Nintendo Game Cube On (Limited) Preview In 12 Cities

psxndc writes: "Nintendo has set up "Cube Clubs" at various US cities that allow you to go in and play (mainly first party) Game Cube games. Cube Clubs exist in Boston, San Francisco and Minneapolis, with plans to run in a total of 12 cities. I went to the Boston one today. Most games were disappointing, but Rogue Leader and suprisingly Luigi's Mansion were a lot of fun. More info on Cube.ign.com. A recap of the SF one is also there." Anyone else with first-hand reactions from this?

Comments

Gamecube is Spectacular

[uwmurray]

I haven't been to one of the 'cube clubs' but I've had my cube (import) for over a month now, and I can assure everyone that it is a great (little) system. The visuals in all three of the japanese launch games (Luigi's Mansion, Waverace - bluestorm and Super Monkey Ball) are fantastic, Luigi's and Waverace are particularily impressive. From a hardware standpoint I'm pretty impressed, Nintendo, ATI and IBM have done a great job designing this system, the footprint is small, the graphics look sharp, from what I hear it is a dream to write for and the controllers are out of this world.

As far as the funfactor of the Games:

Luigi's:
Great fun, great visuals but kinda short, I beat it (without knowing any japanese) in a bit over 7 hours.

Waverace:
Really intense. Spectacular graphics, awesome wave physics and good difficulty. Split screened with friends on a bigscreen is really wild.

Monkey Ball:
This game alone justifies the purchase of the system. I don't think I've ever had as much fun playing a game (on a console) with friends as I have with this one. The premise is wierd, (you manuver a monkey trapped inside a plastic ball through courses) but insanely addicive. Buy the system and buy this game.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Andrew Murray

Why I think XBox will eventually win

[Anonymous Coward]

First, I definitely think XBox will be a 3rd place seller his Xmas. I personally think GameCube will get 50% of sales, PS2 will get 33%, and XBox will only get 17%.

However:

We need to also keep in mind Sony and Nintendo's weak spot: developers.

Developers are continuing to complain that PS2 is just too alien, and only a handful of developers are able to get the promised performance out of PS2.

Developers are also complaining that Nintendo's licensing and distribution is way too heavy.

In the long run, I think many developers will be woo'd by Xbox for the following reasons:

* They can make as much money due to higher margins.
* Microsoft understands developer relations far better than Sony and Nintendo.
* Half billion dollars of marketing muscle will definitely help.
* Also, NVidia's developer relations are a major asset.
* Microsoft will make it very cheap for PC game developers to port DirectX games to Xbox. Look for a proliferation of newly anointed "console" developers to expand the XBox library (albeit with a lot of crap, too)

Yes, XBox has a lot going against it too, but Microsoft's history of winning over the long haul (Browsers, handhelds, databases, etc) makes me really believe that Microsoft will win this battle, too.

Re:Played it in Minneapolis

[melatonin]

probably lead me to pick up a Cube after the holidays. But even after an hour's worth of hands-on I'm not exactly dying to do so.

I don't think Nintendo's going for a strong launch. They don't really need to come running out the door screaming HEY LOOKIE AT WHAT WE GOT!

They've got the same stuff that they've had all along; their franchises. And that value is stronger than ever now that Pokemon is so strongly established (they haven't even announced a pokemon game yet!). They already know how well their franchises are going to work (Zelda '2' for the N64 sold like hell, even though the game was a piece of ass). Now's a good time to show off some new stuff, like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin (which looks amazing).

The N64 had a lot of flaws. It was notoriously difficult to develop for (although it sounds like the PS2 is worse), and the cartridges where incredibly expensive for developers. It was just much more cost effective(and in many ways, more rewarding) for developers to develop for the PSX. So Nintendo was quiet at the time and worked on the Gamecube in the background. The N64 was a flop in Japan and enjoyed moderate success in the states. The best thing they could do for it was to replace it :P

No more cartridges, no more pain-in-the-ass programming. They built it as a platform from the ground up to play games. The PS/2 and the X-Box aren't for that- they're made to take over your living room (pah, AOL vs MSN). The Gamecube ends up being a lot cheaper than the others too.

I expect that they intend to sell quite a few right now without trying too hard- they've got the kids cornered (who can expect Pokemon), and it's much cheaper. The launch titles at least prove that the system is capable; I don't expect most people to say 'it sucks' and dismiss it entirely (of course, some people will anyway. PIII RULEZ d00d!).

Next year, we can probably expect Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. Wow. And I can't begin to imagine what form F-Zero would be like on this thing. And then there's whatever Rare will make for the system. And then you have some very strong third party support.

Nintendo's drawing power is their franchises. There's no point in putting them all out at launch. Let Microsoft use up Halo, let Sony use up MGS2 to fight Nintendo. Nintendo already sounds like it has the next couple of years down solid. What are Sony and Microsoft going to deliver that's bigger than what they're doing this year? (I suspect that's there's an answer to this- I'll admit that I'm a bit ignorant here).

So why buy one now? Because duh, you like playing games! (and you don't think consoles suck because they're consoles). There's not much point in buying a PSX or N64 right now. The DC's a great choice (now that it's soooo cheap), but it doesn't have any long term potential. The 'cube is going to be fun now, and it won't be letting up any time soon. And the price is good.