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.
