Nintendo GameCube

The older I get, the more interesting I find how something

can become way more popular after its time, rather than

during the time of its commercial life.

Doesn't always happen, doesn't even happen often,

but the reasons for something from the past to gain

some popularity after the fact can be very varied.

Could it be its form?

Could it be the library?

Maybe its the easiness for 4P Multiplayer?

Or rather, the Retrocompatibility of its successor?

Could it be just a simple "hipster" move of those?

I don't have a clear response to this, but I must say,

I'm pretty happy that this happens from time to time.

So let's talk about the Nintendo GameCube!

I think I don't exaggerate much when I say that the popularity for this system grew a lot once it's generation passed and let a new one begin. Anyway, as you can Imagine, the GameCube is the successor of the Nintendo 64.

Its creation actually started in 1997, shortly after the N64 was launched the year prior, and in fact a group of engineers that worked on the N64 formed their own group named ArtX, headed by Dr. Wei Yen, who was in charge of designing the architecture of the Nintendo 64. 

ArtX got together with Nintendo to design the new system (more specifically, the Graphic Processor, and the general design) around 1998, in a project codenamed Flipper, for a system originally named N2000 (I guess Nintendo 2000, as in the year?), though later it would be changed for what most people know nowadays, Project Dolphin in a press conference in 1999. 

...Interesting, ATI, Nintendo, and NEC (the Turbografx guys, yes)
united to create this system. Sounds cool to me.

In fact, the Dolphin thing is something that reappears often in this story and in fact has its mark on the early years of the console.

ArtX would end up joining ATI, a company that would show to be glad to work alongside Nintendo in press conferences, going so far as to say, and I quote, "The Dolphin Platform is reputed to be king of the hill in terms of graphics and video performance with 128-Bit architecture".

One of the biggest and most important aspects of the system's creation was trying to make things easier for developers, so they could create and port their games with the less amount of hassle possible. Howard Cheng, technical director of Nintendo technology development, actually had a lot of conversations with other studios, to know what were their needs and their worries.

And Greg Buchner, also said this:

"We thought about the developers as our main customers. In particular
for GameCube, we spent three years working with Nintendo of America
and with all sorts of developers, trying to understand the challenges, needs, 

and problems they face. First among these is the rising cost of development.

 The GameCube can see high performance without too much trouble;

it isn't a quirky design, but a very clean one. It was important we didn't

require jumping through hoops for high performance to be achieved. 

On top of that, it is rich in features, and we worked to include a dream 

group of technical features that developers requested."

And, certainly, the capabilities of the GameCube were generally superior compared to the previously released systems in that generation, namely Sega's Dreamcast and Sony's Play Station 2 (although, as I said many times, power is not everything), and the GameCube actually launched with a good selection of important Western-developed games, with stuff like Madden, NHL Hitz, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and the amazing looking Star Wars - Rogue Squadron 2 among others in the USA (and with an even bigger list in Europe), making a big contrast compared to the Nintendo 64 that came before it. 

Oh, and now that I'm comparing consoles, design-wise I find the GameCube to be one of the best designed consoles ever released, generally speaking.

...I never stop being surprised of how big the original XBOX really was, my god!

And I really mean it, I believe it's one of the home consoles with the most efficient design overall.

Making honor of its name, the GameCube has a cubic shape. A simple yet effective design, everything is where it should. It's really compact, and as you can see in the image above, it's way smaller than the other two big systems, yet it is very robust and has a good weight for it to not be easily moved, and its far less noisy than the other two (or at least, in my personal experience, my GameCube is way more quiet than my PS2 and a friend's Xbox).

This was not only positive because of how easy was to add into your gaming setup, but also shows what good engineering and design can accomplish, because if this machine can be this small, it's because what it's inside is very well thought out.

Which is something quite a few people seem to not care. I've spoken through the years with many people that don't even give a thought of how important is for a device like this to be well designed, so not only they work properly, but also don't waste resources and they can resist the pass of time.

A badly designed console can can bring some very serious issues like the Xbox 360 had, with a failure rate that was pointed out to be higher than 50% out of the factory, not even used once. Knowing that you have a reliable piece of hardware makes for much happier gaming I always thought, and it's something I'd like for companies to have in mind too, seeing how shoddy the build quality of some Play Station 4 units can be, some of my friends are already on their third system, which I find crazy, as they don't even play them enough to be wearing down so fast.

But anyway, important thing is, the GameCube is a well designed and resistant piece of hardware, and one that also came in a long variety of colors throughout its commercial life, similar to the N64 before it. In fact, the GameCube could very well be the home console with the biggest number of colored variations that exists, which is really funny when you see it wasn't all that popular sales-wise. And I mean colored variations, as, unlike the PS2, Nintendo's 128-Bit system never had a revision to change its shape or internal hardware, like the PS2 Slim. 

And what the hell, it's a damn home console with a handle. That's so Nintendo and so out there, that it's plain awesome.

Oh, and of course, you can't talk about the console without its controller!

I find very curious how this controller did never truly disappear,
as it has been compatible with every system that came after it!

Nintendo really learnt a lot with the development of the Nintendo 64's controller, and with its failures and successes. The Analog Stick proved to be both the biggest asset and also the biggest weakness of the original N64 controller. It was a total game-changer as far as movement control in 3D environments, offering a far more refined and sharp way to control games, but it's position in the controller left much to be desired, and it was also rather fragile, like people playing Mario Party could tell you.

The GameCube controller was a huge change for the better, and to this day you can still find many people swearing by it as one of the best controllers ever made, and while we've advanced quite a bit in certain aspects since it released, I have to generally agree with those who think that way.

The Stick was now on the left side, and took the place of the D-Pad as the main way to move around, which was for the best as the vast majority of games in this system were 3D games, while the D-Pad now positioned under the Stick, useful for menu selections and such.

After their absence in the N64 controller, the X and Y Buttons came back again, now having four frontal buttons like with the SNES. But instead of just having the same position as the Super Nintendo, the company designed them to be a bit different. 

Now, B, X and Y surrounded the A Button, and in fact X and Y have a curved form to accommodate that design idea. I personally find it very ingenious and great, as it lessened the gap between buttons, and made for, at least for me, more comfortable control. And with games designed specifically for the GameCube, like Viewtiful Joe or Sonic Heroes among others, you could feel how much of a difference the layout of these buttons really make, specially if you try their PS2 ports (although I'm afraid to say those two games were rather poorly ported to the PS2, but I'm just talking about the button layout).

The L and R triggers also come back, and this time better than ever, as they were Pressure Sensitive Triggers, meaning that depending on how lightly or forcefully you pressed them, it could affect gameplay. This is something that makes another big difference between versions of PS2 and GC games, with stuff like Crazy Taxi playing better with GC's controller thanks to the pressure sensitivity, and also games like Super Mario Sunshine used this for their main gameplay features.

The Z Button from the N64 changed a lot, too. It became much smaller, an instead of being a "substitute" for L in many games (because of the Analog Stick), it became more of an extra button with functions depending on each individual game. The C-Buttons were now transformed into a secondary Stick,  logically named C-Stick. For camera controls, it's way better than the previous buttons, and I find rather funny how often I saw people calling it "The Nipple". 

While all these changes are great and such, one of the biggest and most talked points back in the day was how comfortable was to have it in your hands. It really was a big improvement over previous controllers, and just like the console itself, it was highly resistant. The amount of abuse it could sustain and still work its baffling. I'm still using my original GC controller, which as a bit over 16 years, and it still works really well. 

Nintendium, man...

All in all, the only thing I think it could have been improved was the D-Pad, I find it slightly smaller than I would like, but that's just me. Although Nintendo thought the controller could have one improvement more.

Which, you ask? Well, to make it wireless!

With one of these you were set for life!

This is The Wavebird controller.

One of the many curiosity trivia of the company, is that Nintendo has tried to have wireless controllers since their beginning as a video game developers. One of the prototypes of the NES, the Advance Video System, was made to use two wireless controllers, and later, once the final NES released, they created the NES Satelite, an adapter that plugged into the console and let you play without wires, although it was a bit green still.

Most of the wireless controllers of the 80s used Infrared technology, which, while okay, had some big limitations and cons when trying to send constant information to a device, as they require a "visual contact" the entire tome for the information to be able to be sent and received.

If people can get angry with TV remotes and "not working" whenever you want to change a channel, imagine how frustrating they could be with a controller in which you're constantly pushing buttons.

Fortunately, the Wavebird avoids all those issues completely, as it uses Radio frequency, letting you use the controller anywhere and anyhow you want as long as you're inside the radius around the console, no matter if there were physical objects between you and the console.

Said radius was, from Nintendo's own words, about 6 meters around your GameCube, which is way more than enough, but several tests made by people have shown that the Wavebird can work correctly in a much bigger radius, up to 27 meters, which is kinda insane when you think about it!

The controller itself is pretty much the same as the original, with only a slight increase in weight for the battery slot. And don't you worry, it only takes two AA batteries; and it can last a damn long time, being able to even last several weeks turned on and having battery still for dozens of hours.

The only weakness, is the lack of rumble, and it wasn't added because it would drain battery life pointlessly. Generally speaking, the Wavebird is quite sought out, specially today, as we've been spoiled by wireless controllers since the Seventh Generation. 

But even without wires, you'll still have to get up your ass and change games yourself.

Hue hue hue!

Wait, what? Halo is rated M? Huh, I never paid attention to that.
Although to be fair I don't see Smash Bros. as a T, either...

Another interesting aspect of the GameCube is that, instead of using DVDs, it used Mini-DVDs, smaller versions that could store up to 1.36 GB.

While obviously it wasn't the 4.7 GB of your usual DVD, the compression tools used for Nintendo systems have always been quite superior compared to others, something caused by their stubbornness of keeping cartridges up until this very system (something that bit their rears and put them in trouble as far as support goes). Funny enought, Nintendo would go back to cartridges again with the Nintendo Switch, and while the sizes are way bigger now than back then, it has been very funny lately to see the size of Nintendo's current games on the Nintendo Switch, with stuff like Super Mario Odyssey not being even fully 6 GB.

In any case, this choice made for some games to come in two Mini-DVDs, like several games were divided in different CDs on the PS1. Examples of this can be found in Tales of Symphonia, Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes, Resident Evil Remake or Baten Kaitos. Another thing developers usually did was to compress sound slightly more than in other systems.

Another thing, and this one quite positive, is that the GameCube suffered way, way less about Loading Times compared to the Xbox, and specially the Dreamcast and the PS2. With almost every example you can try, you'll find that the Cube will take less time to load, sometimes having sizable differences between systems. This mainly happens because the discs are smaller, which means that the console has less space to look for information, added to the fact that GameCube games were organized in a way that helped the load of data to speed the process, and the fact that the reader was simply faster.

Anyone that has played enough PS2 or Dreamcast can attest how slow sometimes they could be, and how outright terrible some games were with their loading times. Games like Stuntman, the GTA games and Bully on PS2 or Crash: The Wrath of Cortex were pretty bad, but with games that had constant loading could be even worse. Finding long loading times it's rather hard on the GameCube, and I am only able to remember one, Finding Nemo, which is a pretty lackluster game that probably no one would want to play.

With all that said, I kinda think Nintendo should of have gone with normal DVDs, that would have made easier to port games into the console, which would have helped to its overall success... Although, thinking about it, it could have suffered the same problems too, and seeing how flimsy the PS2 lens tended to be (I don't know how many I've changed already, both for me and for friends), maybe the Mini-DVDs were a blessing in disguise. I mean, my GC works as well as the first day, while I changed PS2 several times, and each one had their lenses changed too, and I played that GC pretty much the same as those PS2 combined, in no small part thanks to games like Smash  Bros...

Which brings me to my next point!

  

Left: Fox McCloud in Smash Bros. 64 - Right: Fox McCloud in Smash Bros. Melee.
Goddamn, now this is a jump.

Just like the jump from PS1 to PS2 was amazingly big and great, the jump from N64 to GameCube is just as impressive. Maybe even a little more, seeing that the GameCube was more capable than the PS2, I suppose, but either way, both offered an incredible improvement.

Talking graphics, this Sixth Generation is, for me, the last time where we could see a really big jump in visual fidelity that made me feel like a true jump forward, not only in raw power, but also in what could mean for game design. Later generations, while improving on graphical prowess, didn't feel nearly as important to me, although that might have to do with the fact that the Sixth Generation was both an improvement in both visuals and overall stability and frame rate on a general level, instead of the flip-floping of the Seventh Generation onwards with their "graphics over frame rate/stability" choice, which I just can't agree with, specially when many of those games had sub-native resolutions and not that great visuals, which were supposed to be the focus.

As of today, GameCube holds many titles that still look really well today, although I won't talk much about specific hardware stuff here unlike I did for the 8 and 16 Bit system entries, as the small differences in hardware for those older consoles could mean a lot in the long run, like for example the better speed of the Mega Drive, or the transparencies of the Super Nintendo. The more modern a system is, the less interesting I tend to find the little things as game development starts to become more streamlined.

But anyway, as I said before, the GameCube packed a pretty good punch for its size. While it wasn't an Xbox, which would release years after and could play some games with a resolution of 720P and have better shaders, GameCube had tricks under its sleeve (like the Dreamcast had against the PS2), like a superior Data Streaming (for example, I've read that Xbox couldn't run The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or Metroid Prime as they were because of this), and because it had a generally better hardware than the PS2, you could spot sometimes big differences multiplatform games.

Resident Evil 4 is a great example of this, and I didn't even remember that it was such a big contrast between the PS2 and the GC versions. I mean, wow. But it was far from being the only example, specially with games that were designed for a better hardware than PS2 and later ported to it, although the usual thing was making PS2 the main version.


What I'm going to talk about is my personal experience, but most of the multiplatform games I've tried on both systems tend to look and perform better on the GameCube. Some games, like for example several published by Sega, were like day and night! Stuff like Sega Soccer Slam, Super Monkey Ball or the Sonic games both system had in common had gigantic differences and the PS2 versions really feel inferior to the point I would advise to not play them at all on that system.

But going back to a general picture, usually GC versions ended with better visual quality and frame rate (this is why I also know about the differences in load times). If we're talking about CGI videos, then PS2 usually came out first, as it had more space so videos needed to be less compressed than in GC. Although if I have to choose between CGI videos, mostly related to introductions and such, and the actual game itself, I rather choose the latter myself, specially today, when all these videos, no matter the platform, already look pixelated, being quite old by today standards.

But I want to stress that I only speak about multiplatform games. As far as I'm concerned, each console could shine in different ways with their exclusive software using their special tricks, like it should be, and GC + PS2 combo is one amazing duo if you ask me, only beaten by Wii + PS2, as you have three libraries instead of two. But at this point in the industry, the amount of games shared between consoles started to quickly grow, and we were getting further and further from having each system being mostly unique in their software offerings. Of course, that doesn't mean that if you check each library you won't end with very varied lists, I just point out that the days of mostly different libraries were coming to an end.

Something I really, really appreciate about this Generation is the fact that the jump wasn't just visual, but also in frame rate. While in the 8 and 16 Bit generations the vast majority of games worked in 60 Frames per Second, with the Fifth Gen. and the jump to 3D graphics, the frame rate for the most part was cut in half, and many games weren't able to maintain it stable. After all, everybody was trying to learn and understand 3D development, textures, polygons, environments, etc. It's completely normal and understandable, and I really like that generation too, has many great games. 

But the Sixth Gen. was a huge upgrade to this. Games not only looked much better, they performed much better too for the most part. Many titles started releasing at 60 Frames again! Titles like Metroid Prime or Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes with that visual fidelity, moving at 60 FPS, after seeing the previous generation was nothing short of amazing and wonderful.

Sadly that kind of went down with HD gaming, but whatever...

Now this price really hit the spot...

Despite all the great things going for the console, the GameCube, just like the Xbox (and previously the Dreamcast) had the terrible fortune of sharing the generation with the Play Station 2, a system that dominated the market like no other system has ever done.

While PS2 sold around 150 Million consoles, becoming the highest selling home console, the GC and Xbox ended around 22 and 23 million each (probably a bit more), making the GC one of the least successful systems for Nintendo ever during its commercial life.

Nintendo, trying to improve sales, actually slashed 100$ / 100€ from the retail price of the console, with a price of just 99$ / 99€, which was a really, really sexy offer, and I remember back in the day seeing a lot of people interested in the system with that price.

Just to give you an idea. It obviously cost less than a PS2... but it also was cheaper than a GBA. No, seriously, look it up, you could have this great system for less than a portable machine.

But I guess how much it sold doesn't matter that much today, although it radically changed Nintendo's direction with their hardware from that point on to this very day.

Changing subject, the GameCube had its share of accessories, as you may expect!

Two of the most important ones were the GC-GBA Cable Link and the Game Boy Player.

The first one let you, as you may imagine by that name, connect your GBA and GC games, in a very similar way to what the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak was able to do. Although this cable was a bit more interesting, as it offered more than a mere connection between games.

With certain games, you could use the GBA as a controller, using its screen as a sort of special menu, like in The Legend of Zelda - Four Swords, or Pac-Man VS. 

There were also games with special functions, like unlocking extra stuff connecting Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for GC and the two Fire Emblem games on GBA that left Japan to obtain extra battles, or Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, to being able to change monsters. Others, like Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg let you play unlockable games on your GBA, one of them was really cool as it was a exclusively developed tiny version of Nights Into Dreams for GBA, and looks way, way better than any mini-game has the right to when you factor that it has to fit in 256KB of RAM.

It's rather cool, and there's a decent list of compatible games.

Oh, Tingle, you and your shady schemes.
You have some sexy statues too, dude.

The GB Player was an evolution, of sorts, of the Super Game Boy back in the Super Nintendo days. It's an almost replica of the GBA hardware, and makes no use of emulation. You could play GB, GBC and GBA games, just like the original handheld system.

Funny enough, the GB Player started as a N64 accessory, created by Intelligent Systems (yup, the people behind Paper Mario and Fire Emblem), but it ended being adapted to the GameCube.

The GBP had a series of menus and settings you could mess around with, to personalize how you wanted games to be seen, choose different frames, like in the Super Game Boy, and such. Sadly, it wasn't 100% compatible with all games, some special cartridges, like those GBA Video carts were designed so they don't play on the GBP so they couldn't be "pirated".

Other games, like Kirby's Tilt 'n Tumble or Boktai worked, but because of their special additions (motion sensor and light sensor respectively), made playing such games more annoying on the GBP.

Besides those few games, though, it was a pretty good accessory. There was a Third Party attempt at this, called the Advance Game Port by Datel. It was connected to a Memory Card slot, but it had many problems, as, unlike the GBP, it wasn't native playing, but rather emulation, and not an amazing one. Both peripherals came with a Mini-DVD containing the software needed for them to work.

The system had other accessories, but they really were more for individual games, and if I talk about them, it will be by talking about those games too.

Dude, GameCube was so popular that it could be part of a headline about systems from decades
earlier than itself. Now that's popularity, don't you think?

Before finishing this entry and talking about the games themselves, I'd like to talk about its renewed popularity, as I pointed out in the introduction.

I really can't say when it started, really. Maybe it was the retrocompatibility of the Wii and its big success sales-wise. Maybe people started looking at it as the PS2 staying power went down. Maybe it's just contagious nostalgia that was passed down to other people through internet forums. Maybe, being less cynical, as Internet and the new technologies made easier to look stuff around, people started to have more interest in it, seeing how everybody and their mothers seem to share everything in social networks in the world of today.

Whatever it is, the Cube seems not only to have quite a larger following than back in the day, but also seems to enjoy a lot of veneration, sometimes to the point of a bit too much exaggeration if you ask me.

In one hand I find great that this system is now more popular and more people like it and enjoy its library, seeing many games receiving more attention is certainly something to celebrate, I say... But on the other hand it also caused a gigantic rise in prices, with many people trying to scam others with abusive prices, ruining it for everybody else. 

I guess it depends on what side you want to focus, I suppose. I rather be happy for the good things.

...Why is our life so short?

Now lastly, let's talk about the most important thing, the games!

Look above. That's just 32 games, but I can assure you, the list of decent to great games to check in this system is way bigger than that. In fact, in my personal "curated" lists, where I try to write down any decent game for a bunch of different systems, I have over 300 GameCube games written down. 

That's way more than you're probably ever going to play in a single platform. While PS2 has one of the largest libraries, and it's full of awesome games, GameCube does not have a shortage of games, and unlike the PS2, has way, way less shovelware to worry about. Compared to the previous system, the Nintendo 64, GameCube is such a great improvement that can't be said enough. I mean, this time we actually have quite a few RPG games!

In fact, the GameCube would find an ally that we would have never ever imagined in previous generations. 

One of the saddest things about the Sixth Gen. is the fact that Sega abandoned consoles, after the Dreamcast, sadly, couldn't achieve a good enough success. It was retired early because of a mix of bad moves made by the company in prior years, and the awful domination of the PS2. Was a huge letdown for any fan of video games that also wasn't a blind fanboy of any particular brand, specially, as the Dreamcast era of Sega was full of weird, unique, and really cheesy-awesome games.

But there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, Sega would still make games, and it actually started to make a pretty good relationship with Nintendo, offering a pretty great support to its consoles. Which means...

I adore these commercials...

...That Sonic was coming to GameCube, a Nintendo console. And let me tell you, this was a weird situation for everyone I talked with back in the day.

Finding one day that the two companies seen as the biggest rivals ever in the industry would work together was already quite the shock, but that the two biggest mascots of the industry would be in the same console, was like the rules of the universe changed and everything we knew was no longer true.

And it wasn't just Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the first one also came to the Cube with many extras, and Sega would even make Sonic Heroes using Nintendo's console as the main system, not to mention that they would also bring games like Skies of Arcadia, the Super Monkey Ball games, Sega Soccer Slam, Billy Hatcher and more.

Sega and Nintendo would even collaborate on F-Zero GX, game that to this day is still seen as one of the best racing games ever produced, and a game that has been many times asked for to bring back again. 

But of course there were many things besides Sega games!

It's just that I really enjoy how great was to see these two supposed rivals having a good relationship.

Other companies, like Capcom, also put interesting stuff into it, like Gotcha Force, the amazing Viewtiful Joe games, Killer7, several Mega Man games, or even Resident E-

Oh wow, yeah... That's right, Resident Evil, I almost forgot!

Of all things, I never expected back then for the GameCube to be "the console" to play most of the important and better games of the saga.

Capcom and Nintendo had a deal in which Capcom would port the games of the series to the GameCube, and Shinji Mikami, the thinking head of the saga back then, decided that Resident Evil 1 wouldn't be a straight port, but a full and complete remake with improvements all around. His reasoning is that the first game didn't age very well (It's true, it didn't age very well, it aged INCREDIBLY WELL to me!).

And they delivered big time! Resident Evil Remake was an amazing work, not only remaking the original game, but also adding a sizable amount of content into the original game, making it a longer and better game. It's still one of the best remakes ever made. 

Not only that, but besides ports of other games, the Cube would also get Resident Evil Zero, a new entry with classic gameplay, and the really important and game-changing Resident Evil 4, a game that pretty much popularized its style of gameplay, and it has been heavily replicated up to this day.

So you could play Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and Code Veronica in a single console. Now that was great! The ports themselves had better visuals than the PS1 versions, better load times, better control options (C-Type controls are the best), and other improvements, like RE2 being a single disc, so it was better than playing them in other places, and funny enough, the GC version of Resident Evil 3 is the only one to not be censored, for whatever reason!

The only thing I miss is a way to play the original RE1 in all of its cheesy glory, but hey, pretty great nonetheless!

This chainsaw-controller was made for Resident Evil 4.
It's so amazing as it is silly and uncomfortable, but it's quite memorable!

Of course, the Cube also has many other great games, like the unexpected Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes, or Eternal Darkness, which became a cult hit. Of course, you also had your Nintendo games, with Metroid Prime being a really important release for the system and hey, Metroid Prime 4 is now something that exists, so that's pretty cool too.

Before I joked about N64 and RPGs (Sorry, Ogre Battle 64!), and while GameCube does not have a super long list of role playing games, pretty much all of the games it has are pretty solid! Tales of Symhponia, two Baten Kaitos, Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door, Skies of Arcadia Legends, two Pokémon games (albeit I think Colosseum is a bit weak myself), two Phantasy Star, the first Fire Emblem game since the Super Famicom, and a few others. 

You also have more obscure but good stuff, like I-Ninja, Ribbit King, Pikmin or Chibi-Robo, some great sport titles, even if they're not my strong suit, some great racing games, both first party, like Wave Race, Mario Kart and Kirby's Air Ride, and third party stuff like Need for Speed, Burnout 2, Xtreme G, and such. As I said, when you stop and look, there's many games worth to check out.

In fact, now that I think about it, the GameCube also excels in the Multiplayer department!

Just like its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, the GameCube has four controller slots right out of the box, no need for multi-taps or weird accessories to connect, meaning, it's an amazing system for local multiplayer, and it has no shortage of games for that!

Besides all those sports and racing games, and the Super Monkey Ball games, that are not only fun Arcade games with multiplayer modes, but also sport multiplayer Mini-Games, specially Super Monkey Ball 2, you have Smash Bros. Melee, and other fighting games like One Piece Grand Adventure (like Powerstone), Soul Calibur II, a whole bunch of Naruto stuff, Bloody Roar, etc. You have Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, X-Men Legends 1 and 2 if you want Diablo-like games with a buddy, and Phantasy Star Online Ep. I & II is playable in Local with up to 3 other players, so that's also great. You have Wario Ware, and four, yes, four Mario Party games.

And if you're rich and have the necessary stuff, you can play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles or The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. And I'm leaving a lot of great games out!

This was a 251 Block card. Gray ones had 59 Blocks.

Of course, for saving all these games, you'll now need a Memory Card, like in the Play Station systems. We no longer have cartridges with SRAM saving, so what are we going to do...

Thankfully, unlike with Sony machines, you're not screwed over if you don't have an original Memory Card, and you also have cards of different sizes that won't give you problems. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Sony forced certain companies to put checks into their games to see if your cards were official. if they were not, they'd refuse to save, or would even corrupt your saves. and real Sony cards never went over 8MB. 

Yes, that sucked, big time. Good news are that it doesn't happen with GameCube, any decently made card will work, and because of it, you have a much bigger range in sizes. I myself use two 128MB cards, one for PAL and another for NTSC games, they're third party, were cheap, and never failed me once in the many years I've got them, and I'll probably never run out of space. It's such a relief compared to the PS systems, honestly, and it makes playing on real hardware less stressing. 

And I guess that's all I'll say for the system. To me, GameCube is a great system, and a joy to revisit often enough.  Has many great games, and thanks to the Nintendo Wii's retrocompatibility, I really never stopped playing GC games as time went on. 

It also has one of the most iconic boot up animations of any console.

So yeah, this is a system I dig quite a bit, and I can't wait to talk about its games!