Switch 2 has been a pretty big screw up so far.  People have complained about the prices the most, but I actually think the game key cards are even worse.  Nintendo is harming their reputation with people on these two things.  Mario Kart looks like a good game, but that's the only one.  There isn't a lot of reason to buy a Switch 2.

It's true that Switch 2 sales have been strong so far, but I think they are benefitting from all of the positive good will created by the Switch.  This launch reminds me of the negative missteps of the 3DS and Wii U.  Obviously those two systems sold very differently from each other, but neither one sold nearly as well as their predecessor.  I don't know what Switch 2's lifetime sales will be, but I don't think it's going to come close to the Switch.  They are creating too much bad will with their customer base right now.

I disagree... Many Gamecube games were a large improvement over the Nintendo 64 predecessors.

Gamecube had a far larger breadth of genre's, it wasn't just dominated by 3D platformers... If you want 3D platformers, then it's hard to ignore the N64.

Mario Kart on Gamecube was a marked improvement over the Nintendo 64 entry.
Mario Galaxy 1+2 I would argue are better games mechanically than Super Mario 64.
Smash Bros on Gamecube was an improvement over the N64 release.
Mario Party was more or less stagnant between platforms.
Rogue Leader on Gamecube was better than any StarWars N64 game in my opinion.

Throw in games like Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime, Twilight Princess... Gamecube had a lot going for it... Many of these games got remasters/remakes and re-releases on successive Nintendo consoles and sold millions more of extra copies.

In saying that... N64 did have Lylat Wars, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Ocarina of Time which are also hard to ignore, but if you resonate more with say Luigi's Mansion over Lylat Wars, then it's a no brainer that the Gamecube was the better platform... These where personal tastes come into play.

But where Gamecube had the N64 beat... Was it's hardware.
Gamecube had the more spacious optical disk medium (Even if it's smaller than it's competitors), the controller is still probably one of the best controllers of all time... And it also had Gameboy Advance compatibility with the attachment.
Throw in your normal generational improvements like more and faster Ram, faster CPU and GPU... But also more modern rendering standards and learnings from the N64... And the Gamecube didn't have the blurry output the N64 had thanks to forced A.I, forced blurry texture filtering and a tiny 4kb texture cache and small carts.

As for the WiiU... It basically includes the Wii and can do everything the Wii can, plus output via HDMI rather than RCA cables, leading to a superior image output.
WiiU also had Breath of the Wild, which I would argue is better than any game on Wii.
It was also "HD Capable" and it showed in many games.
Mario Kart 8 at that point was the best Mario Kart to date (And I would argue, better than the Switch 2 Mario Kart World, but I digress.)

The N64 vs SNES is a catastrophic change. The 2D games the N64 got were mechanically better than the 2D peers on the SNES, but the N64 had fully realized 3D worlds, which outside of a couple of games on SNES, was a rarity otherwise.

lol comparing Switch 2 to Wii U and 3DS launches is laughable.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a great game too, it's not just Mario Kart World. Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws are very good games, even Madden NFL and NBA 2K are probably the best portable sports games ever (FC Soccer too I suppose). 

The only reason the Switch was even close is because it got to essentially borrow/steal Breath of the Wild from Wii U. The transition to Switch 2 is better IMO.

Switch 2 is above expectation hardware power wise too, it's the best hardware Nintendo has put out relative to what else is available since the GameCube. Being able to run 3rd party PS5 games like Star Wars Outlaws even with ray tracing on and acceptable performance is an outstanding results and definitely beyond expectations from 1-2 years ago here and the system is just getting started. 

Wait till it has Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Indiana Jones, Resident Evil 9, Halo, Forza on top of the next Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Zelda are out etc. It's going to beat the Switch 1 handily IMO. The 3rd party games it can get are going to tip the scales significantly. The next gen Xenoblade on this thing is going to be bonkers. 

Mario Galaxy 1/2 are not GameCube games, the GameCube got Mario Sunshine and that was it. 

The GameCube for its time had nothing to match Mario 64, Zelda: OoT, or GoldenEye 007 in impact, the chipset was capable but Nintendo didn't bring it as much on the software side for whatever reason that product cycle. 

Game quality's obviously a matter of taste, though I'd argue that just in terms of influence and innovation nothing Nintendo did on Gamecube pushed gaming forward as much as Ocarina or Mario 64. Load times on Gamecube, while not bad by 6th gen standards, were longer than N64 too, so while the hardware was overall a huge leap in power, the system wasn't an improvement in every way.

Ditto for Wii U having a slower OS and worse controller battery life than Wii, and N64 having worse framerates than SNES; the leap in power was massive, but not everything got better.

I feel like this is going off topic though, to bring it back, what's your take on which games are exclusive to Switch 2 versus crossgen?

GameCube was the hardware Nintendo needed to make in 1996 ... they needed to compromise on the disc format for 3rd parties. They needed it to be easier to program for.

But the N64 had the games the GameCube needed. The GCN needed killer apps like Mario 64 and Zelda: OoT and GoldenEye 007 and Mario Kart 64 and it didn't have them or they came in a form that was too little, too late.

If the N64 had a optical disc format, it would have won that console cycle as 3rd parties would've had no choice but to support it in that case. It would have sold too many consoles on the back of Mario/Bond/Zelda alone and then Capcom would cave and bring all of RE1/2/3, Street Fighter Alpha 2/3, Dino Crisis, etc and then Konami would cave with MGS, Castlevania, etc. and then probably even eventually Squaresoft. 

Why are we still listening to internet complaints after the launch of the Switch 2? With so much negativity surrounding it you'd think the thing would tank, but no, it was a record breaking launch lol

The same thing keeps happening. Internet cries about thing and it sells fine. We really need to stop listening to these enthusiast bubbles because they're just that, enthusiast bubbles.

By this point the Wii U was already dead and Nintendo needed to cut the 3DS price by 1/3 to save it. Meanwhile the Switch 2 is still selling ok. These are nothing alike.

I think it's fine. Nintendo's main focus is the Switch 2 with 10 exclusive games announced/released already just 3 months after release. Considering how many games they already announced only for Switch 2 already we can see most of Nintendo's releases next year will be Switch 2 exclusive games.

They have 2 cross-gen games (although both were already announced for Switch 1 beforehand). I'm not counting their Switch 2 Editions that released after the Switch 1 versions as cross-gen since they released way after their Switch 1 release even if it has exclusive DLC. The 2 cross-gen games I'm referring to are Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends ZA. I think we'll see more cross-gen games next year which I think isn't a bad thing and is also smart to keep satisfying the current Switch 1 base.

They have 4 Switch 1 exclusive games released after the Switch 2 came out. Those being Mario Galaxy 1 + 2, Tomadachi Life, and Rhythm Heaven. Those 4 games do not need to be Switch 2 exclusive for what they are, and Nintendo needs the casuals for those games. I think these will be the last of Nintendo's games released only for Switch 1, as anymore Switch 1 games I think will be cross-gen (unless HAL LAB wanna do their usual Kirby game again).

Welp. Got it wrong. Thanks for that.

I would argue Sunshine is inferior to Mario 64 in that instance.

Obviously games themselves are personal preference, because I would rather Metroid Prime over Goldeneye or Luigi's Mansion over Mario 64.

Hardware wise, the Gamecube was better than the N64 in every single aspect, including the controller.

Nintendo has done a solid job so far. It admittedly never stood a chance against Switch 1’s grand slam of a first year (which Nintendo was desperately in need of at the time) but, all things considered, we’re looking at a new Mario Kart, 3D Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Metroid Prime, Kirby Air Riders, and a genuinely surreal amount of third-party support (by Nintendo standards) all within the first six months. No 3D Mario nor Zelda is definitely a major blow and is the difference between this year being a “grand slam” versus merely being “solid,” but I can’t say I’m too displeased as a 90% Nintendo gamer.