"Far from perfect but a big improvement over the Nintendo 64 and definatly worth owning"

The Gamecube is Nintendo's fourth console and the successor to the less-than-great Nintendo 64. The Gamecube managed to overcome many of the 64's shortcomings, but is still less than perfect. The Gamecube came out a few days after the Xbox in late 2001 making it the final “next-gen” console.

All of Nintendo's classic franchises have made an appearance on the Gamecube, and some have even had sequels produced. The classics such as Super Mario, Smash Brothers, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Harvest Moon, and Star Fox have been released over the course of the Cube's life. Some of them have been among the best games this generation, while others have been somewhat disappointing. The GC games in many of these long running franchises have gone through significant changes: Star Fox is an adventure not a shooter, Zelda is cel-shadded, Metroid is in the first person, Donkey Kong is a rhythm game, and so on. Not only are the old franchises still around, but many new games as well such as Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Viewtiful Joe, Cubivore, and numerous others.

There are a number of collections such as the Sonic Mega Collection, Zelda Collector's Edition, and the Mega Man Anniversary, all of which old-school gamers should love and even new player will enjoy since these are some of the best games ever made. Also noteworthy are a couple of games that are ports of games that were never released in the US before such as the Ocarina of Time Master Quest and Ikaruga. Many third party games today are not exclusive but either released on two or three of the platforms or exclusive only for a time. Generally multi-platform games look slightly better on the Xbox but much better than on the PS2. There are of course exceptions such as Sonic Heroes which is on all three system but best on the Cube and some games are only released on the Cube or PS2 so usually the Cube has the best version.

One of the worst problems the Nintendo 64 suffered from was almost non-existent third party support. Nintendo has managed to recover from this to a certain extent, but they have nowhere near the support they did during the Super Nintendo's reign. Some companies have greatly supported the Cube such as Capcom (P.N. 03, Resident Evil series, Viewtiful Joe, and Killer 7), Silicon Knights (Metal Gear, Eternal Darkness), Electronic Arts (007, Madden, NBA Street) and Sega (Super Monkey Ball, Sonic games, Phantasy Star). Quite a few of the games listed are not exclusive, however they were released on the Cube first and/or the GC version is significantly better. Other companies such as and SquareEnix (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles) have supported the Gamecube but still focused more on other platforms. In the end Sony still has the most of the Japanese third party developers, and Microsoft has most of the North American/European developers. Nintendo has gotten plenty of games from other developers over the last four years, however lately the number of upcoming games for the GC has been almost non-existent.

The problem is that third party developers tend to stick with the best selling system and other systems tend to lack a diverse enough library to make it worth owning that system exclusively. This is the problem that the Gamecube, the Nintendo 64, and pretty much every Sega system have suffered from.

The lack of third party support affects more than the quantity of titles; it means there is less diversity. Nintendo makes a large number of games, that cover a number of different genres, but they do not make all types of games, nor do they make enough for any specific genre that you can rely solely on Nintendo for your entertainment. Nintendo makes a lot of platformers and action-adventure games, but they make very few sports, RPGs, racing, or fighting games. They may have a great game or two in each category, but that is not necessarily enough. Another annoyance is that many of those games use characters from the Mario series which can get old after a while. There are third party companies that make games in all of these genres for the Gamecube however nowhere near as many games to choose from as on the PS2 or Xbox.

While Sony and Microsoft have been promoting their online services since day one, Nintendo has yet to take their games online. Sega has made three online games and there are a few LAN games. While there are plenty of offline party games, online play would have greatly enhanced games such as Smash Brothers, Monkey Ball, and the numerous Mario Sports titles. Some games, such as Mario Kart: Double Dash, have LAN support which allows two Gamecubes to be connected and played on two TVs. There is also a program called Warp Pipe, which allows people to use their PCs and the internet to trick two Cubes into thinking that they are physically connected, however this system is not supported, or even acknowledged by Nintendo.

Like all videogames released nowadays, Gamecube games are usually around $50 each, but come down in price as time goes on. Unlike previous generations where games started at $50 and stayed there for a long time, games never cost more than that now. Many of the best selling titles have been labeled as “Player's Choice” and reduced to $20 or $30 while other games drop in price fairly quickly after initial sales have peaked.

The console is very small, almost cube shaped, and comes in several different colors such as orange, purple, black, and platinum as do the controllers. Along the top of the console are three buttons for eject, reset, and power along with a flip-top disc cover. The tray is actually much better than the drive trays because if the eject mechanism breaks the tray can still be opened and closed, though it does not look as cool. The back of the Cube has plugs for both analog and digital output as well as the usual AC power cord and for some inexplicable reason, a handle.

The front of the console has ports for two memory cards and, like the Nintendo 64, four controllers. Having at least four controller ports built in is a great idea that thankfully has become standard. Multiplayer games such as Super Smash Brothers Melee are a lot better with four players instead of only two. While four players console games have been around a long time they are usually few and far between because they require optional hardware. Many gamers don't want to buy optional equipment and developers are not eager to make games for equipment very few people have.

The Gamecube is the least expensive of the three and seems to be the most durable. Even when it was launched the system cost less than the other systems and now it is only $99 as opposed to $180 for the Xbox or the PS2. Like all of Nintendo's other systems you can beat the thing with a blunt object or drive around with it tied to the back of a car and it will still survive (and yes, people have done this for some reason). While it is too soon to tell if the system can survive normal wear and tear for years to come, the GC has not had wide spread disc drive failures like the PS2 and Xbox have, which is always a good sign.

The reason why the Gamecube is so much less than the other systems is because it does not have any extra features such as DVD and mp3 players. Part of this is because it saves money and part is because Nintendo wanted to make a gaming only machine not a multimedia player. This unfortunately worked against Nintendo because it is not what most people are looking for. When it comes to features on electronics more is better, even if it comes at a higher price.

In one of the most effective efforts to combat piracy Nintendo decided to use mini-DVDs instead of standard ones. The discs have less storage capacity, so there are a couple of multidisc games, but they still have more than enough room for FMV movies and CD quality audio files. While the Xbox and PlayStation 2 were pretty much hacked as soon as they were released so far only one ROM has been made of a Gamecube game, no PC emulator exists yet, and it plays really badly on the GC.

The controller is acceptable, but still far from perfect and is in my opinion the least enjoyable of the three consoles' standard controllers. Unlike the Nintendo 64 controller which was radically different than the other system controllers, Nintendo at least made the controller somewhat similar to the rest. The controller has two analog sticks, a d-pad, four main buttons, and three shoulder buttons. It sounds good, but needs a fair amount of improvement. For one thing the analog stick on the right is not a standard stick; it is more of a knob with 360 degree movement. The four main buttons are not laid out in rows or the same size, instead the A button is huge, the B button is tiny, and the X and Y buttons are long and curve along the top and right side of the A button. Finally two of the shoulder buttons have two levels of depth, which makes each of them two buttons in one. The multifunction shoulder buttons and odd analog stick limit the number of things that a player can do at once, which in turn limits the games. An example of this is Metroid Prime where it is impossible to look and walk and the same time since both functions require the use of the left analog stick. While any skilled developer can work the controller into the gameplay, it does limit the potential a bit.

Nintendo did improve their controller design since the Nintendo 64; I will give them that much. The controller is comfortable to hold and all of the buttons are accessible. The controllers have built in rumble packs, which were optional and bulky on the 64 controller. One final issue with the controller is that the cords are way too short (only six feet while the PS2 and Xbox controllers are over eight feet long). There really is no reason for Nintendo not to have included another three feet or so of wire, except to motivate you to buy their wireless controllers.

The Wavebird, the wireless controller made by Nintendo, is quite possibly the only wireless controller than isn't a piece of junk. Instead of using infrared beams, the Wavebird uses radio waves, so you do not need line of sight with the receiver unit. Wavebirds can transmit on sixteen different channels so there shouldn't ever be a problem with interference from other people's Wavebirds while playing. The controllers have a range of around thirty feet, so one big controller problem is solved. While a built in rechargeable battery would be nice, two AA batteries last over fifty hours and the controller can be shut off. Unfortunately the rumble feature was removed to save battery life and each controller does cost $30.

Since discs are read only it is impossible to save game data to them like cartridges did, so it is necessary to buy memory cards. Originally Nintendo released the Memory Card 59 which could hold fifty-nine blocks of data. Most games are between three and ten blocks and there are some newer games that take over sixty. As a result the MC59 became obsolete rather quickly so Nintendo released the Memory Card 251 which holds, surprisingly enough, 251 blocks of data. This is an improvement in the sense that it is physically possible to hold all game data; however you may end up needing several different memory cards just to hold all of your game data. Nintendo recently (in 2004) released a memory card that holds over 1000 blocks, which would have been nice to have from the beginning.

There are a couple of different third party memory cards that hold huge amounts of data, however they are known for being unreliable. Most of these cards use imperfect compression algorithms that can result in corrupt data. This can destroy the game data, or in some cases, destroy all of the data on the card. Even though it is more expensive in the long run, it is best to stick with Nintendo's smaller but more reliable cards. Another thing worth noting is that with a few exceptions (such as Animal Crossing) most of the games that take up fifty or more blocks are multiplatform games, so if you own multiple consoles you can save money by getting the Xbox version. Overall the memory cards are a nuisance but do not make the Gamecube cost-prohibitive.

There are a number of accessories that can be bought separately. These include a small LCD monitor and rechargeable battery pack that tries to make the Gamecube portable, but fails miserably. There are also a ton of third party controllers and memory cards that are cheaper than Nintendo brand products. However third party controllers and cards tend to break easily or malfunction. For the most part you should only buy first party accessories (this goes for all systems, not just Nintendo's).

There are only two accessories that are even worth considering. One is the Game Boy Advance player, which allows you to play Game Boy games on a TV with a Gamecube controller. Because it is run off the Gamecube it uses the system's AC power and audio/video output. The only drawbacks are that you lose portability and GBA-GC connectivity, but the Player is half the price of a GBA SP. The other accessory is the Hori controller, which is modeled after the SNES controller. The two analog sticks are removed and the d-pad is where the analog stick used to be, and the controller is shaped like the SNES controller. While you cannot play most GC games with this, it is practically a must-have for playing compilations of older games or using the GBA Player.

Nintendo has twice decided that the old way of doing things are the best, and that they will continue to do things that way. While it is admirable that they are sticking to principles, both times it has ended up holding their consoles back and costing them market share. The first time was the refusal to switch from cartridges to CDs which helped attract both developers and gamers to Sony's PlayStation and this generation it was Nintendo's refusal to make their console a multimedia device. Consumers like multifunction devices because not only does it seem more powerful to them, but it also saves them money in the long run. If you have no preference among the three consoles then why buy a videogame-only system for $100 and a separate DVD player for another $100 when you can get one thing that does both for only $180?

Another bad habit of Nintendo is to initially release something that meets the minimum needs of their consumers and then later release something much better to be bought separately. Nintendo has done this twice with the GC: first by making the controller cords so short you will want a Wavebird and also by making the memory cards too small to hold a lot of games and then releasing the Memory card 251 and then the 1014, which are still small but looks better by comparison.

However you may feel about Nintendo's business practices, the Gamecube is still a powerful system with a number of great games for people of all ages. Of course, the same could be said about the PS2 and Xbox, so most people will probably want to own all three systems. If you can only get one system, then the Cube might be a bad choice. It makes a great second or third console, however there really just aren't enough games to keep somebody occupied for an entire console generation. However, if you have one of the other consoles and are looking for a second one, definitely look into the Gamecube, especially since you can get a Cube and GBA Player for less than the price of a PS2 or Xbox. Of course, at this point in time you might want to think about the next generation too.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/04, Updated 09/26/05