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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - A look back at the Gamecube: One of the most underrated consoles ever

Was just reliving my highschool days, playing through some Gamecube games on the Dolphin emulator (before you get on me for that, I either currently own or have bought nearly all of the games I've downloaded in the legal fashion, just wanted to play them on PC in glorious HD, and damn they look fantastic by the way). I was simply on cloud 9 as I was basking in the awesome nostalgia that these games brought me. I haven't had so much fun playing games in a long time, and it was then that I got to thinking, this cannot just be nostalgia for how much I am enjoying them, these games were simply superb, and sadly underrated, much like the console itself.

Games like Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, Phantasy Star Online, F-Zero GX (the best racer I've played aside from Mario Kart), Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Smash Bros Melee, Tales of Symphonia, Pikmin, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, Mario Party 4, and the list goes on. You've also got those super quirky and more "casual" games that were sort of a forshadowing of the soon-to-be phenomenon of the Wii, such as Animal Crossing, Super Monkey Ball, DK Jungle Beat, and Donkey Konga. And while I wasn't crazy about the Mario and Zelda offerings, Sunshine and Wind Waker were still solid games in their own right. Over the years I have let the lack of success of the Gamecube influence my opinion on the games, and after years playing Wii and 360, forgetting just how many great games the little purple lunchbox had. I have forgotten how much I enjoyed the console and how much it was a part of my teen years (my username is even based off it, along with Metallica, my other obsession of the early 2000s lol).

I have been concerned that the Wii U was following the footsteps of the Cube with its style of games (Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Zelda WW, etc), but the more I think about it, is that really a bad thing? Like the Cube, perhaps Wii U will never get the sales, but that didn't stop me from having so much fun with the Gamecube and it won't stop me from enjoying the Wii U when I finally buy one in a year or so. Maybe it'll miss out on some third parties, but let's be honest, has Nintendo EVER had good third party support anyway? Not since the SNES at least..

Unfortunately it never earned the sales it deserved considering how cheap it was for the power it housed, and how many quality games it had, particularly the fun multiplayer experiences. I feel that the kiddie image, both of Nintendo themselves and the appearance of the console (kiddie was the equivilant of the ignorant "casual" branding by the hardcore of the early 2000s), this played a major part in hurting sales. It didn't help that the thing was a purple lunchbox with a plastic handle. The controller was also a mess and probably scared off a large part of the mass market. Another factor was the giant corporate machine Sony, who had already esstablished a near monopoly with the PS2, which simply consumed its competition. But perhaps the biggest factor was the lack of the classic 2D Mario series, which would have definitly helped bring in part of the mass market audience. Just look at what NSMB did for Wii sales in 09, just when it seemed the console was starting to die.. It sold record numbers and was sold out once again.

Anyway, I'd better stop here before I ramble any further. But I just thought I'd revisit the topic of Nintendo's purple Cube, a console that while losing touch with the mass market somewhat, deserved far better than what it got. I think aside from the Dreamcast, the Gamecube is perhaps the most underappreciated and underrated console of all time. What did you think of the Cube, did you like it, hate it, indifferent? What were your favorite games and experiences on the console? For my money, it doesn't get much better than Metroid Prime, Smash Bros Melee, Eternal Darkness, F-Zero GX, and Tales of Symphonia.



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Agreed. My second favorite console of all time just a tiny bit behind n64.



Bet with ninjablade:

Ninjablade wins if the next 5 multiplat on the wii u are inferior to the 360 version.

I win if one of the 5 mulitplats are on par or superior on the Wii U.

Well, I will agree with you there (for a change). I enjoyed the Gamecube just as much as I did the PS2. It's still one of my favorite consoles, ever. I had a lot of fun with the PS2, but when I really think about it I clocked the most hours on the GC because of Smash Bros. Melee.

I disliked the original Xbox and there were only two games I played on the system, which were Ninja Gaiden and Otogi. That gen it was all GC and PS2 for me. I never understood why the Xbox sold better than the GC sales wise. I guess I really underestimated the appeal of games like Halo, but I felt for every game that interested me on the Xbox I could find 5 on the GC. To each his own I guess.

The Gamecube was my '360' back then in the sense that I used it for my third party games since it was superior to the PS2. 007: Agent Under Fire was MUCH better on the GC than PS2 for instance.
As for the Wii U, if it can replicate the feel the GC gave me then I will be really happy. I already plan to get one since I love Nintendo's games, and the pro controller is nice too.



 

Playstation = The Beast from the East

Sony + Nintendo = WIN! PS3 + PSV + PS4 + Wii U + 3DS


Weedlab said:


I disliked the original Xbox and there were only two games I played on the system, which were Ninja Gaiden and Otogi. That gen it was all GC and PS2 for me.


I started collection games a few years back, so I look for good deals from people who just wants to get rid of their old consles and games, and I never really realized it back in the day, but now it's so incrdibly obvious. The original Xbox has practically no good games. And it's not just a matter of taste, go look at some value lists of retro games, and you will see that there are almost no Xbox games with high value. Had they not gotten the support from Sega they did, it would have been absurd. Only thing it had going for it, was that multiplats were better looking almost all the time .. and Halo, I guess.



Weedlab said:

Well, I will agree with you there (for a change). I enjoyed the Gamecube just as much as I did the PS2. It's still one of my favorite consoles, ever. I had a lot of fun with the PS2, but when I really think about it I clocked the most hours on the GC because of Smash Bros. Melee.

I disliked the original Xbox and there were only two games I played on the system, which were Ninja Gaiden and Otogi. That gen it was all GC and PS2 for me. I never understood why the Xbox sold better than the GC sales wise. I guess I really underestimated the appeal of games like Halo, but I felt for every game that interested me on the Xbox I could find 5 on the GC. To each his own I guess.

The Gamecube was my '360' back then in the sense that I used it for my third party games since it was superior to the PS2. 007: Agent Under Fire was MUCH better on the GC than PS2 for instance.
As for the Wii U, if it can replicate the feel the GC gave me then I will be really happy. I already plan to get one since I love Nintendo's games, and the pro controller is nice too.

Agreed, even though I own a 360 this gen, Xbox was actually my least favorite last gen. I was actually pretty hostile towards it and MS. I think a lot of it was I was bitter about MS buying one of my favorite developers in Rare, but I also just thought that giant Xbox controller was ridiculous and that there was little point to the Xbox since most of its best games could be played on PC.

I was really close to picking up a PS2 but I decided to opt for a Dreamcast when Sega went to desperation mode and cut the price to $99 shortly before they bit the dust as a hardware company, and after that I felt I didn't really need another console. I gotta say I like Playstation/PS2 Sony a lot more than current Sony.



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gamecube controller one of the best of all time.

Maybe that and power glove?



 

WII U // PC // 3ds XL // VITA

gronk-bonk said:
Agreed. My second favorite console of all time just a tiny bit behind n64.


The only optical media based console that I have ever played that had near 0 loading times. It's amazing to go back and play those same games (Tales of Symphonia for example) on the Wii and notice that there are actually loading screens in the game, but the GCN was so fast that you would never see them. That system was a lot of fun, and the Gameboy player was a great attachment.



-- Nothing is nicer than seeing your PS3 on an HDTV through an HDMI cable for the first time.

Had some of the most fun times on the Gamcube at a friends brother in laws house on Friday nights, Mario Kart, Super Monkey Ball and melee. Four of us Playing Mario Kart while drunk lol one time we was playing and we noticed a friends Kart slowed down and veered off the track, we all looked at each other then looked around and the friend had fallen asleep at the control lol great times



 

Nice to see some love for Gamecube :)

It was a really good system. Not as good as PS2 -- no shame in that -- but still a terrific console. Lots of great local multiplayer, including Melee and Double Dash!!, and deep single-player experiences: Metroid Prime, The Wind Waker, Resident Evil 4, Tales of Symphonia, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil Zero. Plus a bunch of unique games like Crystal Chronicles and Jungle Beat, and some excellent multiplatform games like TimeSplitters 2, Prince of Persia, Everything or Nothing, Beyond Good & Evil, etc.

I actually owned three Gamecubes. The first I bought at launch and took with me to college; the second I bought for $100 with the limited edition Zelda collector's disc; and the third I bought for $50 and eventually gifted to my nephew and niece.



MegaDrive08 said:
Had some of the most fun times on the Gamcube at a friends brother in laws house on Friday nights, Mario Kart, Super Monkey Ball and melee. Four of us Playing Mario Kart while drunk lol one time we was playing and we noticed a friends Kart slowed down and veered off the track, we all looked at each other then looked around and the friend had fallen asleep at the control lol great times

haha cracked up when I read this.. Sounds like a good time. I've played Black Ops online with a friend who fell asleep at the controller a couple times.

I had plenty of drunken Mario Kart experiences, but a generation later with Mario Kart Wii. We had a game where we'd have to finish a whole drink at some point during the race without pausing (or a half a drink if we were feeling more low key). Made for some terrible driving. It was a bit tricky to steer with the Wii wheel as it was, but once you were drunk it became damn near impossible. Made the game more fun and intense though in a way lol..

Double Dash didn't really do it for me. I felt like you were driving on ice, and the concept of two drivers just seemed weird to me. Still a good game, but not the greatest of the Mario Kart series.