@cadriver2570
I remember the boxes were very eye-catching. Yes, they didn’t need to be big but I appreciated the larger canvas for game art.
@Mimi-fh3cs
Now it is the same for a Switch game. The games are very tiny cards but the boxes are nearly as big as the console.
@dmaikibujin
The excitement I got from seeing those in brand new boxes... Nothing today compares...
@IamMonvi
Pushing the cartridge in, and feeling the click when you pushed it down was ooooooh so satisfying
@randomconsumer510
To be fair... when the games left the distribution center, they were stacked into boxes like sardines in a can. They then had to be shipped and trucked all over the place. Some boxes would be loaded 4 or more games tall, those boxes were then stacked on top of boxes, and so on. That strip of Styrofoam was the only real buffer between the games.
@Brett2
Oh man I forgot all about those black Nintendo game sleeves we used to keep NES cartridges in!
@SkipWinters1982
I saved a lot of my boxes from childhood when I got a Nintendo game. I immediately would open them up, unfold them and flatten them out. Archive them in the collection. Still have it to this day, and over a hundred games with accessories, multiple systems, etc.
@Apo458
Also, if you open one of the very early games released, you'll see a Famicom game board attached to a 60 to 72 pin adapter
@m.r.2066
This short put a little tear in my eye for all the great memories of unboxing NES games in my childhood. Thanks, man.
@luckykworks
So much of Nintendo marketing post crash was just “we swear we’re not a video game”
@hansgrueber8169
The extra space was dust storage when you blew into it to get it to boot up.
@ChonkySlotDonkey
The nostalgia of just seeing those Iconic NES games makes me so happy😊
@danjohnson7394
Having flash backs to 90s PC game boxes were insanely huge to only have a floppy or CD inside
@ChrisOlsen-n5t
I thought, when I was a kid, that the large size of consoles and games despite the small insides (I took them apart and knew) was to protect the delicate circuits from stupidity and allow a large area (relatively) of open air to disperse heat more easily
@MDonuT-of7px
Plus, with kids easily losing stuff all the time because they don't pick up their toys, larger carts meant that parents wouldn't have to deal with tantrums of their little bundles of joy screaming about Super Mario being gone. That way you avoid the subconscious association of the brand with parental stress, the way that slime, nerf darts or other easily misplaceable toys have. It's a very small, and very minute upside but still it's a great feature. (Disclaimer: that aspect of the design philosophy is a story told to me by a University professor, and I could not find any other sources, so it may have been a happy accident rather than a deliberate design method)
@TerminusVox
Retail packaging is also made to be larger to discourage shoplifting.
@Green.Country.Agroforestry
There is a very real practical reason for making the package larger: When the consumer is browsing the shelves, if they cannot see the cool graphics and read the title from where they are standing, they won't reach up to pull it down.
@saltiestsiren
The size being a solution to the expansion conundrum is actually genius
@kevinruby9241
The shelf boxes were likely influenced by other boxes. Remember CD box sleeves? They, and the disks themselves, were made that size to fill record album racks 2x and that long so they stayed visble in the rack next to albums.
@NesHacker