N64 & Cube are abominations

[Jon-Erich]

The N64 and GameCube abominations? Not really. Sure they didn't live up to the SNES, but that doesn't make the bad.

With the N64, I believe that system, while lacking good third party support throughout it's life has proven to be a good system long after it's death. How? Look at games like Super Mario 64, the Banjo games, the Zelda games, Wave Race 64, Diddy Kong Racing, and Star Fox 64. After all these years, these games are very fun to play. A lot of them still hold up to this day. Now, compare this to a lot of the PlayStation classics. Back in the day, these N64 games were well received, but were dismissed by some gamers for lacking some of the bells and whistles some of the PlayStation games have provided. The PlayStation games were revered for their high production values, the usage of voice acting and FMV's. However, in order to achieve this, gameplay had to be sacrificed for many games. But because this was the dawn of 3D gameplay, a lot of people couldn't see it at the time. Now, if were to go back and play a lot of these PlayStation games which were big hits at one time, a lot of them would almost unplayable for a lot of people nowadays. They've aged terribly. The high production values that were so well received back in the day now work against the games because the voice acting for most games back then was terrible and the FMV's look like crap. The gameplay definitely would not hold up. This is probably the reason we have not gotten a real remake of Resident Evil 2 yet, or Final Fantasy VII. The developers would have almost make an entirely new game.

I see GameCube as Nintendo's most disappointing console, but definitely not an abomination. Nintendo had the ideas for the system and a lot of it's games, but unfortunately had poor execution. the Cube design was awesome, but unfortunately, it looked too much like a toy. Had it looked closer to Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube, which was released a year earlier, it would have been more accepted. Had GameCube been released a year or two later than when it was released, the lack of DVD playback would have been for forgivable. As for the games, the third party support actually improved compared to the N64, but the first party support did not. Had Nintendo maintained the momentum they had at the beginning of the GameCube's life, they would have had better games for it.