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Soundwave on 29 November 2022
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Wyrdness said:
Soundwave said:

It's hard to say too because Switch and Wii benefitted a lot from being able to borrow games from their predecessors.

Imagine the GameCube got to launch with say ... Zelda: Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark. Probably would have had a bit of a different product cycle, certainly a stronger start.

Modern systems are harder to gauge because so much of the content, even major content is from previous platforms (this is true of the PS5/XSX too).

SNES usually wins these polls, but N64 should have topped the SNES. 

GC did have prior games though, Animal Crossing was a port of the N64 game not released outside of Japan and the Zelda games on N64 were released on GC as well as the whole RE mainline series old games on newer platforms have been a thing for ages, even if you removed prior content from Switch it would still top N64 and GC for example look at RPGs on the Switch an area in the library long criticized on prior platforms only the SNES really compares another point is look at the launch year even without BOTW and MK8 NS still had SMO, XBC2, Splatoon 2, Mario+Rabbids, and FE Warriors.

N64 launched with SM64 one of the greatest games of all time and had various games that fall into that boat that still didn't help it as at the end of the day if we're comparing platforms appeal is one thing but objectives certainly can't be overlooked.

Animal Crossing was effectively a new IP for the GameCube as the N64 game was never released in the West and even the Japanese game came out late in the N64's life cycle. So yeah, GameCube got a little benefit there, but it wasn't exactly a system seller at that time (2002). The GameCube was also almost a year old by the time it came out so it didn't even really help it in that crucial launch window period. 

Majora's Mask ... now that could have possibly impacted the GCN's fortunes early quite a bit, that's one of the greatest games ever made arguably and Perfect Dark would have been the best FPS (or one of them). 

N64 is just an anomaly in that I think it's a system that was legitimately popular (early N64 sales destroyed the Playstation's sales rate and N64 was THE hottest gift to get for 1996 other than the Tickle Me Elmo mega-craze), but it was crippled by one stupid design decision on Nintendo's part (to not accommodate CDs, especially when you could still have had a cartridge slot too). The fact that the N64 still sold the same as the SNES in North America and Europe despite having little 3rd party support and like a library only 1/4 the size of the SNES is pretty telling. If they had the 3rd party support they should have had (Final Fantasy exclusive, things like MGS, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid at worst multiplat) ... it would probably be the greatest Nintendo system. 

The library it should have had would have been unbelievable.