...do you think the little purple box would´ve sold better?

Probably not (and despite what people may thing, Super Mario Sunshine was pretty great).

Well, it would've improved the sells a bit. But I don't think drastically...

We know the game would've sold millions though. ^_^

maybe a few thousand systems, but the lunchbox just came of age at a time where the world wanted the ps2.

Hell no, the Wii Remote is perfect for New Super Mario Bros. but just take a look at the GameCube controller and tell me how you would play. An analog stick for a 2D Mario just wouldn't cut it..

Besides the GameCube had a different target audience to the Wii and a 2D Mario would probably have just made the image of the console worse (kiddy, 2D games = underpowered etc)

If the 2D Mario had the essence of the old Mario games, made with a high play value, had 2 players at the same time (or more), was targeted to families/all ages and had the right advertisement... Then I think that could have put GameCube in front of Xbox with a small margin.

This move of butting out a Mario game, not to far into the console generation might have triggered the effect of less canceled games or something. Who knows. Anyhow, would not have done anything notable against the PlayStation 2.

Just like puffy said, a lot of people would be turned off by the controller. Personally I love the GC controller, but it's not very fit for 2D-gaming, especially not a 2D-platformer.

It probably wouldn't have done much of anything. How many Mario fans were holding out on buying a Gamecube just because it didn't have a 2D Mario game? It seems to me if people wanted Mario games, they were already getting their fill on the GC.

... it would probably have been called The Thousand Year Door

I know it would've sold better.

So would the N64 for that matter. Of course they'd have to out do Mario 3 or at least Mario World. Because Sega would've still been making Sonic 2D games in that case.