GameCube What made the Gamecube appealing to you?

[crossunitedfate]

The Gamecube was a system that was great in itself. Unfortunately, the great games for it were few and far between. But make no mistake, when they got good games, they got GOOD games. But throughout the system's lifetime, what stood out to you the most for it?

For me, it was the creation of the GBA player attachment for the system. This marked the first time a full portable library was made to be fully functional on their major console counterpart.

 

[crunchyg]

The whole presentation at Spaceworld 2000 was fascinating, from the moment Yamauchi announced it as Nintendo "Gamecoob" to the very end of the demo footage. The shape, the purple and orange colors, the handle, and the whole idea of designing a console as a toy that you can carry over to your friend's house was very fresh.

And of course, that demo software reel with realistic Link and Ganondorf fighting, Samus running in 3D, and tons of other amazing footage won a lot of people over.

Once the system was out, it was about the hardware build quality, the beautiful particle effects in Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, and holding that fantastic controller in your hands for hours.

 

[Guardian]

I loved the compact shape of the system itself, the controllers, and game discs. I thought it was a really fun console, and I loved playing the games I did have. I think there were a lot of misconceptions about its quality which turned a lot of people off of it based just off of rumors.

I actually miss the console, it was fun.

 

[SixtyFourgh]

I know it's been mentioned before, but I don't think we can stress enough how much better the Gamecube controller was over that of the N64. Besides that, having a compact system with tiny discs was really nice. It had some nice accessories (Wave Bird, GBA/DS adapters, online play), but you didn't really need any of them. You didn't need to buy a Rumble Pak, it was built into the controller. Anybody remember getting Perfect Dark and having to buy that RAM block or whatever it was to play the actual campaign? You still needed memory cards, but they were considerably less cumbersome than the N64's controller-bound Memory Pak. In short, I think the best thing about the Gamecube is that Nintendo listened. They kept or improved good design features and did away with the bad.

 

[crossunitedfate]

I don't know, I sort of liked the N64 controller method. Like the placement of the little joystick part made for some pretty easy movement compared to the other systems at the time.

 

[BrianDouglas]

the CONTROLLER. I regretted it later, but when it came out, the controller was awesome. That's probably a very common one in their market research at Nintendo, and probably why we see such wild control schemes coming from them in the Wii brand.

 

[aerieth]

Super Smash Bros: Melee. But in all seriousness, the Gamecube was an underrated console. As BrianDouglas pointed out, the controller was great and much better than the original XBox controller or even the Playstation 2 controller in my opinion. I still have my WaveBird and pull it out every now and then for Brawl sessions on the Wii.

 

[Joker99352]

I think the original appeal was because of the games themselves. The Gamecube was released when I was around 11-12 years old or so, so I was right in the target age range. I didn't get the console until quite a while after it was released, but I still spent countless hours plugging away at its many wonderful games.

I also liked the fact that it was cube-shaped. Whoever's idea that was: good choice.

 

[LALucien]

I only really got interested in the Gamecube because of the N64 initially but, it actually turned out to be the best Nintendo console I ever owned!

Even the pad (which looked very strange) was extremely comfortable and responsive.
I love the way even after Nintendo released the Wii that they still continued to bring out their next Gen games for the older console. Even they knew it was awesome!

 

[BanjoKazooie]

The GAMECUBE had the best controller of all time, it had amazing games, and it was a great value. The games I liked for it were Luigis mansion, Mario Sunshine, Pokemon colloseum, legend of zelda WW, legend of zelda TP, Mario Kart double Dash, MP and MP2, F Zero, pikmin 1, pikmin 2, animal crossing, and super monkey ball. It was an amazing system.

 

[Sandara]

Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness and Colloseum! I wasn't really interested in the Gamecube until I found out there was a Pokemon game made for T.V playing! Those two games took me forever to beat and I spent the most of those games. I been replaying G.O.D lately and I miss the old days.

 

[Medza]

Sonic Adventure 2 was the one game that I played around my friends house and I knew that I had to by a GameCube. In particular the Chao garden where you could keep them little pets was really cool. But there were a lot of other good games too that I gradually pickedup such as Animal Crossing, the Zelda games and Pokemon Colosseum.

 

[Esperahol]

I think the best part was I guess - the shape. I liked the shape and the little handle that let me carry over to a friend's house where I would destroy them. I also liked the little discs and many of the titles, but yeah the cube shape was awesome. Still is actually since it's over there in the entertainment center.

 

[dethdealer24]

For me it was 2 things, I loved the controller and I also liked the fact that it was so compact, and when I say that, I don't just mean the console itself, but the game discs too. I was just a lot easier to bring over to a buddies house.

 

[dustinb12]

i was into my ps2 GTA phase and got a hold of a Game Informer mag, and saw some reviews for DD, WW and Sunshine and thought they looked cool. after making the switch, i discovered myself having pure, uncomplicated fun. no blood, no cussing and still just having a blast. the appeal was having fun, with quite a few people as well

 

[jbeavis100]

I didn't get into it actually until the Wii Era. I ran out of games to play at the time and figured the wii is backwards compatible there has to be a few good things on there and I was pleasantly surprised. I was a PS2 kid during it's run though.

 

[rosacrux]

I am a big Nintendo fan and I have all of its consoles. As usual, price, controller and Mario games were attractive to me. While Game Cube had a lack of games, the good ones were amazing. Connectivity to the Game Boy Advanced was a nice feature.

 

[Linkzelda]

I guess because I didn’t have the luxury of experiencing the other consoles as much as a child, I was only able to develop an attachment to the Nintendo GameCube. It was my first major birthday present along with a game called “Bloody Roar: Primal Fury,” and seeing how it was a while before I had another game console, it led to all sorts of joys with exploring virtual experiential realities with other games as well. Like others have mentioned, the novelty behind the console wars, and how people with the GameCube had to consider the gameplay more vs. the graphics that people from other spectrums debated about relentlessly.

One game in particular for the GameCube that I eventually garnered more favoritism on the Wii was Resident Evil 4. I felt that game alone was the epitome of the graphical potential of the GameCube, and it broke the barrier on people that declared the GameCube was horrible in the graphics aspect. It was the first game that literally scared the heck out of me, and it was one of the few games that I rented that I always wanted to buy for my own.

I could never forget the experiential learning I’ve developed from all of those Nintendo Games, and how it was so easy for me to fall into a trance of tapping into thinking about alternate realities both in video games, and maybe even in life as well. And I don’t think I would’ve gotten into the action-pack themes and more mature content from the other consoles. My childhood was filled with naiveté, and of course, that’s what Nintendo benefits a lot from.

I felt that if I shifted with the other consoles, it would be like trying to grow up too quickly at the time. And even to this day, I still find those GameCube games appealing. I just don’t have much time to play them for hours on end like I did in my childhood though. The Nintendo GameCube was my base to explore other games, consoles, and much more, and I don’t think that kind of appeal could ever fade away.

 

[Firefly28]

I LOVED that you just put in the game and there you go. It boots fast, the controler was awsome.

Yes I agree I think Resident Evil 4 was a game changer for the cube....

 

[Esperahol]

RE 4 was on the Gamecube? Hm... I mean I knew it was on the Wii, but not the Gamecube... Ah well. The more you know.
[Now imagine a shooting star being trailed by a rainbow right here. Good job.]