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

Played it in Minneapolis

[Murdock037]

I played a few of the games at the Mall of America on Friday night, and on the whole, it was impressive, if not mind-blowing.

Luigi's Mansion, the new Smash Bros. game, and Pikmin looked pretty decent, but far and away the most impressive game showing was Rogue Squadron. (There were a few games missing-- Zelda and Metroid aren't due out for awhile, so don't expect them in any of the other cities if you go.)

Unfortunately, even the ones there weren't marvelous. There's nothing on deck that I saw that would make me want to buy a GameCube come November 18th, even though it's a hundred bucks cheaper than Xbox or PS2. There's no flagship title yet-- it's missing a Metal Gear Solid 2 or a Halo.

Of course, Nintendo had everything running under the best possible conditions-- you have to wonder what the games will look like on regular televisions, instead of the HDTV screen they had up. The remarkable detail crammed into Rogue Squadron could easily get lost.

The controller was a bit less awkward than that of the N64, but it's not the kind of thing you'll get used to right away.

My affection for Nintendo left over from the original NES will 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.

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.

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

I was at Boston today

[Pzykotic]

More specifically it's in Cambridge, right near Technology Square. It seems to be in some boiler-making company's building, very odd.

Panasonic was there with Nintendo, and provided about 15 HDTVs. They looked amazing, and the following games were there:

Madden 2002
Luigi's Mansion
Star Wars game (The name escapes me at the moment)
Monkeyball
Super Smash Bros Melee
WaveRacer
NBA game (dunno the name of this either)
Pikmin

There were also 2 small booths with larger HDTVs and surround sound, to enhance the experience. The two games on display in those were Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion.

I would have taken pictures, but my camera was confiscated at the door :)

My favorite game is a tie - Super Smash Bros Melee and Pikmin both rocked my world. The graphics on all the games were amazing - Madden 2002 looked like an actual TV broadcast of an NFL game (But there were 2 guys hogging it the entire time, playing a full game. The bastards. :P)

Loud music, even a coulple "Booth Babes", and loads of free junk (Nintendo Power, foam cubes, tattoos, contests to enter...)

It was pretty cool, but I wish they had had SSX there, or some more killer multiplayer games. I urge anyone that can to check it out, it's at 275 Third Street, in Cambridge. That's right near the Kendall Square stop on the T, and sandwiched in between MIT and Harvard (as is everything in that city :P)

Any questions, just reply, I'll be keeping an eye out!

-Luke

What is 60 fps... Interlaced?

[alexhmit01]

Okay, a standard television can do 640x480 interlaced (called 480i if you follow DTV specs). This is 60 fps interlaced, which is really 30 fps. Alternatively, you can do a 240p signal in the 480i system, which is what the original Nintendo system did. (IIRC)

With a HDTV-ready system and a Gamecube, you can do 480p, which is 640x480 progressive, which can provide a true 60 fps signal.

Because of the size and shape of my living room, I have a standard size television, which is a 4:3 ratio. Some of the HDTVs are full-screen (4:3) and some are wide-screen (16:9). You can send a 16:9 signal to a 4:3 television and it letterboxes (or you swap the aspect ratio and get tall, thin people). You can send a 4:3 signal to a widescreen and reverse letterbox (on the sides) or stretch it and get short, fat people. :)

In supporting 480p, the Gamecube offers a true 60 fps, as the entire screen updates every frame. With a standard television, running at 480i, you will really only effectively get 30fps, as it takes 2 frames to draw a full image.

Interesting, the 1080i ration for HDTV (which can also carry a 540p signal) is interlaced. Interlaced is fine for things without that much movement, games and heavy movement systems benefit from progressive images. Computers have all but abandonned interlaced signals, and with HDTV, you'll have to find a TV/STB combo that does what you want. The 720p resolution will be amazing for HDTV and the "next" generation consoles after this crop.

Alex

Japanese cube...

[ctar]

I have a Japanese cube, and have to say I am very impressed. Luigi was a lot of fun to play, although a little bit short. It is visually amazing.

I have just started Pikmin, which is also amazing, visually and as far as gameplay is concerned. It really seems to be a new genre of game. I can't think of anything else to compare it to, except in small small ways to C&C. Not only are the ideas and goals innovative, but the controls are absolutely an innovation in gaming.

I am a little worried that Pikmin will be short and sweet as well, though. I've only had a few days with it, but I think I've made pretty good progress so far.

I am also worried in general about Nintendo's catalog and release schedule...Even months after the initial release, the software release schedule does not seem very complete.

What's a contemporary gaming console without a good golf game?!?

One more plus...I think the new controller is great; a great improvement over the N64 controller, and much better thay playstation/PS2. Probably the 1st controller I've felt comfortable holding and using since the NES.

Re:What is 60 fps... Interlaced?

[foobar104]

Interesting, the 1080i ration for HDTV (which can also carry a 540p signal) is interlaced.

(Disclosure: the company I work for has a broadcast integration arm, so I'm always hearing people yak yak yak about the latest TV technology. And we also play with HDTV a lot in our lab.)

Interlacing provides one very imporant feature that you didn't mention: flicker reduction.

I don't have science to back this up, but it seems that a 60 Hz progressive display-- one in which every scan line is redrawn 60 times per second-- has a noticable flicker to most people. (Set your computer monitor to 60 Hz and see. No, really. Go ahead. I'll wait.)

A 60-Hz interlaced display, however, flickers less, because only *half* the scan lines are being redrawn at any given time. Your eye perceives a clean, flicker-free image, although admittedly this can result in some tearing or blurring when the scene moves quickly.

We've known for years and years that refresh rate is more important than frame rate for visually pleasing, flicker-free pictures. Analog film is projected at 24 frames per second, which is a really low frame rate by digital standards. We get away with it because the film projector gates (that is, projects on the screen) each frame twice, meaning the screen flashes 48 times per second. Less flicker for the same frame rate.

Interlacing uses the same principle but in a different way. Instead of refreshing the screen faster than we update it, we only update half the scan lines each time through the raster, leaving the other half lit. This works because phosphors on TV tubes continue to glow after they've been excited, so we basically get half of our scan lines for free every refresh.

My point here is that you might find a 60 Hz progressive scan display more pleasing than 60 Hz interlaced scan in some cases, but it's not universally true to say that progressive is always better than interlaced.

Re:Phoenix First-Hand Impresssions

[Uttles]

Then again, as the games are clearly targeted at a young audience, they may appeal more to kids than me.

What are you talking about? Did you play Star Wars? How about Madden 2002? Resident Evil? Wave Racer? Yes there were some kiddie games, but why is that such a bad thing? Kids have to have fun too. Pikimin was good? Are you on crack? Star Wars was the Killer App, hands down.

Graphics on par with PS2. In spite of specs that don't look as good on paper as ps2 ('cept RAM, I guess), the EA games (NBA and Madden) looked every bit as good as the ps2 versions.

Ummm, well.. hmmm, maybe you haven't seen the specs, but if you go to cube.ign.com I'm sure you can find some. The Gamecube is the leader in all areas except clock speed, which in reality doesn't matter because it has the highest processing power, it just takes less clock cycles to produce it. It runs off of a PowerPC-type RISC chip that was designed specifically for gaming (not watching DVD's). The most important areas are PPS (polygons per second) and Colors, and the GameCube has the lead in each of those categories. Anyway, all the stats in the world don't matter, PS2 has what feels like a 2 second delay between your movements and the game's reaction where the GameCube flows right along with your input, and that's the most important thing to me.