nuon on the planet as if that wasn't hard enough, if you
happen to own the specific Korean Nuon system, you won't be able to play any of the
other Nuon games on it because of region locking. That means that this Nuon
system exists solely to play this one game. What an epic fail. So that leaves us with 3 games. All of which are unique to the Nuon. So let's start off with Merlin Racing. Merlin Racing is exactly what it looks like. A Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart
64 rip-off. To begin, let's look at the Arcade Mode. It utilizes multiple vehicles but they
all pretty much handle exactly the same. Nothing like the variety that Diddy Kong
Racing offers. It's easy to see the similarities between these two games but
as for gameplay, it feels more like a very unpolished
Mario Kart 64. Everything from the controls, the items you use, and the track
design is just basic. Racing feels like a chore and incredibly difficult. The head racer will always be faster
than you. I imagine they did this because they want to make you feel like you had
some competition on the track but it just doesn't work. In the majority of
races, it feels impossible to win. Although you
will win some races just by chance, it will always feel like it was a fluke. There isn't even a gradual climb and
difficulty. The game outright ups the difficulty after the first level it
seems. I wasn't able to get very far in this game mode at all, and frankly, I didn't want to. It's pretty
terrible. believe it or not this game actually has
an Adventure Mode with a plot, and here it is. Merlin the magician is captured by the
evil witch Prava, who has stolen four "Zystral Crystals" that give Merlin his
powers. Without his power, he's defenseless against Prava, who hides
all the crystals behind some doors that are locked with keys. Your job as one of the creatures in this
universe, is to enter some kind of race and win all of the races, and get all the
keys, opening all the doors and collecting all for sister crystals to
free Merlin. There. See what I did? I explained the plot in
about 20 seconds. The game however, takes five minutes! It's of a looping 3D model animation of
Merlin captured in the cage with Prava riding around on her broom. It's amazing how boring this is, and
what's worse, is that once you get into the game, it feels nearly impossible to win! All
the problems with the regular Arcade Mode are replicated here. Only in this
mode, you have access to a drivable overworld of sorts which looks like a heavily dumbed down version of the Diddy Kong Racing overworld. There are also two
other modes, Time Trial and Tournament. But, just know that they are equally as
bad as everything else in this game. Next up is Freefall 3050AD, which has an
intro describing the story, that like Merlin Racing, is also around five minutes. Unlike Merlin Racing though, stuff
actually happens. The plot of this game is that a C-virus of some sort threatens humanity so everyone goes to live up in the skies
and cities that are floating, I guess or something, they really don't get into the
details about that. You're a member of the Police Drop Corps, a police agency
that fights against crime syndicates that are trying to take over these "sky
cities." And how do you fight against crime? By jumping out of a building and
fighting criminals on your way down. First impression: This game is freaking terrible. The
controls are confusing, stiff, and don't seem to do anything. That's about the
time I made a discovery about the Nuon. There are eight games for this console. And while the original system that I have
came out with this controller, called the "Warrior Digital Gamepad," including this
controller, there are a total of four controllers
for the Nuon. Four! Each one seems to feature a different
layout and a different button set. One looks exactly like a Nintendo 64
controller, complete with the thumbstick. Another
looks like a variation of the original PlayStation controller, and another
third-party controller made by Logitech, offers a different layout, with seemingly
the same button options as the N64 ripoff version. But why does that matter? Well, Freefall 3050AD seems to require
the use of one of the controllers with the extra buttons and thumbstick. That's right folks, this console, with a
limited library of games, couldn't even give you the ability to play all the
games with the basic controller bundled in with the original unit. God. Other than the fact that this game
is unplayable, I have no idea what to make of it. Even for
the time when it was released, these graphics are really not that good
looking. Overall, I'm pretty sure had I got the
right controller to actually play this thing, I probably wouldn't have liked it. So, if you are looking to buy this
console, and you want to play Freefall 3050AD, you'll need to find a really hard to find and obscure controller. Good luck on that. So, that leaves one final game. The last
game unique to the Nuon, that has never seen a release outside of this
system. Tempest 3000. On the Atari Jaguar, there was a Tempest 2000, which was based off the original Tempest game,
that was an arcade game years and years ago. This is really important, because
Tempest 3000 may well be the best game on the Nuon. Is it worth
picking up a system for? You know what? Maybe. This game isn't that bad. It takes a lot of the features from
Tempest 2000 and gives it a more... visual edge. It feels a little bit slow compared to
Tempest 2000, not as fast in gameplay, but it does have a very addictive
premise, which is pretty much just Tempest. If you're a fan of the original
Tempest arcade game, you're probably gonna dig this game. But,
if you're a fan of Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar, well this game is totally the next step
in its evolution. The funny thing about this is, that
Tempest 2000 is one of the key titles for the Atari Jaguar. Ask anybody that
owns the system, they'll probably tell you that the best
game to come out on the platform was Tempest 2000. So, I find it hilarious that
the exact same group that made that system, managed to make another system,
and the best game that they could have on the system was a sequel to Tempest
2000. This version of the game only exists on the Nuon. You will find it
nowhere else, which is amazing. Maybe it's a collector's item, I really
don't know. It's not that difficult to find, I mean you can order it on Amazon,
and well, it's just a simple game, but it shows some kind of proof that this
console was capable of doing some pretty cool things. Much like Tempest 2000, Tempest 3000 has its own
soundtrack, and it's pretty solid. Now while you can have a lot of fun with
those other games I mentioned, torturing yourself, Tempest 3000 is the game that you will
probably go back and play again, and again, and again. Is it better than Tempest 2000? Well,
that's all up to perspective. Personally, I prefer this version, but
that's just me. And there you have it, the story of the
Nuon, a system so epically flawed that by the time it came out no one paid attention to it. And I'm
pretty sure that most people out there don't even know it exists. I recommend that the next time you're
going through pawn shops or anything like that, you keep your eye out for one
of these systems, because if you can manage to find one it's a cool system to try out. Hey
everybody, thank you so much for watching, and I just want to throw a quick thank
you out there to the Cambridge Pawn Shop, that actually lent me the system for free,
and thank you so much to Lazy Game Reviews, for actually sending me the
games, because I wasn't able to get them where I live. I really hope everybody enjoyed this
episode, and there's going to be more later on, so be sure to stay tuned for
more episodes in the future.
