It’s fascinating to look back at Nintendo’s history. Just like all of us, the company has made some wise moves and some absolute splatteringly disastrous missteps, but that’s the rich tapestry of life. Sometimes, you have to have an appalling relationship before you meet your soulmate, and other times, you have to release the poor old Wii U before you can drop the now-beloved Nintendo Switch. The GameCube’s position, I’ve often thought, falls somewhere in between those two extremes. In the battle against Xbox and PS2, it was utterly outshone by the monstrous success of the latter in particular. However, it also brought the world a string of wonderful new games. Some of the most beloved titles of all time found homes on the GameCube, and similarly, it marked the beginning of some now-iconic IPs too. In 2001, with the Millennium Bug (whatever that was supposed to be) safely behind us, two incredible events happened that would impact my gaming life forever: the Game Boy Advance and GameCube both released, months apart. My very first gaming system was the original Game Boy (Super Mario Land: Six Golden Coins was a heck of an introduction to the industry), but the Game Boy Advance and its companion cube (as I liked to call it) were the first gaming systems I bought with my own money, and I felt utterly flush with riches as I did so. I was 14 at the time and a lot of the money had been given to me for my birthday by my grandparents, but that doesn’t at all diminish my achievement. I chose the black model of GameCube over the ‘default’ purple, and there were two reasons for this. The first was that black was far more stylish and sophisticated, and the second was so that it would be a life decision I could regret later. I must have known even then that I’d spend a lot of time doing this in the years to come, so it was nice to get the practice in. Purple is now my favorite color, you see, but back then, I was a far more conventional red enjoyer. That shade of purple would go on to be as emblematic of the GameCube as the beloved start-up jingle. So, unfortunately, would a “for kids” reputation that surely contributed to the system’s relative failure that era compared to its rivals. I remember a wave of “Fisher Price” jokes about the system’s appearance, and it’s certainly true that it didn’t look like a sleek multimedia system. That’s partially because it wasn’t: Instead of pulling double-duty as a DVD player, it was instead made compatible only with those adorably dinky disks Nintendo made for it. The era of memory cards was a special one, but that’s more of a general thing. Beloved In Hindsight, One Mighty Little Cube “Cute” could be the word used to describe the GameCube aesthetically, and for the crowd for whom appearances are everything, that was less than ideal. Of course, you can simply store your console in a TV unit or similar, meaning that the design of the box itself really doesn’t matter very much. What should and did matter the most is the crop of games available on said system, and here again the GameCube was controversial: A little after launch, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker arrived, and it had been widely disparaged for its art style since the public first caught a glimpse of it. The cel-shaded look was considered a huge misstep by those who had seen that initial footage of a rather more realistic Link in action, and cemented for some the idea that Nintendo wasn’t to be “taken seriously.” Nintendo is well-known for the strength of its first-party titles, often suffering when it comes to the third-party side of things. Logically, then, if you’re not interested in the former, you may not sign up for the system just for the multiplatform titles on it that are available elsewhere. Xbox’s now legendary Halo also launched in 2001, a paradigm-shifting exclusive and launch title that became more of a wider movement than a game. It was unfortunate that the GameCube’s launch line-up was less than stellar, with Luigi’s Mansion being the highest-profile Nintendo release. The system didn’t have that Super Mario 64 appeal to kick off with. Nonetheless, almost 25 years of hindsight later, it’s clear to see just how important and influential the GameCube era was for the company. Wind Waker is now one of the most beloved Zelda games ever among fans and critics (it was much-lauded by the latter on its arrival anyway), Super Smash Bros. Melee is often considered the competitive pinnacle of the beloved series, and the Resident Evil remake was the definitive way to play this classic until its HD remaster arrived (there were some fantastic horror games on the GameCube). Super Mario Sunshine, though it continues to divide opinion, was a creative and innovative new entry in the series that wasn’t afraid to experiment. The system was far from awash with third-party releases, but what a line-up it ended its run with. That deal with Capcom brought not only then-exclusive Resident Evil titles, but cult classics like Viewtiful Joe too. From curios like Doshin the Giant and Cubivore to mega-hits like the formerly exclusive Resident Evil 4 and classics like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil, GameCube owners had a wide range of fascinating games to enjoy. Some, today, are valuable collector’s items. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is yet another example, a technically impressive and visually stunning journey through some of the biggest setpieces of the original trilogy. There were some excellent games every year of the system’s run. When it comes to Nintendo’s own offerings, Pikmin would rise to become iconic, as would Metroid Prime. Luigi’s Mansion, meanwhile, was a bold new direction to take the character in. The GameCube wasn’t my introduction to gaming, but it’s the system I look back upon most fondly. It’s also the one for which I have the biggest physical games collection (kindly stored at my parents’). When some GameCube titles arrived for the Switch 2’s Nintendo Classics range, I was playing back through Metroid Prime Remastered, and it all just coalesced to remind me how much this system continues to mean to me.
https://www.dualshockers.com/gamecube-lost-console-war-but-won-my-heart/