Exit Gamecube. Bring on the revolution.
by Ben Zackheim 
{ Jan 21st 2005 at 1:00PM }
The Chicago Tribune throws in its sense of where the Gamecube is, and where it's going. The piece follows a pretty
solid logic, noting that Nintendo has been eerily hushed-up about the console since the pre-holiday season. This kind
of speculation comes as Resident Evil 4 blows the socks off of everyone, mind you. The tone near the end is a little
dire, in my opinion. The GC may not be number one but, by most accounts, it's been a winner for Nintendo. If it's
making money, and it fits the company's goals, then screw what your ranking is.
But the fact is every console has its day, and the GC's may have passed in much of the world. As it slowly fades away
(along with Xbox and Playstation 2), we can look forward to the next-generation of hardware, accessories, hype,
promises, flames, rants, rumor, and, oh yeah, games.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris Maguire @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
The people who are ringing the death bells for the Gamecube now sound remarkably similar to the people who shrugged it off when it was first introduced. Despite what these journalists suggest, the Gamecube had a slight market lead over the xbox up until at least the holiday season. I haven't seen any numbers since the fall, but the xbox dominance cited by many writers is spurious at best. Sony is the clear market leader, and Microsoft and Nintendo have been fighting it out for second place.
This is a well-designed console that still holds a large portion of the market and continues to release some of the best games the world has ever seen. It is the most competitively priced modern home console, despite being significantly technically superior to the market leader.
It would be incredibly shortsighted to state that the gamecube is dead. All three home consoles have been producing phenomenal games, and they are all worth playing.
What I think is significant right now is that this is the first time the industry has supported three independent major home consoles at the same time. We used to think that this wasn't possible, that there weren't enough gamers to support that many systems. Perhaps those signaling the premature death of the gamecube are unable to grasp that there is now room for three competitors to remain successful.
Danny @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
An excellent point. The GameCube is a product that has made Nintendo a profit. What else can a company hope for? It's pretty amazing that the market has been supporting 2.5 of the leading consoles (the Xbox project has not exactly been profitable for MS. Good thing they have the money to pick up its slack).
illdefined @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
N64 was a failure, and Cube wasn't even close to target projections. the Cubes numbers were dismal until they went to $99, i don't think they a made a profit. nintendo would have gone the way of Sega if not for its Gameboy domination.
Luke @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Illdefined: N64 may not have been what it could have been, but a failure? Come on.
And yes, I am sure Nintendo wanted the Cube to do better than it did, but the numbers weren't "dismal" until they went to $99. And even if they were, why should it matter if the $99 helped them sell more cubes? As was mentioned before, Gamecube may not be in third place worldwide, but it is FAR from being a distant third place. Why do people insist that the Gamecube is so far behind the Xbox?
And regardless to if you *think* Nintendo made a profit with the Gamecube, the reality is that they did. Sorry.
Chris Maguire @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
There were over 37 million N64s sold.
The original Playstation sold over 100 million units.
While there is a significant difference between those numbers, one would be hard-pressed to call 37 million sales a failure. N64 was home to some of the best-loved games of all time, and those games kept Nintendo well within the black.
Gary Wong @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
I recall that when the Gamecube launched at the $199 pricepoint, it was already breaking even or slightly profitable. To say that the Gamecube is a failure just because it came in third (and it was exactly a blowout on the Xbox' part) is dismissive at best and totally ignorant at worst.
The Xbox was losing money (possibly $100?) on every console sale when it launched. That hardly bothered Microsoft since they were using this generation of consoles to break into the market. Treading water with Nintendo alone makes the Xbox a success.
The next generation should be fun!
John @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
I was thinking of picking up a used cube what would be your suggestions for the the 10 must have games for the system (other then obviosly res evil 4)
Kamalot @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
I think the next generation is going to be excellent and I can't wait to see what happens.
The statements about Nintendo's next system, Revolution, are certainly interesting. Much more so than Sony's hype about cell technology.
I also didn't know that Nintendo was 2nd place worldwide. The way Microsoft spends money on advertising, you'd think everyone and their Aunt has an Xbox.
How many of Sony's number of units sold are replacement PS2s due to the system's breakage rate?
Bud @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
John-
The must have 10 I think would vary so much depending on the style of game you like. I find metacritic.com is a great place to look at overall impressions of games and give me ideas for what to try. I'm a big proponent of rent before you buy, too.
That said, here a couple musts in my opinion:
Pikmin (1 or 2? I lean towards 1, honestly)
Eternal Darkness
Burnout 2
Zelda Windwaker
A couple that people rave about that I haven't played:
Animal Crossing
Metroid Prime
And a couple of my favorites that aren't must have:
Baldurs Gate
Gauntlet
Simpsons Hit and Run
Viewtiful Joe
Just started Paper Mario so the jury is still out.
Chris Maguire @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
John, I'd suggest
Zelda: WW (obvious must-have)
Viewtiful Joe (quirky 3d side-scroller)
Super Smash Brothers Melee (amazing gameplay, multiplayer is second to none)
Super Monkey Ball 2 (sleeper hit of this century)
F-Zero GX (perhaps the best racer of all time?)
Metriod Prime 2 (phenomenal)
Paper Mario (hilarous and surprisingly deep)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (amazing controls, addictive as hell)
Wario Ware (among the strangest games ever, great for multiplayer)
bstriegs @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
As far the N64 was concerned, in the end the only people who were laughing were Nintendo themselves; laughing all the way to the bank. Think about it: the N64 was THE MOST PROFITABLE CONSOLE of the last generation.
As for this generation, there's no doubt that M$ is burning money for market share (and like someone said, last time I checked the 'Cube had sold more worldwide than the 'Box). I doubt that at $99 the N's making profit on hardware, but I'm guessing they're not taking too much of a loss (that's been Nintendo's trump card since the eighties: lower prices). And I'm not sure about the PS2's profits, but last time I saw figures their whole entertainment division had lost money (but this was for 2003, and accounts for much more than just PS2 sales).
Luke @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
List of gamecube must haves.
(in some kind of random order)
-Pikmin 2
-Legend of Zelda: Windwaker
-F-Zero GX
-Resident Evil 4
-Super Smash Brothers
-Viewtiful Joe
-Eternal Darkness
-Metroid Prime
-Metroid Prime 2
-Soul Caliber 2
-Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
-Super Monkey Ball 2
-Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Honorable mentions
-Super Mario Sunshine
-Super Monkey Ball
-Viewtiful Joe 2
-Pikmin
-Donkey Konga (it's fun, for real)
-Metal Arms: Glitch in the system (this is a great game)
-Mario Kart: Double Dash
-Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
-Mario Power Tennis
Games that aren't out yet, but are probably going to be great.
-The new Legend of Zelda!!!
-Star Fox Assault
-Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Obviously this depends on taste and preference. I don't guess the cube is a great system for sports games and first person shooters, but it does have some. Bottom line, Gamecube has more than it's fair share of awesome games that well justify a $99 investment.
And yes, I noticed that 80-90% of games on my list are made by Nintendo itself. Which brings me to the point that if Nintendo get's it's "third party" act together, they can once again be number 1.
Luke @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
And Bud, do yourself a favor man, get Metroid Prime! At the budget price it is at now, what's your excuse for not owning this masterpiece?!?!?
Luke @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Ugh! Sorry to post *again*, but I just wanted to add "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" to my list of "must haves". I promise I won't post anything else (at least until someone else does).
NergiZed @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
I think that the big three are all equally matched. The cube's got a great balence on both good games and graphics, and hold alot of classics like Zelda, Mario, Metroid, ect. (enough to make Super Smash Melee), and the design might not be the smallest, but it's still quite convinent (gotta love those controllers, especially the wavebird). Cube's also the cheapest, and I think it's more reliable compared with the other two.
The PS2 has definetly the best games, and the most, not by a landslide compared with the other two, but enough to make it considered to be the best. The graphics of the games are better than the cube, but the graphics that the console itself can sustain is less than the cube, so at rare occasions it won't be able to handle the intense graphics. The smaller PS2 is cool I'd say it's worth buying, but since 3 new systems are coming out(Nintendo Revolution, Sony PS3, and Xbox Next/Xbox 2) I suggest you to save your money, because the consoles are all $300+ and most games are $60+. If the small PS2 came out a year ago it would've cruched the competition.
The Xbox, the system with the best graphics and the most mass. Xbox offered good compition with the cube for second, it does have a few very good games like, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and ofcource none other than Halo. Halo some say it's the best game ever, I say it's better not best, because there is never a best game ever only, better then others, not saying that Halo (and Halo 2) is not good, it's better than most of all games out there, in fact the game is so good, it's the main reason people gets Xbox. The Xbox live feature is also quite impressive but ie's very pricey.
The new portables aren't doing very well. The DS is good and all but the only three games that are worth getting so far is Wario Ware Touched, Mario 64 DS, and Feel the Magic. The DS's battery life, graphics, and special features are great, the system itself is fantastic, but the good game to bad game ratio is horrid (I think), and the good games that are coming out keep getting delayed like Metroid Prime Hunters, From March to October to November, and Advance wars DS also from March to October. Thats not cool. Although it still looks good for the DS, DS castlevannia is an highly anticipated game that coming out soon (soon as in within a month). The DS is a more practical portable system.
Heard alot of dirt about the PSP, also heard some good points, more dirt than good. Games on the PSP are good in a different way that the DS one's are. Although short battery life is what killed the Atari Lynx (big GB color) agaist the original GB (brick). But it's sort of a opposite of the DS, it's games are good but the system's gaming capability is less (bad battery life, no wireless, the need of memory cards, bigger games compared to DS). Although it's not as good of a portable system compared to the DS it's other features are very interesting. Since Sony has been making CD players and MP3s for years the Sony PSP's ability to be a walkman is cool, although for a walkman it's battery life is still pretty short (10-14 hours). It can also play movies. Even though the DS can also do these things with the cooperation of a special DS media catrige, special USB accepting GBA cartrige and special software, I would think that with years of experience and a bigger screen that the PSP would performe better in this catagory. So if you don't like the PSP's gaming performance, think of it as a cheap but crappy MP4 player.
The Revolution sounds ... umm ... different. The controllers are using some Gyroscopic tech. which detects motion, pressure, and other random junk. I've heard some pretty cool rumours about Super Smash on the Rev. I hear there's 50+ characters and you can play as a few new characters like Ridley (from metroid), Wario, Deoxys (mewtwo like pokemon in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald), and even team rocket! I hear that they are also going to include characters from smaller and/or more recent titles like some characters from Advance Wars, Earthbound (Why more?), and Fire Emblem, they also might include Pac-man(ew) and Sonic (awsome). I just hope that I don't have to do jumping jacks while I play this game. I'm not that sure if these rumours are correct, but the guy that I heard this from said that the chunk of info on a site was from a reliable source. I also researched some myself and found out that the rev. has a 15G harddrive, and I'm 90% sure it's gonna have broadband capibility. It's also going to use double sided 1.5 inch(I think it's 1.5) discs and will be backward compatable with the GC. It will be released before the PS3 in December 2005. Don't get bad thoughts about it because you think Nintendo rushed it, they've been developing it right after the GC came out.
Not much info on the GB Evolution, all I know is that it's not going to use cartriges, it's going to have the same basiv design as the DS, and might be compatable with the Rev. In short it's a smaller PSP. It should be out in 2006.
If any of you have more info about the rev., SSB on the rev. , or GB Evolution, POST IT!!