There have been some rumblings on the Interweb in the last few months that Nintendo completely failed with the GameCube, some people saying it was their worst console to date. Sure, it’s not as popular as the PS2, but that doesn’t make it a failure.
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Critics mostly point to the fact that the GC only sold 20 million consoles worldwide, compared to PS2’s 100 million. If you look at it like that, then yes, it looks like a failure. But for some odd reason, many people cite the original Xbox as a success story, even when it sold only 23 million units, three million more than GC. That just doesn’t add up.
Can you remember the games we got with our beloved GC? Titles like Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 4 are easily some of the greatest games I’ve ever played. Those three examples are more than enough to justify the purchase. But then you have to remember there are a lot more than just three games that came out for it.
Sure, Nintendo made the thing look like a damn Playskool toy, but looks are only skin deep, and you should never judge a book by its cover.
I know a lot of you only played a few GC games, and then said it was worthless. This is just poor judgment. I have over 35 games in my GC library, and most of them are exclusives. And I hit all the major genres. Not until you play that many games on a system can you truthfully deem it worthless. In my opinion, Xbox is a complete failure, seeing as I only have five games for it, some of which I prefer on the PS2.
Seriously, everyone should just back away from the financial forecasting for a moment and play some games. They’re all real cheap now, so you can’t give me that excuse. After you play Pikmin, Tales of Symphonia, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Donkey Konga, Ikaruga, and Viewtiful Joe, come back to me and tell me the GC is a failure.
I have a Gamecube and still buy games for it, so I’m not a Nintendo hater. But I think when people cite the XBOX as a success and the Gamecube as a failure, they’re referring to the direction each console was taking their respective company. XBOX was Microsoft’s entry into the market, and it definitely established them, even putting them arguably ahead of Nintendo. With the Gamecube, Nintendo just looked like it was slipping further.
35 games?! Wow. I think I was able to ring 18 or so good games out of the Gamecube catalog, though I admit my interests are probably narrower than yours, and I didn’t have any nastalgia to help direct me (I started consoles with the Playstation). Other than the ones you listed, what gc exclusives would you recommend? If there’s one thing that bugged me about the Gamecube, it’s that it seemed like there were hardly any hidden "try this you might think its amazing" games out for it. The 6.8 type of games that actually rock, if you can get over a particular flaw or puzzeling design decision (Lifeline, the Naval Ops series, GunValkrie, King’s Field: TAC). Or the honestly great 8.1 games that came out only to disappear a week later because so many other games got released at the same time (Ghosthunter, Mark of Kri, Psi-Ops, Urban Chaos:RR).
Oh man, there’s definitely some good stuff. Well, you can go for the obscure with Cubivore and Ikaruga, you can go for the Resident Evil remakes and exclusives (Zero, but I still suggest 4 on Cube), definitely give Eternal Darkness a try (my favorite GC game ever), Tales of Symphonia and Paper Mario for RPGs, you have F-Zero and Mario Kart for racing, the metroid series for adventure, the rogue squadron series was really good, especially the first one, Killer 7 was badass, Pikmin series, the zelda games, I’d even say Sands of Time, with the better handling on the GC, 1080 Avalanche was a lot of fun, you should be able to get it cheap annnnnnd Pac Man Vs was cool, if you’re able to get GBA’s and stuff setup, Crystal Chronicles, too, you definitely can’t go wrong with Smash Bros., Soul Calibur II with Link, Chibi Robo, Battalion Wars, Geist, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Baten Kaitos, give Beyond Good and Evil a try, Metal Gear, Skies of Arcadia, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy… I think that’s it. I know I probably missed a lot, too.
Thanks for the recommendations. I have many of the ones you mentioned, but several I never considered. I’ve been meaning to pick up Sands of Time again (I traided my xbox copy in after a glitch destroyed all progress on my save, about 8 hours in), so I guess I’ll get it for GC. And Donkey Konga, how did I miss that? I remember thinking "this is a game I have to get" then time passed and I forgot about it. Now it has a sequel?! Maybee Geist is worth buying at a discounted price now, the reviews for it seemed unencouraging. I do have the second Pikmin game, would it be frustrating and disappointing to play the first game now? How would you say 1080 Avalanche stacks up against SSX? At any rate, thanks again.
Yeah, I remember hearing about that glitch for Sands of Time. That would kill me. Geist was actually a really fun game. n-Space put a lot of time into the game. It has an interesting presentation, and there are some scenes that look amazing for a GC game. It’s in come respects a First Person Adventure, like Metroid. It isn’t a great FPS, but the adventure puzzles make up for it. In my opinion, I preferred Pikmin 1 over 2. I liked the fact that you only had 30 days to finish it. That’s how I perceived the Pikmin universe, and when I played 2, it lacked that interesting gameplay mechanic. 2 was great, but the loss of a deadline took some of the fun/strategy away. And 1080 is more of a straight racing game. There are tricks, but SSX is more diverse in that respect. The racing, though, is awesome. Once you get some speed, the camera shakes a little, the wind picks up, and you start to fly. The avalanches are also really cool. At the most, though, only pay $15 for it, because you can beat it in one solid day.