Released in 1991, the Phillips CD-i was the first CD-based gaming console to hit the industry. Nintendo and Sony both initially partnered with Phillips in a joint effort to bring CD’s to their consoles. This meant we could have seen a SNES-CD! But as we know, the partnership quickly fell through. Nintendo didn’t end up using traditional disk-based games until 2006 with the Nintendo Wii (not including the special mini disks on Gamecube). Even though they separated, Phillips still owned the license to use Nintendo’s characters, which leads us to some of the worst games in video game history. “Hotel Mario” and “Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon” feature choppy gameplay, poorly animated cut-scenes and awkward dialogue. Outside of the strange video games, the console had a few other downfalls. One being it’s launch price of a whopping $1,000 USD. The poor gameplay and high price resulted in Phillips suffering nearly a billion dollars in losses. The Playstation launch in ‘94 was the final nail in the coffin, and that was the end of the CD-i. This also means very few units exist in rotation, and we at Cobra are lucky enough to have found one! While it’s not remembered for its astounding graphics and user-friendly gameplay, it is still an important part of video game history, and gave us some hilarious cut-scenes of our favourite Nintendo characters in the process. – Nadia