I don't know why everyone is saying the Gamecube failed.
I've said this before, but if everyone is to be believed.. that the Wii is a repackaged Gamecube.. then the Gamecube has been kicking ass over the 360 & PS3 saleswise for a number of years now.
Lack of foresight in the controller shape. Action-y 2D games are iffy on its small dpad, nonetheless it worked *very* well for special uses like Wind Waker.
Its small disc capacity might've turned away some devs. Certain types of games don't suit disc swaps too well.
Let's not forget the miserable internet support either. Total bust in number of actual online titles.
Lum fan.
I'm still only just getting into GameCube. I think I've played maybe five GameCube games to any significant degree. I do feel it's weaker than the N64, especially since nearly about every follow-up on the system is a downgrade from past titles. Super Mario 64 is better than Super Mario Sunshine. I love the old Metroid games, but I have zero interest in a FPS Metroid. Double Dash isn't as good of a single-player game as Super Mario Kart nor as good of a multiplayer game as Mario Kart 64. F-Zero X is probably the greatest racer ever made, while GX not only isn't remotely as good but flat-out sucks. While I haven't played it much, nearly every Harvest Moon fan regards A Wonderful Life as one of the worst in the series. Etc. etc. That said, I still enjoy some of those games despite them being inferior to past entries. Like Sunshine is still a good game, for example, and I love its warm, tropical atmosphere. Perfect summer game.
I think the GameCube was probably best for its new properties. I think Pikmin is probably the single greatest thing to come out of it. Now that was one immensely refreshing, innovative game. Super Monkey Ball was great and provided my most enjoyed multiplayer experience on the platfrom with Monkey Target. Baten Kaitos was a great RPG with absolutely lovely pre-rendered backgrounds, a fantastic soundtrack, and a unique, addictive gameplay system. I still need to play through its sequel. Then there's goofy stuff like Chibi-Robo and Odama that I really want to put some time into someday.
I've noticed a bit of a pattern. N64 fans tend to consider the Gamecube a disappointment, but people who didn't like N64 tend to consider the Gamecube a big improvement (although not a panacea).Originally Posted by Aussie2B
Gamecube may have a number of games that are inferior to their N64 counterparts. Mario, Mario Kart, 1080, Star Fox, Zelda, and so on. But, it has a bunch of good games for which there is no N64 counterpart. Super Monkey Ball, Pikmin, Viewtiful Joe, Tales of Symphonia, Chibi-Robo, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Lost Kingdoms, Alien Hominid, Beach Spikers, Baten Kaitos, Killer 7, and so on. N64 fans focus on the former. I prefer to focus on the latter.
It came in last in its generation, did not share many of the huge titles of that generation, and managed to sell fewer units then its also nich and inclusive predecessor. There are plenty of reasons to say that it failed, none of them really matter if you enjoy the console but they are there.I don't know why everyone is saying the Gamecube failed.
I've said this before, but if everyone is to be believed.. that the Wii is a repackaged Gamecube.. then the Gamecube has been kicking ass over the 360 & PS3 saleswise for a number of years now.
That being said the press and other gamers like to harp on the PSP as a failure all day long despite selling 70 Million-ish units during its lifetime...so really screw what they think.
It's ashame the system was so disappointing for 1st party releases.
They didn't even manage to get Wave Race right. I hate the physics they used in that game. Such a missed opportunity right there. Seems to have killed that short lived series pretty much off.
Ah, Star Fox and Wave Race. Those slipped my mind. Yeah, those are good examples of GameCube follow-ups that were inferior to their predecessors.
This is an interesting post. Many people consider Metroid Prime to be one of the best games of last generation. I felt the same as you originally, not having the patience for a 3D Metroid, but when I finally decided to put some time into it I was blown away. This was years after GameCube had died. GameRankings lists Metroid Prime as the only last-gen game in their top 10 list.
F-Zero GX is the same story. It's highly regarded as an improvement over F-Zero X due to GameCube being able to handle the gameplay of the F-Zero series really well. I still agree with you though. F-Zero X is still a better game.
If you don't like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, track down a copy of Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.
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Yeah, I know I'm in the minority on some of those. I wouldn't call Metroid Prime a bad game since I'd be in no position to make that claim, and I don't really have the option to seriously give it a shot even if I put my lack of interest aside since first-person games tend to make me feel sick. I wonder how the game went over in Japan where it's very common for gamers to have the same problem with first-person games that I do. Although, if I'm not mistaken, I think the Metroid series in general does better in the West.
And it doesn't help that I'm a Gunpei Yokoi loyalist that thinks the franchise died with him and none of the games past Super Metroid are "real" Metroid games. I think the Metroid Prime series should be regarded as some weird, Western spin-off rather than a part of the main series.
I actually hated F-Zero X. I loved the SuperNes game and went into the N64 game and was quickly disappointed. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was, the N64 game just didn't do it for me.
I love the Metroid Prime series and F-Fero GX. But to me, they don't feel like Metroid or F-Zero games, respectively. F-Zero GX has that Sega racing pedigree and feels much more like a Sega arcade racer than an entry in the F-Zero franchise (Which makes sense when you consider the background of the game).
And Metroid Prime felt like it's own series. I didn't really feel like it was Metroid in 3D as I was playing through Metroid Prime. To me, it felt like something different and completely it's own, but still just as good as it's namesake series. Can't quite express what I'm trying to say about this one, but hopefully that makes a bit of sense. And it could hardly be a disappointment for fans of the franchise after getting nothing at all with the previous generation of Nintendo console and handheld hardware.
Those are two of the few areas I wasn't somewhat disappointed in with Nintendo's 1st party GCN library. Even the Zelda franchise, despite several solid releases on the GCN, didn't manage to quite equal what had been done on the N64 and earlier consoles (Although Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords were all excellent games).
Paper Mario is about the only other thing that didn't disappoint me. The GCN sequel was just about everything a fan of the N64 game could've asked for. Too bad they deviated from that on the Wii, although it looks like they've realized their mistake and have gone back to their roots for the next entry in the series.
Last edited by Leo_A; 08-21-2011 at 10:32 PM.
What was wrong with the Gamecube? Absolutely nothing. So it didn't have a dvd player in it. Big deal. By the time the Cube came out, you could get a relatively inexpensive dvd player and Nintendo knew that would be the case so rather than include that and potentially jack up the price of the system, they cut all the extraneous stuff and put out a reasonably affordable game player. In this case, less really is more. And the games themselves are nothing to scoff at either. How long does it take to finish Halo? A couple of days? I played Mario Sunshine for weeks! And I played Wind Waker for a couple of months before I got anywhere near finishing it. And if you're a Sonic fan (which I am), the Gamecube is the best system ever because you could get just about every Sonic game ever made at that point for it, all on one platform. I did get a PS2 eventually, but I don't play it anywhere near as much as my Gamecube. I'll take quality over quantity every time and Nintendo consistently makes the highest quality games. I admit I was disappointed with Twilight Princess, but even so, it's still better than, say, Kingdom Hearts, which I got bored with after the first world. And with all the trash that Sony talked about Nintendo during the PS2 days, the Wii is the number one system in the world and the PS3 is dead last. Who's laughing now?
The Gamecube came out in 2001, at that time DVD players were at least $200. That's not exactly inexpensive. Back then I knew several people who had the PS2 and regularly used them to watch DVDs, I'm pretty sure that feature was important to a lot of people at the time.
What store were you shopping at? I got my first dvd player in 2001 for about $120 (a sanyo, not some cheap no-name brand), which is certainly less than the PS2 cost at that time. Which is why I say that Nintendo didn't need it.
Canada. Notice MSRP on older print, something like - $14.95 US / $24.95 CAN - for example. At least, that'd be my assumption here.
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Buy a PS2, save $20 over the cost of a Gamecube and DVD player!
Basically this. We pretty much get screwed on everything. DVD players didn't get to around $150 for another 3-4 years, I know because that's around when we bought one.
Take this Digital to Analog converter on Amazon. It's basically $45 US.
http://www.amazon.com/Zinwell-ZAT-97...4169739&sr=8-1
The same thing is $90 Canadian at The Source(formerly Radio Shack), it's the only place that carries it here so that's what we had to pay as it's supposedly the best one currently available to us(there's one better model from another company that's only being sold in the US). Even though our money is worth more now, we're still paying a higher price. At the end of August we're switching over to digital signals so we needed one.
Regardless of that, was it cheaper to buy a Gamecube and a DVD player or just a PS2 by itself? The Gamecube launched at $199.95 which is also supposedly more than your DVD player, for $299 you could get a PS2 with a DVD and CD player built in.
Damn. Here in the U.S., DVD players were as low as $35 in 2002.
I've got a minority opinion too, in that I like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker better than Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess. Ocarina of Time is a close second though. Wind Waker was a huge departure from Hyrule and what we're used to (main character starting out in a quaint forest village, traveling through the world on horseback, etc.) I'm not sure why, but I think the fast-paced dungeons and wide exploration really did it for me. I didn't even really mind the Triforce hunting.
Twilight Princess was too dark to be atmospheric for a Zelda game. Did not like the new voice actor for Link either.
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I preferred the grim bleakness of Twilight Princess, myself. I'd like to see another entry in the series in the same vein, but I doubt that will ever happen.
I never considered the Gamecube an appealing console. Unlike the N64 and Playstation which were very different beasts, the Gamecube seemed to be a weaker version of the PS2.
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