Nintendo games seemed rushed during the Gamecube generation

[h2ohno]

The Gamecube was the first console I ever got and bought games for, so it has a lot of nostalgic value for me. As far as I'm concerned, the Gamecube controller is still the best traditional dual analog controLler ever designed, It's comfortable and I think the button layout makes much more sense than with other controllers. Loved games like Melee.

I'm not saying that no games have ever been rushed before or since, but not the big ones. A Mario Tennis being rushed is a different beast entirely from a mainline 3D Mario or Zelda being rushed. It's impossible to imagine the sequels to Breath of the Wild or Mario Odessey being rushed, because Nintendo doesn't do that with those franchises anymore. They'll be delayed until the developer is sure that they're ready or won't be announced for years after the beginning of their development.

The point that Nintendo felt it had to rush Mario and Zelda in particular because the Gamecube wasn't doing too well is interesting. Both ended up being relatively early Gamecube games, with Mario releasing in 2002 and Wind Waker in 2002 in Japan and 2003 in the US. Later in the system's life cycle they didn't seem to rush big games like that. Of course, there was no other mainline Mario game, Twilight Princess was delayed for the Wii's launch, and many of their franchises were outsourced out of Japan, including both Gamecube Star Fox games and both Metroid games. And Sega made F-Zero. With all the talk of missing franchises recently, Nintendo themselves hadn't made a console Star Fox game at all between Star Fox 64 and Zero, they haven't made a console F-Zero game since the N64, and they haven't made a console Metroid without outsourcing it since Super Metroid. Weird.

It's a shame Wind Waker and Sunshine didn't have another 6 months to work with, but at least Nintendo has given enough time to every mainline game that followed them.