The Nintendo Lineage 5: Gamecube

Part 5 and my Review of the First Home Console I Ever Owned

Ever since I started this series, I’ve anticipated this review really being the big one. I know people of my age, who grew up with the console absolutely adore this thing and I’ve always gotten the sense that older generations of Nintendo fans really view the ‘cube as the last console in a very long time to have no nonsense gimmicks or compromised technology.

Some of my opinions I expect to be quite unpopular, but others I expect to be quite run of the mill but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this series it’s that I can never predict where my audience stands.

Without further ado, here is my review of the Nintendo Gamecube.

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HARDWARE: **** 4 Stars

After the travesty that was the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube’s hardware was an excellent return to form.

I feel there’s a pretty common misconception in the gaming sphere that the PS2 was more capable than the Gamecube; this perception isn’t helped by this Nintendo’s diminutive discs, however, the opposite is true: the Nintendo Gamecube is slightly more powerful than the PlayStation 2 and is well-known to output a significantly cleaner picture and in my opinion, has a superior gamepad to the DualShock 2. I even learned last year that the Gamecube controller can be recalibrated to stop stick drift just by holding down 2 buttons, how awesome is that? It saved my playthrough of Resident Evil 0.

Aside from the raw specs, the Gamecube’s aesthetic and form-factor are iconic. As tiny as the PS2 Slim is, I find the Gamecube more desirable as a space-saving console because it isn’t so flat and wide and when I was a kid moving house or swapping rooms, that handle on the back made carrying the ‘cube very convenient.

As an adult who owns many retro consoles, I also really appreciate how the industry moved on from excessive add-ons and peripherals at this point. No stupid RAM expansion, no Rumble-Pak, no Memory Pak, all you need to do with the Gamecube is stuff a card in the front: preferably a high capacity, third party one and you don’t need to think about anything else; the Gameboy Advance attachment does exist of course but for much cheaper, you can just get an actual Gameboy Advance console.

If it wasn’t for the original Xbox’s overwhelming power, pioneering of online features and widespread adoption of progressive scan video, the Gamecube would have received the full-five stars.

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SOFTWARE: *** 3 Stars

The truth is finally out. For months I’ve been hiding my true feelings and dodging the discussion but here it is: I think the Gamecube library is extremely overrated Let me explain.

When I judge the library of a Nintendo console, I mainly weigh up 3 areas: the strength of Nintendo’s ‘core’ that being Mario, Zelda and Metroid, the strength of the third party offerings, and how much I generally enjoy its library still. I don’t really like the Gamecube’s first party games that much apart from the Metroid Prime games. Super Mario Sunshine, in my opinion, is far and away the worst 3D Mario, Wind Waker is a safe, boring and derivative Zelda title not fit to succeed Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask and I really don’t care that much about Smash Melee; Luigi’s Mansion was cool but it’s 7 hours long with little replay value, Mario Kart: Double Dash is also excellent but do I really want to play it over Mario Kart 8? I’m not saying the Gamecube doesn’t have good 1st party games, I just don’t think they’re as good as either the Wii or the N64’s titles.

Ironically, when it was current, the Gamecube’s 3rd party support was considered weak but it’s by far the part of the library I enjoy the most. Pick out any cross-platform release and more than likely, it ran and looked better on the Gamecube, as well as that, I’m a massive Resident Evil fan and this console has several exclusive titles for it, one of which: the remake of the first game, released in 2002, is my 3rd favourite video game of all time.

I’ve been anticipating a lot of pushback on my opinion here for weeks now and feel free to comment if so, I still really like the Gamecube and maybe someone can give me a different perspective.

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IMPACT: *** 3 Stars

As contentious as my previous opinion was, I think it’s pretty hard to debate that the Gamecube, of the 3 consoles of that generation, carries the least cultural weight. I know Nintendo fans love this console dearly but the reality is that it was at this point in the industry where the console wars became a bipolar affair between Sony and Microsoft in the eyes of the majority.

The original Xbox didn’t sell as much as the Gamecube but Halo set the world on fire and the birth of Xbox Live and digital distribution for updates and other content to console games all began on Xbox. Modern online gaming was born on the Xbox. More than that, it was the first time since the 80’s where PC and console began to reach some kind of parity with titles like Morrowind and KOTOR coming to Microsoft’s green box. As a kid, I owned all 3 of these consoles and even back then, I remember thinking how much better KOTOR looked than anything on my PS2 or Gamecube.

Of course on the other side we have the PlayStation 2 which just destroyed both of its competitors in sales and to this day, is the best selling console ever made. As a kid, I met maybe 1 other kid with a Gamecube. Everyone had a PS2 and loved it. Its library may have been 80% shovelware but in my opinion, while the lows were, lower, the highs of the PS2 were also higher than those on the Gamecube.

To put it bluntly, harshly even, people still talk about Ratchet and Clank, PS2-era Need For Speed, Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic, classic Halo, Shadow of the Colossus, GTAIII, San Andreas and so on… nobody outside of the Nintendo fanbase really gives a shit about Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker or Pikmin 1 and 2.

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SENTIMENT: *** 3 Stars

I had a comment from

Dylan Cornelius

(who publishes ‘Nintendo Is Great’ don’t forget to subscribe to him) under my Nintendo 64 review that read something like ‘you always love your first console.’ I didn’t want to reveal it at the time but… I consider myself an exception to this rule. The Gamecube was the first home console I ever owned: I got it, maybe on my 5th birthday with Luigi’s Mansion, Double Dash, The Incredibles, Wind Waker + Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime and a few other games. I have fond memories with the console, it sat beside me as I grew up, a faithful companion along with my Xbox and PS2 but playing it today? I just… don’t feel that warm, nostalgic feeling.

I hyped myself up for years before buying a Gamecube again with fuzzy memories of the games I played and one by one, they all fell short of my memories; this isn’t an experience I’ve had elsewhere, most of the ‘classics’ I’ve played lived up to my memories but there’s something about the Gamecube and its library where I struggle to see past its flaws.

The Nintendo Gamecube, for me, is a very good metaphor for nostalgia itself. Sometimes it’s better to keep the memories alive than to cling to the past or to try to go back; it’s never the same, some things are best remembered for what they weren’t than rediscovered for what they are.

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FINAL SCORE: 13/20

Up next will be my review of the Gameboy Advance and its variants. If you enjoy my reviews and want to help push me to the big 50 milestone, please Subscribe and I’d love to see you in the comments below!