GameCube's Timeline, Accomplishments Charted

Thanks to GameSpy for its article charting the progress of Nintendo's GameCube console from launch to the present day, as part of an ongoing series that has also included the Xbox. The piece starts with the bold statement: "Despite being the wrong product at the wrong time, Nintendo's durable GameCube game console has demonstrated lasting power in a market for which it was not well targeted", and ends by noting: "GameCube will certainly end this generation in second place internationally -- the virtual shutout that Xbox received in Japan settles that part of the race, and it may yet challenge Microsoft in the U.S. and European markets." What's your view of the success of the GameCube and its software titles in the current console generation?

Comments

Re:Some notable GC exclusives...

[Johnso]

Don't forget:

Metroid Prime
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Animal Crossing
The Resident Evil series

and many other excellent first-party games (Mario Golf, etc.)

And that's not counting the thousands of Game Boy games you can play with the Game Boy Player. There's an endless supply of classics to sift through.

Re:Some notable GC exclusives...

[PainKilleR-CE]

The Resident Evil series arent exclusive to the Gamecube, quite the opposite in fact.

Resident Evil 0 and the remake of Resident Evil are Cube exclusives. I believe they're going to release one more Cube-exclusive RE title, as well.

Re:The only thing lacking.

[PainKilleR-CE]

PS2 have Grand turismo, metal gear and the final fantasy series. Xbox have project gotham 2

OK, I give you GT3 (and soon GT4) and PGR2, but the Cube is getting the Metal Gear Solid remake and has Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

Not to mention the rest of the Cube's exclusive titles. While we're talking about racing games, where's an equal to Mario Kart on ANY platform? Or, for that matter, F-Zero GX?

None of the consoles of this generation has managed to have everything everyone could possibly want.

hate the griping about the look.

[kisrael]

I hate the griping that the console looks "toylike". I have all 3 consoles, (admittedly GC first, because of the games) and the GC is the only one that I like having out in the open. The Xbox is this hulking monstrosity with giant 80s-era fins, and the PS2 is just dull, as squared off as is PS2 logo...only its vertical stand woud make it interesting, and I heard that's not great for the alignment, so I don't do that.

Re:Steven L. Kent, crack fiend

[Anonymous Coward]

Nintendo losing Rare as a developer (for whatever reason) is almost as damaging as losing the final fantasy games. Rare did some amazing stuff for Nintendo (Star Fox, Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark).

You've GOT to be kidding. The Rare of today is NOTHING like it was. Perfect Dark? Those guys aren't in Rare any more. If you want to play the next great fps from those guys, go get Timesplitters 2 out of the $10 bin. Perfect Dark Zero will be new guys cramming old code into a different console; it'll suck like gravity.

Nintendo didn't so much "lose" Rare as "get rid of" Rare. Seeing their first attempt on Xbox, I can understand why.

Re:My opinion

[hibiki_r]

I'm not sure about the US, but in Europe, there's no question that being able to pirate games for the console is a big selling point. Real life example:One of my cousins wanted to buy a console for his 6 year old kid. The best console for the kid's tastes is clearly a GCN. However, since the GCN games cannot be copied, and he doesn't want to buy many games for the kid, he went ahead an bought an XBOX, where they can copy games for the price of a writable DVD.

The real question is, do the few games that the pirates actualy buy offset the 'real' lost sales? I think they do, but I wish there was a good experimental proof for this, one way or another.

Re:Nintendo hasn't messed up the formula

[reiggin]

I believe that the windwaker was also one of the first if not the first console game to use cell shading

Jet Grind Radio on Dreamcast was one of the earlier games to use cell shading. Cell Damage and Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox) are another couple games that got into cell shading before Wind Waker. I'm not sure what the first was but I am pretty sure it wasn't Wind Waker. Although Wind Waker still does it well.

Give the PS2 some credit...

[metroid composite]

I will say that I just went out and bought a GameCube yesterday (first system of this generation, actually). That's largely because I'm in the middle of a whole bunch of PSX RPGs (Lunar2:EBC, Parasite Eve, FF7) and I needed a change of pace. So...looking at the games on the new systems that actually caught my eye...

X-Box
Interested in:
KotOR

0% non-RPG interesting games. Failed.

GameCube
Interested in:
SSB:M
SC2
Metroid Prime
SMS
ToS
WW
Pikmin
Animal Crossing
SoA
FF:CC
Eternal Darkness
MK:DD
Viewtiful Joe

66% non-RPG interesting games. It works.

PS2
Interested in:
FFX
Disgaea
Shadow Hearts
Suikoden 3
Xenosaga
FFX-2
BoFV
Grandia 2
Okage
WA3

0% non-RPG interesting games. Failed.

(For some explanation: Halo is the same old shooter stuff; I already played Goldeneye thank you. GTA frankly never interested me. I suppose I should add Kingdom Hearts to the PS2 list, I just haven't felt the impulse. And...I'm likely to get multiple consoles eventually, so no point getting Soul Calibur 2 unless it's the best version :P).

To be fair, however, the GBA does outshine all three systems for number of good titles (I don't even want to try and list the GBA stuff); so yes you are probably better getting a Gameboy player than a PS2 (or XBox). If you don't mind hunting bargain bins and don't have one already, PSOne is also a very solid choice, especially since all its games are so cheap now; you just have to know what you're looking for (there's a lot of garbage PSX titles). Well I for one bought a PSOne within the last couple years, at least....

Re:Some notable GC exclusives...

[jt007]

Quite correct, Resident Evil 4 in fact