The Nintendo Gamecube is a forgotten piece of gold that could have saved or at least delayed the inevitable fail of the Nintendo WiiU. And this forgotten behavior just adds to the legacy of the purple box that housed more hidden gems than disappointments. That poor purple box suffered from gamers’ post-traumatic stress from being N64 owners and also suffered from the giant third-party conquering monster known as the Playstation 2. Now, this blog entry is splitting into two categories: Why it Failed, and Why it Could Have Been Revived. Why it Failed belongs to my Entire World blog, with the Revived entry belonging to the Eighth Generation. Now, without further interruption, my upcoming 3,000 word dedication to the Nintendo Gamecube.
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Here is Part One, in case you missed it
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Why It Could Have Been Revived
The Nintendo Gamecube failed once. Nintendo wasn’t fully at fault on that one, despite some of their controversial and baffling decisions. The Nintendo Gamecube in the 2000s could have been revived, saved, and treasured by a new generation. This, was definitely Nintendo’s wrongdoing. The Gamecube has an entire cluster of excellent forgotten games from the 2001-2005 years that remains in Nintendo’s hands----yet remains only in their hands. We have seen two generations of Virtual Console, WiiWare, and superior technology that could have revived some of these games. We have seen two generations come and go and we still have barely scratched the surface of Gamecube history.
Let’s start with what we did see. We saw Wii-versions of Mario Power Tennis (Not as good as the N64 version, but whatever), Pikmin and Pikmin 2 (random), Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (No…), and the Metroid Prime Trilogy (easily the best choice here, for the WiiMote was the perfect controller for shooters). To say that Nintendo totally forgot about the sixth generation is a total lie.
Now, here was the issue: all the missing games. Eternal Darkness could have been absolutely perfect with enhanced graphics and motion controls—that type of horror would be elevated with more personal control (and lack of) of your actions. F-Zero GX was meant to be handled with that Wii-wheel. Smash Brothers Melee deserved an online tournament mode for the much wider audience. Then there’s Paper Mario, Four Swords Adventures, Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, and of course the criminally underrated Rogue Leader games.
The issues continue: the Virtual Console did not include Gamecube games not just once, but twice. Only 4 games in the Gamecube sold over 3 million copies, meaning there was a cluster of games that had been played by just an inch of a fraction of gamers. Why not give the base of 70+ million Wii owners the chance to replay these games? Third-party relationships could have improved if Nintendo had reached out and tried to re-release the franchise-best Soul Calibur II, Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil Remake, Tales of Symphonia, Viewtiful Joe (cult gem that did better on Gamecube) among others.
And of course, there’s also the WiiU and the missed opportunity to launch a Gamecube Virtual Console of some sort (ANY SORT) during the early months when the game lineup was stretched absolutely thin. It could have been much better to Nintendo if they had a lineup of 30-50 Gamecube games at cheaper prices while waiting for the next big game. It could have benefited Nintendo if we saw HD versions of Smash Brothers Melee, Luigi’s Mansion (maybe throw in the sequel for good measure?), the Super Mario sports games, Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario Trilogy, Eternal Darkness (Yes, I bring this game up again), and for goodness sakes, give us SOMETHING NINTENDO! Sorry, stopped analyzing and became a disgruntled fan…
Nintendo used to be the best at bringing up the past, and it’s because of a mix of having the best lineup of first-party games and having less issues with third-party companies and licenses (although it will forever be a darn shame that we’ll never have an updated Goldeneye or NFL Blitz 2000). But with Sony revving up its past much better than before, Nintendo has to step its game up. The Gamecube could have been that next level. And it didn’t happen. And although it wasn’t the main reason for the failures of the WiiU, the fact that Nintendo curiously decided to focus on the same NES, SNES, and (eventually…) N64 games (when they could have been transferred from the Nintendo Wii itself, WITH widescreen) was curious and downright…stupid. So Nintendo lost, and the Gamecube remains without a second chance to create memories and a legacy.
Bottom Line: The Gamecube remains a curiously odd chapter that just doesn’t get revisited or mentioned much. It had a slew of great games, a slew of creative games, and they mysteriously get little to no love outside the early 2000s. It is curious, and it is quite sad. This neglecting of 90% of the great Gamecube games has led partially to Nintendo’s broken relationship with the hardcore gamer crowd and has led to weak console sales (handhelds is a totally different, and much happier story). With the new system announced and definitely on the way, this will be Nintendo’s third opportunity to link back to the past and revisit the lost years that Nintendo experienced while under the PS2 shadow. The Gamecube was Nintendo’s last truly hardcore system and until they acknowledge and celebrate this, Nintendo will struggle reaching out to the remaining hardcore crowd.
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