A reader looks back at the much-maligned Nintendo GameCube, and explains why games like Metroid Prime and F-Zero GX make it his favourite console.
I will start of this feature by saying the PlayStation 2 is the best home console made and the SNES the best Nintendo home console made. I am not here to talk about either of those consoles but I am here to talk about my favourite console, the humble GameCube.
First off, let’s start with the design of the console as it’s not a cube more a cuboid. Some may hate it with its box like angular design but I like it because of this very reason. It is a very distinctive design as a console and really highlights how bland modern console designs are. Looking at the PlayStation 2 slim and the Wii, apart from the colours they look the same. As does the Xbox 360 and Wii U. The next gen offerings are a throwback to ‘80s VCRs.
I still to do this day do not understand the point of the handle. One good thing about it is if you were in a real console fight then this is the console to have as swinging that bad boy would be very easy, yes the original Xbox could do serious damage but only if you could pick the thing up.
The purple console made the controller look like a Fisher Price toy. The shoulder buttons were great as they had grooves that would protrude out which prevented the index fingers from slipping off. The analogue stick is still the best stick that I have used as it allowed for an unprecedented amount of precision, games such as Super Monkey Ball took full advantage of this.
I haven’t tried the Wii U but Nintendo have not been able to replicate the stick with the Wii controller stick. Even the C stick is superior to anything that Sony have produced. And yes, I have tried the Xbox controller and while extremely comfortable I found the stick not as good.
For me the real innovation on the controller has come with the button layout. In all games there are main action buttons and all the other buttons are performing secondary actions. What the GC button layout did great was to arrange the secondary buttons around the main action button. This may not sound like a big deal but it was very useful.
Take firing the Super Missile in Metroid Prime, if you wanted to fire one off you would charge with the ‘A’ button then holding the ‘A’ button press the ‘Y’ button and hold that down simultaneously. Now imagine doing this with the SNES four button layout, this isn’t impossible but it is more awkward. It is a shame Nintendo hasn’t followed this idea with subsequent controllers.
The most important part of a console is the games and the GC excelled here, not due to the quantity but the quality. I personally think what helped was that Nintendo’s biggest franchises, Super Mario and the Zeldas, weren’t amazing and out of this world as they were with SNES, Nintendo 64 and Wii games.
Super Mario Sunshine, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were great solid games, but next to some of the other entries in their respective franchises they were lacking. This allowed other Nintendo franchises to shine.
We know the problems in The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess but Super Mario Sunshine always felt like Mario was in someone else’s game and it was too easy with the hover ability. The only time the game came alive were during the void levels. If you nailed one on your first go without losing a life it honestly made you feel like a gaming god.
I could have had a game of Mario with just the void levels. Which leads to me to the correlation between the 2D Mario games and the 3D versions. Super Mario Bros. is Super Mario 64, Super Mario Bros. 3 is Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario World is Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Bros. 2 is Super Mario Sunshine. It is a crackpot idea but hopefully it does make sense.
One of the other Nintendo franchises to shine on the GC was Metroid Prime. The game looked absolutely stunning with some superb sound design. What Retro Studios did great was to put the emphasis on the exploration rather than the combat. When the combat came it did feel heated and tense, the boss fight with Thadus is probably my favourite boss fight ever but the fight with Meta Ridley has to be one of the most difficult, I think one of the problems may have been that I hadn’t collected all the power ups before going into it.
F-Zero GX to this day is still a stunning game and really showed the GameCube had excellent graphics capabilities despite its modest specifications. The game was rock hard and I bow down to anyone that has completed the whole game in all difficulty levels. The cut scenes were hilarious to watch as I am guessing they were supposed to be serious but came off extremely camp.
The GameCube saw a new Nintendo franchise in Pikmin, while the first game was restrictive the second did away with the 30 day cycle and made the game so much better. The fact the game had great graphics helped as well as some funny animations, especially when you did nothing on screen. The Pikmin themselves are fabulous and you genuinely cared about all your Pikmin and it felt like you had to save every single one. My heart did break every time a Pikmin died and the shriek it made as it died, not to mention its ghost flying off.
As a game played with only the controller Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was good at best. Add in the bongos and the game became something else. This is the most manliest game you will ever play. Yes games like Call Of Duty, Halo, and Gears Of War have macho characters but Jungle Beat would get the adrenaline pumping, the heart rate up and allowed you to flex your arm muscles. The game was easy to complete but trying to get the higher scores meant dedicating time and real physical energy.
The multiplayer games on the GameCube were also great, I know that some didn’t like Double Dash!! but it was a favourite in our household. The one game where we spent the most time on was Super Monkey Ball 2. Monkey Race was fun, Monkey Target was a great laugh if you knocked someone off, Monkey Dogfight was fun, Monkey Soccer was OK, as was Baseball and Tennis. The best was Monkey Fight, especially if you had the iron glove.
The other great multiplayer game was Zelda: Four Swords Adventure but we did not have enough Game Boy Advances and cables to fully appreciate the game.
The writing was on the wall for the GC when games aren’t being produced for it even when the game before it sold well. I am thinking of why Namco decided to only release SoulCalibur III on just Sony’s machine, despite SoulCalibur II being the bestselling on the GameCube and also having the best exclusive character. The graphics were excellent, maybe not as good as the Xbox version but they certainly gave the Xbox version a run for its money.
I will always forgive Capcom for anything they do as they were one of the few companies that supported the GameCube and they created some truly outstanding games. Viewtiful Joe was brilliant, as was the remake of Resident Evil. The showstopper was really Resident Evil 4 with its tense combat and QTEs that meant you never put the controller down. What really made Resident Evil 4 was that even though you were shooting most of the time the set pieces were varied that it never felt repetitive.
There are other great games on the GameCube which I can’t go into as my feature is probably boring the majority of the readership. But games such as Paper Mario, killer7, Chibi-Robo!, Super Smash Bros. Melee, WarioWare, Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg, Battalion Wars, P.N.03, Luigi’s Mansion, Fire Emblem : Path Of Radiance, Star Wars: Rogue Leader, Animal Crossing.
There are others that I have missed so please write in as I would be interested to know what games I should look out for. I have not included Eternal Darkness as I didn’t enjoy it and traded it in.
Hopefully I have been able to convince some to give the GameCube the benefit of doubt as a great console, if not thanks for reading. A word of warning if you are thinking of buying GameCube games. Some of the top releases are cheap to find but the rarer titles are very pricey.
By reader Alek Kazam
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk.