The Nintendo GameCube is one of Nintendo's least successful consoles ever made, struggling against it's competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox at just 22 million units sold. But one thing it had going for it, as most Nintendo systems did was it's first party lineup. Many GameCube fans argue that the system has one of the best Nintendo-published outputs in their history. However just as many gamers argue that GCN has one of Nintendo's weakest first party offerings in history.

To put it in perspective, let's compare it to the 6th generation king, the PlayStation 2. The PS2 is the best selling console of all time at 160 million sold worldwide. And part of that success IMO, is because of its first party offerings. The PS2 had a gargantuan library of third party classics, but it also had just as many greats from Sony themselves. The PS2 really was when Sony Computer Entertainment established itself as a powerful developer/publisher, one that could actually challenge Nintendo.

On PS2, SCE was pumping out generation defining games that all influenced not just future first party PlayStation games, but games as a whole.

• Jak & Daxter's seamless open world platforming with no loading screens and impressive character animations was mind blowing in 2001.
• Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper spiced up the stale 3D platforming genre by adding shooting and stealth respectively to the mix.
• The Team Ico games (ICO, Shadow of the Collosus) are some of the most influential games of all time, the former in particular for its massive boss battles.
• God of War birthed one of Sony's longest running franchises and one of its most iconic characters, on top of being fun hack n' slashes
• Gran Turismo 3 & 4 are still considered two of the best entries in the franchise and two of the greatest racing games ever
• Dark Cloud 1&2 both still have massive cult followings to this day, and are considered among the PS2's best RPGs.

Not all of Sony's games were winners of course, but the PS2 proved that SCE/SIE was capable of putting out genre-defining and generation-defining games of its own. Meanwhile, Nintendo's major releases for GameCube were all myred in controversy and ridicule in some way or another.

• Mario Sunshine is very divisive for its radical change in setting and gameplay from Mario 64, brutal difficulty spikes, rushed nature, and increased focus on story, with fully voiced cutscenes.
• Wind Waker was routinely mocked for its cartoon art style and brighter tone compared to previous Zelda games, especially coming off of that 2000 Spaceworld tech demo.
• Luigi's Mansion was not the Mario launch title people expected, nor asked for.
• Waverace and 1080's GameCube entries were considered a step down from their N64 predecessors.
• F-Zero GX was amazing, but was also criticized for being way too fast and way too brutal at times.
• Star Fox was completely butchered this generation with a Zelda clone and a wannabe SF64 with on-foot missions.
• The new franchises, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Eternal Darkness, Chibi-Robo, all fine games but also very niche (Animal Crossing wouldn't become a big deal until Wild World).

That's not to say any of these games are bad. I love the GameCube's first party lineup for how weird, and interesting, and unhinged it was compared to previous Nintendo systems. But when you stack it up against what Sony offered on PS2 at the time. To a lot of people, it just looked lame and inferior. The truth is, Metroid Prime 1 and Smash Bros. Melee were the only universally loved and acclaimed first party releases for the Cube.

And of course, this was also peak "Nintendo is kiddie" era, so PlayStation's first party also had a coolness and edge factor to it at the time. We all like to think Nintendo is the king of first party game development, and at their best, that can definitely be true. But GameCube as much as adore it, was NOT Nintendo's A game. And on paper, I feel like Sony had the better out put this gen.

Noone bought PS2 for first party exclusives. It was the platform you could play all third party games.
And noone cares for Nintendo Exclusives in home consoles, Nintendo 64, Gamecube and Wii U sales show this.

PS2's first party lineup was pretty average honestly. It had some good games, but nothing on the same level as say Metroid Prime.

On the other hand, Gamecube had the weakest first party lineup of Nintendo's home consoles due to games like Sunshine, Wind Waker, Jungle Beat, Double Dash, and Starfox Adventures going in weird directions that made them worse than their predecessors.

So both are underwhelming to be honest.

My immediate reaction was hell no, gamecube was better, but I think the problem was that growing up with a PS2 and GC I didn't really even know which games were Sony first party and which weren't. So that's given me the false impression thinking back that first party ps2 support was lackluster. Whereas I knew a Nintendo game was a Nintendo game.

But Ratchet is one of my favourite series ever... I also love the first Jak game. Wipeout Fusion. I think PS2 would be helped more if I was playing games like God of War and Shadow of the Colossus at the time but I was a bit young for that.

Gamecube it's Double Dash (which is a game I rarely go back to as I've enjoyed every MK after it more), Sunshine, Mario Party 6 and Strikers for me.

Honestly I'd probably say for Single Player PS2, for Multiplayer Gamecube.

I definitely preferred the Gamecube exclusives and also the Gamecube itself had far faster CPU performance to PS2 which showed in many games. I had a few multi-format titles on both and the Gamecube might have had shorter and lower quality video sequences but general gameplay was often better. Anyway for exclusives on Gamecube there was also Mario Kart which I still really enjoyed and Monkey Balls plus of course the amazing Roque Squadron games that still impress today with how amazing they look. None of those PS2 exclusives you have listed were important to me. I did play Gran Turismo a bit but its not a game that I put huge hours into and yet its probably a game you really need to. I'm struggling to think of PS2 games that were important to me. When I set up a system to play retro games there isn't much I put in the PS2 folder. Half Life comes to mind, maybe the first Killzone. Some of the classic 2D shooters, R Type Final I think its called. Maybe the original Timesplitters and the Gradius games. Some of the highly reviewed PS2 games I tried to get into but they weren't quite my thing. I'm sure there were many good PS2 games but actually games that were really important to me on PS2 don't seem to be that many. In fact for that generation I think there are more important games for me on Dreamcast and Original Xbox. The PS2 was the weakest console of that generation for me even though it was the most successful.

I constantly return to GameCube exclusives.
The only PS2 exlusive games I have revisited is ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. While on GameCube I replay Luigis Mansion, Mario Kart Double Dash, Eternal Darkness, the Zelda games, Donkey Konga (that I probably have an unhealthy amount of love for), Melee and Fire emblem.

But to be fair to the PS2, I did not play most of the exclusives for that system. Used it more for third party games until I got a Wii and later a PS3.

In mine opinion YESS!! And its not even close.

5 Ratchet and clank game
4 jak and daxters
2 wipeouts
Motorstorm
4 socom games(socom 2 soooo good omg)
2 god of war games
Ghosthunter
2 ape escape games
4 gt game( well oke 2 sort of demos)
Rogue galaxy
Dark cloud 1 and 2
Shall i continue?

I think it’s really close. The PS2 is such a legendary console because it has an abundance of great third-party and great first-party games. Titles like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War II, Precursor Legacy, Going Commando, and Up Your Arsenal really elevate the library. And don’t forget games like Twisted Metal Black, Sly Cooper, and even Killzone — which I still say is unfairly maligned.

I would argue the PS2 was the first (and last) PlayStation console where the collection of Sony-published games actually competed with that of third-party publishers.

I'm not sure really. I feel like Sony titles were just as prominent on the other consoles. Looking at it I feel like PS1 Sony games did a better job, at least from a critical standpoint and in terms of having Sony titles as the best selling titles on the platform I think PS4 was stronger than PS2 there. PS4 was when Sony started putting out 20m sellers.

Sony titles in top 50 on metacritic:

PS1 - 10
PS2 - 8
PS3 - 9
PS4 - 7
PS5 - 6

I ignored remasters (EG. God of War Collection PS3/TLOU Remastered Part 2) but included full remakes (EG. Demon's Souls PS5).

That criteria is totally fair! But I wasn’t talking about sales figures or the critical consensus; I was referring to my own subjective tastes. For me, Sony’s output on PS2, in terms of depth, breadth, and overall quality, hasn't been matched on other PlayStation platforms. I think the company was still sort of finding itself in the PS1 days and then it went down a different path toward the end of the 7th gen.

For me, PS consoles are always worth it for the third-party libraries, including both multiplats and exclusives. The PS2 is that rare time when it was worth it for first-party games alone — which is one of the main reasons I’d argue it’s the best (or second best, depending on my mood ) video game system ever.