20th Anniersary of the Nintendo Gamecube

*Original TMNT Cartoon Fan* · 10-28-2021, 07:32 AM

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube, codename: Nintendo Dolphin.

The Nintendo Gamecube was first launched in Japan on 14 September 2001, and in North America on 18 November 2001. It was later released in Europe on 3 May 2002 and in Australasia on 17 May the same year.

Cartridges were replaced by optical discs. With the console, Nintendo failed to reclaim their market domination, lost during the mid 1990's. The Nintendo Wii was released in November 2006 and on 22 February 2007, Nintendo announced it had ceased first-party support for the console.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube

*Leo656* · 10-30-2021, 12:37 AM

Ahhhhhh, the 'Cube. Man, I loved this thing, and still do. I never had a purple one; I got mine in sexy black, with the GBA Player. Great investment, that was; for an extra fifty bucks I had access to hundreds more games, and I could play them on my TV and not parked directly underneath a high-powered lamp getting eyestrain on a Game Boy. I might've spent almost as much time over the years with the GBA Player as I did with the 'Cube itself.

It always got a ton of crap for being "the kiddie console", and that bugged me then and still does now. The "fun" purple color didn't help, nor did the damn lunchpail handle, nor the fact that Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker came out looking like it did and - despite being a fantastic game - gave "haters" all the ammo they could ever need about Nintendo consoles and games being "nothing but kiddie crap". I mean you could TRY and explain otherwise - I know I did, occasionally - and they'd just throw Wind Waker screenshots at you and mock you. Like "THIS is what you're defending, bro. THIS." Very tiresome. Especially since, even though I was initially one of the people who hated the new art style, I still absolutely loved the game anyway. But anyone who wasn't already "sold" on the 'Cube couldn't be bothered to care. It didn't have GTA3 or Vice City on it; therefore, it was a "kiddie console".

I mean, you still had about 95% of all the OTHER non-exclusive games that you could play on Xbox or PS2, with only a few exceptions. You still had your Mortal Kombat games and your Sonic games and everything else. It's like yeah, Nintendo themselves kept to the same "family-friendly" output that's defined them for decades, but outside of that you had almost the same library as the other consoles. So the whole "Whattya want with a Gamecube? That's not even a real console!" stuff was aggravating.

I will say, That Controller was definitely not ideally-suited to all types of gameplay. But I also never had any problem adapting to it, regardless of what type of games I was playing. That said, I once read it described in a magazine as the "Moon Octopus" controller and that's what I've called it ever since.

Certainly an... unconventional design.

But man, so many great games. MGS: Twin Snakes, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Wind Waker, SoulCalibur II, the WWE games... tons and tons of stuff. I confess, for multi-platform stuff I generally went PS2 first, then Xbox, then with the 'Cube I mostly only got the games you couldn't get on the other two. BUT, when my PS2 and Xbox both died, I eventually bought most of those other games on the 'Cube, and I gotta say... it really mattered very little, in the end. Like the graphics on those other consoles were a little bit sharper, which is partly why I preferred buying the multi-platform games on those consoles in the first place... but by this point, I'm grateful just to play those same exact games on a much more stable platform. My Xbox lasted like five years and my PS2 tapped out after about nine, but my 'Cube still works just fine. I love it.

I'm actually long overdue to hook mine up again, since I spent a lot of money the past year picking up a lot of games I missed over the years. My big one I'm missing right now is Code Veronica X; after that there's still a few I'm missing but most of them aren't so crazy rare or expensive. It's still pretty nuts how the market's gone; I paid like $30-40 for stuff I could've had for five bucks as recently as five years ago. But whattyagonnado? MOST of the kinda stuff I'm most interested in, is stuff that's highly unlikely to ever see a rerelease or anything, for multiple reasons. So I'm very glad I still have mine and it's still kicking. Pretty soon I'm gonna hook it up and buzz through a bunch of stuff I never played.

It has a pretty mediocre reputation, but Real Ones Know.

*Andrew NDB* · 10-30-2021, 12:47 AM

I got some good enjoyment out of my GameCube. Good stuff.

*FredWolfLeonardo* · 10-30-2021, 01:00 AM

Best controller ever.

*Leo656* · 10-30-2021, 01:04 AM

Man, I forgot to mention how much of a big deal that built-in four-player co-op was, when it came to having friends over for the weekend. That rocked on the N64 and was just as awesome on the 'Cube. Between the N64 and the 'Cube we had some epic weekends over the years.

ONE time someone brought over a PS Multi-tap and it just wasn't the same. I mean functionally, yeah, it was... but it just didn't feel the same. Something about couch co-op on a console that was built right outta the box for it. I can't really explain it.

*The Deadman* · 10-30-2021, 08:56 AM

One of the best games ever made for the Gamecube will always be Simpsons: Road Rage. Sad it never got a remaster or proper sequel.

*Leo656* · 10-30-2021, 09:00 AM

Was that the GTA ripoff one, or the Crazy Taxi ripoff one?

Both were alright but I didn't get to spend much time with either. I bought one but the GameStop yokel put the other game in the box by mistake. So I think I was trying to buy the GTA ripoff one but got the Crazy Taxi ripoff instead.

They're both crazy now, price-wise. But I still might splurge on the GTA ripoff one just to have it. By all accounts that was the "best" Simpsons game until... well, "The Simpsons Game" a few years later. Not that that's a high bar, but I liked what little I played of it and I've only heard good things.

*The Deadman* · 10-30-2021, 09:01 AM

Road Rage was the Crazy Taxi clone. Hit and Run is the GTA clone.

*Storm Eagle* · 10-31-2021, 11:27 AM

I still have mine hooked up to the TV, because of the Game Boy Player. I don't care if the GameCube was one of Nintendo's least popular consoles, and I didn't care that there was no online gaming feature. I still enjoyed it.

My best memories of the console:
-renewing my Nintendo Power subscription near the end of 2002, and having the option to do it and purchase Metroid Prime as well as a 59 memory card
-getting a disc for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Master Quest when I reserved a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
-The Wind Waker being the only Zelda game so far where I've never lost a life when playing
-getting a Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition disc when I renewed my Nintendo Power subscription near the end of 2003
-getting a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes bonus disc for registering some products (I don't remember what they were)
-being able to rent Star Fox Assault at Blockbuster before it was released in stores, as well as finishing it. I'd also buy my own copy even if it's not one of my favorite games from the series

*sdp* · 11-04-2021, 10:55 AM

Loved it, here is a small little tribute & memories of Nintendo's Gamecube. Nintendo tried hard to regain the "cool" factor but it was a lost battle and Nintendo was "doomed" after this. I loved it and had a great time with it, fell off of gaming during this era but came back during the Wii era and because of the backwards compatability got to enjoy more gamecube during this time. Each nintendo era is very different but this one is a bit overrated but it's still fantastic, underdog Nintendo eras always have great memorable experiences that are created to deal with it.

*oldmanwinters* · 11-04-2021, 11:12 AM

Take a moment to appreciate Luigi's dust:
https://kotaku.com/luigi-s-mansion-t...IswMCbnfwWhl6E

10-28-2021, 07:32 AM	#1
Original TMNT Cartoon Fan Overlord Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Sweden Posts: 10,155	20th Anniersary of the Nintendo Gamecube 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube, codename: Nintendo Dolphin. The Nintendo Gamecube was first launched in Japan on 14 September 2001, and in North America on 18 November 2001. It was later released in Europe on 3 May 2002 and in Australasia on 17 May the same year. Cartridges were replaced by optical discs. With the console, Nintendo failed to reclaim their market domination, lost during the mid 1990's. The Nintendo Wii was released in November 2006 and on 22 February 2007, Nintendo announced it had ceased first-party support for the console. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube

10-30-2021, 12:37 AM	#2
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	Ahhhhhh, the 'Cube. Man, I loved this thing, and still do. I never had a purple one; I got mine in sexy black, with the GBA Player. Great investment, that was; for an extra fifty bucks I had access to hundreds more games, and I could play them on my TV and not parked directly underneath a high-powered lamp getting eyestrain on a Game Boy. I might've spent almost as much time over the years with the GBA Player as I did with the 'Cube itself. It always got a ton of crap for being "the kiddie console", and that bugged me then and still does now. The "fun" purple color didn't help, nor did the damn lunchpail handle, nor the fact that Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker came out looking like it did and - despite being a fantastic game - gave "haters" all the ammo they could ever need about Nintendo consoles and games being "nothing but kiddie crap". I mean you could TRY and explain otherwise - I know I did, occasionally - and they'd just throw Wind Waker screenshots at you and mock you. Like "THIS is what you're defending, bro. THIS." Very tiresome. Especially since, even though I was initially one of the people who hated the new art style, I still absolutely loved the game anyway. But anyone who wasn't already "sold" on the 'Cube couldn't be bothered to care. It didn't have GTA3 or Vice City on it; therefore, it was a "kiddie console". I mean, you still had about 95% of all the OTHER non-exclusive games that you could play on Xbox or PS2, with only a few exceptions. You still had your Mortal Kombat games and your Sonic games and everything else. It's like yeah, Nintendo themselves kept to the same "family-friendly" output that's defined them for decades, but outside of that you had almost the same library as the other consoles. So the whole "Whattya want with a Gamecube? That's not even a real console!" stuff was aggravating. I will say, That Controller was definitely not ideally-suited to all types of gameplay. But I also never had any problem adapting to it, regardless of what type of games I was playing. That said, I once read it described in a magazine as the "Moon Octopus" controller and that's what I've called it ever since. Certainly an... unconventional design. But man, so many great games. MGS: Twin Snakes, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Wind Waker, SoulCalibur II, the WWE games... tons and tons of stuff. I confess, for multi-platform stuff I generally went PS2 first, then Xbox, then with the 'Cube I mostly only got the games you couldn't get on the other two. BUT, when my PS2 and Xbox both died, I eventually bought most of those other games on the 'Cube, and I gotta say... it really mattered very little, in the end. Like the graphics on those other consoles were a little bit sharper, which is partly why I preferred buying the multi-platform games on those consoles in the first place... but by this point, I'm grateful just to play those same exact games on a much more stable platform. My Xbox lasted like five years and my PS2 tapped out after about nine, but my 'Cube still works just fine. I love it. I'm actually long overdue to hook mine up again, since I spent a lot of money the past year picking up a lot of games I missed over the years. My big one I'm missing right now is Code Veronica X; after that there's still a few I'm missing but most of them aren't so crazy rare or expensive. It's still pretty nuts how the market's gone; I paid like $30-40 for stuff I could've had for five bucks as recently as five years ago. But whattyagonnado? MOST of the kinda stuff I'm most interested in, is stuff that's highly unlikely to ever see a rerelease or anything, for multiple reasons. So I'm very glad I still have mine and it's still kicking. Pretty soon I'm gonna hook it up and buzz through a bunch of stuff I never played. It has a pretty mediocre reputation, but Real Ones Know. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

10-30-2021, 12:47 AM	#3
Andrew NDB Weed Whacker Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Auburn, WA Posts: 29,279	I got some good enjoyment out of my GameCube. Good stuff. __________________ [ ODYSSEY \| ORIGIN \| THE IMAGE/VOL. 3 CONCLUSION \| THE SHELLSHOCKED PODCAST \| ON FACEBOOK ]

10-30-2021, 01:04 AM	#5
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	Man, I forgot to mention how much of a big deal that built-in four-player co-op was, when it came to having friends over for the weekend. That rocked on the N64 and was just as awesome on the 'Cube. Between the N64 and the 'Cube we had some epic weekends over the years. ONE time someone brought over a PS Multi-tap and it just wasn't the same. I mean functionally, yeah, it was... but it just didn't feel the same. Something about couch co-op on a console that was built right outta the box for it. I can't really explain it. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

10-30-2021, 08:56 AM	#6
The Deadman Foot Elite Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,990	One of the best games ever made for the Gamecube will always be Simpsons: Road Rage. Sad it never got a remaster or proper sequel. __________________ Last Movie Watched: Hell House LLC (2015). Last TV Show Watched: Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog (S1:E29).

10-30-2021, 09:00 AM	#7
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	Was that the GTA ripoff one, or the Crazy Taxi ripoff one? Both were alright but I didn't get to spend much time with either. I bought one but the GameStop yokel put the other game in the box by mistake. So I think I was trying to buy the GTA ripoff one but got the Crazy Taxi ripoff instead. They're both crazy now, price-wise. But I still might splurge on the GTA ripoff one just to have it. By all accounts that was the "best" Simpsons game until... well, "The Simpsons Game" a few years later. Not that that's a high bar, but I liked what little I played of it and I've only heard good things. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

10-30-2021, 09:01 AM	#8
The Deadman Foot Elite Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,990	Road Rage was the Crazy Taxi clone. Hit and Run is the GTA clone. __________________ Last Movie Watched: Hell House LLC (2015). Last TV Show Watched: Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog (S1:E29).

10-31-2021, 11:27 AM	#9
Storm Eagle Saved by Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New York Posts: 3,238	I still have mine hooked up to the TV, because of the Game Boy Player. I don't care if the GameCube was one of Nintendo's least popular consoles, and I didn't care that there was no online gaming feature. I still enjoyed it. My best memories of the console: -renewing my Nintendo Power subscription near the end of 2002, and having the option to do it and purchase Metroid Prime as well as a 59 memory card -getting a disc for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Master Quest when I reserved a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker -The Wind Waker being the only Zelda game so far where I've never lost a life when playing -getting a Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition disc when I renewed my Nintendo Power subscription near the end of 2003 -getting a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes bonus disc for registering some products (I don't remember what they were) -being able to rent Star Fox Assault at Blockbuster before it was released in stores, as well as finishing it. I'd also buy my own copy even if it's not one of my favorite games from the series

11-04-2021, 10:55 AM	#10
sdp Megan Fox = April Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tokio, Italy Posts: 9,999	Loved it, here is a small little tribute & memories of Nintendo's Gamecube. Nintendo tried hard to regain the "cool" factor but it was a lost battle and Nintendo was "doomed" after this. I loved it and had a great time with it, fell off of gaming during this era but came back during the Wii era and because of the backwards compatability got to enjoy more gamecube during this time. Each nintendo era is very different but this one is a bit overrated but it's still fantastic, underdog Nintendo eras always have great memorable experiences that are created to deal with it. __________________ *Bye* *TMNT !!! I'm unaliving tonight* Click to join The Drome Discord server

11-04-2021, 11:12 AM	#11
oldmanwinters Overlord Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Between yesterday and tomorrow! Posts: 14,940	Take a moment to appreciate Luigi's dust: https://kotaku.com/luigi-s-mansion-t...IswMCbnfwWhl6E __________________ Experience the TMNT Fan Commentaries! Check out my TMNT fan comic, "Nothing to Fear"! View my sketch work! I'm selling some of my hard-to-find TMNT items!