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curl-6 on 28 January 2014
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F0X said:
curl-6 said:
F0X said:

You say these things, but what evidence do you have? Outrage from people who thought the game would look like the demo? That's not quantifiable. What is, then? Well, Wind Waker is the 4th best-selling game on GameCube (only surpassed by larger Nintendo franchises), and it recieved an immese amount of acclaim upon release. 96/100 on Metacritic, equal to the GC version of Twilight Princess. That level of praise is typically reserved for games with large mainsteam and hardcore appeal. And once the 4.6 million sales are put into the context of install base, I don't see how the game can be considered a failure, or widely shunned, even if you personally feel as if Nintendo should have changed certain aspects of the game in order for it to be more successful.

My argument is both straightforward and backed by numbers. The Wii was far more successful than the GameCube. Twilight Princess was released on both systems. It had a massive advantage and there's no room for dispute.

GCN's "kiddy" image is well known as one of the system's biggest stumbling blocks. And Wind Waker was a big contributer to this image. What message does it send gamers looking for a next gen successor to Ocarina of Time when in addition to the system looking like a fisher price toy, its flagship Zelda looks like an children's cartoon? 


That argument always felt off to me. In fact, it seems less like an argument and more like a talking point repeatedly brought up by Xbox fans circa 2004. A "kiddy" image didn't stop game/hardware sales in the past. Heck, the handheld market is still driven by cartoonish-looking games like Pokemon. The mobile market has Angry Birds. Cartoon-ish graphics do appeal to the mainstream gamer. Realistic art design still clearly has its place, but inheriently not to the detriment of other styles.

From what I see, what matters more is accesibility, and on that front, the Wii obliterated the GameCube and became far more successful.

I'm not saying it was the GCN's only commercial drawback, just that it was a major one, as it really hampered Nintendo's attempts to capture the crowd who were into GTA, Halo, etc.

The 6th gen console market was quite a bit different to the portable market, the mobile market, or the post-Wii console market.