i think it would have had a positive effect.

Anyone who says 2D Mario wouldn't push systems is just in denial about 3D Mario's relevance to the mainstream.

The reality is that the trouble of public acceptance with 3D Mario isn't really isolated to Japan.

Does Paper Mario count? The second was on the GC and it was quite possibly one of the best games on it.

It was called Super Mario Sunshine because of how two-dimensional the characters were!

Ahahahahaha.....

I never got a gamecube, and one of the reasons why was because i never heard much about any good games for it (wind waker seemed stupid to me at the time), and i had never heard anyone talk about super mario sunshine either, so i had no drive to convince my dad to buy one. my friend had one though, and we always did thoroughly enjoy playing melee at his house.

Yes, maybe selling a couple hundred thousands more.

A little better, sure. But there isn't much that would have changed the pecking order back then.

Not really. I not convinced that one game can make that much difference.

I think the game itself would have sold very well, but the effect on the console would probably have been negligible