Why is the Gamecube so underappreciated?

@getyeryayasout: Awesome... but expensive.

The gamecube is an awesome system, and it had some amazing exclusives to boot. I'm honestly shocked and disappointed that it's games were skipped over when it came to virtual console.

At the time of release or today?

Yeah man, Nintendo with Gamecube nailed it so hard ! Its ridiculous. Yeah maybe theres wasnt too much buzz about its name like with SNES nor having the best rated games of all time like N64 had but hey ... The diversity and quality was up there library speaking. Facts are facts. And that crazy small box ... didnt make it in sales....!! Seems Sheep dont appreciate what IS GREAT.

It was easily better hardware than PS2 and had some of the greatest games. The controller was a bit wonky, but the Cube was one sweet console.

But it didn't have nearly the number of great games overall as PS2. It was a bit top heavy in that regard.

The Zelda Windwaker TP RE4 REmake REZero Prime trilogy Donkey kong JB all have superior ports on other systems I see no real point in owning a gamecube. I own all the above gamecube games and more. I also own the ports. My gamecube is nothing more then paper weight.

Great console :)

I am VERY jelly ^__^

I completely disagree with all the people saying it had more and Better Exclusives compare to PS2.

PS2 had Devil May Cry,Onimusha,God Hand,Okami, Final Fantasy , Resident evil OutBreak, Metal Gear Solid,zone of enders, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, God Of War as exclusives. it also had Games Like GTA,Max Payne,Mercenaries,Star Wars Battlefront, Silent Hill , Fatal Frame that despite not being exclusive, you couldn't play them on Gamecube.

PS2 also managed to absorb some GC Exclusives like Viewtiful Joe and Resident evil 4.

Gamecube Having Better Graphics didn't helped it at All since Xbox Had Better Graphics compare to it. Games Like Splinter Cell ran awfully on Gamecube.

Other than the Wii it was the worst Nintendo console. It had a small handful of great games. A few decent games. and meh after that.

Just those rose colored nostalgia glasses.

Wii U + Switch < GameCube

It was pretty good for me. I picked one up for £35 and managed a modest but high quality library. Resi 4, Baten Kaitos, the star wars games, Metroid Prime. All in all I liked it a lot. Tried the same with the wii. Bought it for the same money. Merely by virtue of being on wii I had no joy at all. Enjoyed Xenoblade for a bit. Enjoyed Galaxy for what it was...a platformer. But that was about it.

GC was the last decent Nintendo console, the switch remains to be seen.

@metalslimenite:"Real gamers owned all four gen six consoles: PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast and Xbox."

That's the qualification of a real gamer? =(

Other than the C-stick and odd shoulder buttons, it was brilliant at the time (the asymmetrical face button layout was perfect). The Wavebird brought about the wireless controller revolution.

I bought one back then and thought it was meh, not terrible but it's my least favorite nintendo console other than the wii.

@foxhound_fox said:

@Nike_Air said:

• Bad controller

Other than the C-stick and odd shoulder buttons, it was brilliant at the time (the asymmetrical face button layout was perfect). The Wavebird brought about the wireless controller revolution.

I agree with the bad controller comment wholeheartedly.

It wasn't uncomfortable, but having one giant green button on the face with a series of about three "menu" buttons was a huge mistake. Bubye fighting games, or indeed any game where you need an even spread of buttons. Triggers were crap, and the c stick wasn't good either. Whole thing felt cheap although the ones I had lasted well enough.

Not the worst controller I've ever used, but certainly lagging behind a good one.

Cuz the PS2

I loved both systems honestly

@drummerdave9099: What do you mean underappreciated? It came 3rd in a three horse race. It had nowhere near the 3rd party support PS2 had (no GTA, no main MGS, no FF lol) and even Nintendo abandoned it towards the end of its life cycle while the PS2 still had to GOW games and so many other 3rd parties.

Xbox had arguably the most influential 1st party release in Halo and Halo 2, while both the big daddies had online support. On top of all that, GC hadt he worst 3D Mario of all time and imo a plain mediocre game with terrible controls.

I will say that GC had the definitive MGS 1 experience and that a lot of its games have not aged that badly.

What's this? The 2000's?

Lack of 3rd Party support. Did it have multiplatform hits like GTA, PES and FIFA? No, that's one reason why Gamecube failed to compete PS2 and Xbox.

GameCube is one of my favourite consoles of all time:

• It had one of the best first-party libraries.
• It had one of the best multiplayer libraries.
• Its third-party library was lacking in quantity, but was killer in quality.
• It had one of the most comfortable controllers.
• Its hardware was powerful for its time.

GameCube did have a couple of PES and FIFA games, but not GTA. Also, the GameCube sold almost the same amount as the Xbox. It was the PS2 that trumped the both of them combined.

Onimusha didn't remain exclusive (the first one got an XBOX port). Max Payne even had terrible ports on PS2. And further more, RE4, Monkey Ball and VJ also had inferior versions compared to the GameCube (since most everyone in SW is GENERALLY picky about that), more content be damned.

@metalslimenite: Dude, you're talking to the guy who won't let his super dated "PS3 beats Wii60 once again" gag in every Japanese sales thread die.

The PS2 versions of Viewtiful Joe and RE4 were worse than the original GC versions.

The GC and Xbox were more-or-less on-par with each other in terms of hardware. But a lot of multi-plats were poorly optimized for the GC.

The Gamecube is overrated. The controller sucks, no real third party support, and mainly aimed at toddlers.

I already made a list, look for it in the thread. Despite three all times in N64's library in Mario 64, OOT, and Goldeneye, it's supporting library after that cannot hold up against Gamecube's. Not saying N64's was bad. Gamecube's was just better.

@drummerdave9099:"Despite three all times in N64's library in Mario 64, OOT, and Goldeneye, it's supporting library after that cannot hold up against Gamecube's."

This is even a bigger joke. GameCube can't mess with this lineup:

WCW/NWO Revenge

WWF No Mercy

Diddy Kong Racing

Perfect Dark

Conker's Bad Day Fury

Mario Party(Original was the only good one)

Smash Bros (Original was the only good one)

Mario Tennis(Original was the only good one)

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

GameCube beats N64 in almost every genre:

• Action-adventure - Zelda: Collector's Edition, Wind Waker, Four Swords, Twilight Princess, Resident Evil 0-4, MGS Twin Snakes
• Fighting - Soul Calibur II, Super Smash Bros Melee, Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 & 4, Capcom vs SNK 2
• Platformer - Viewtiful Joe, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Mario Sunshine, Sonic Adventure 1-2, Monkey Ball 1-2, Prince of Persia trilogy
• Racing - Burnout 1 & 2, Mario Kart: Double Dash, F-Zero GX, SSX Tricky, SSX3, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2
• RPG - Tales of Symphonia, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Phantasy Star Online I & II, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Baten Kaitos
• Shooter - Metroid Prime 1 & 2, TimeSplitters 2, Resident Evil 4, Ikaruga
• Simulation - Rogue Squadron II & III, Animal Crossing, The Sims 1 & 2
• Sports - Winning Eleven 6, Mario Power Tennis, SSX Tricky, SSX3
• Stealth - Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory
• Strategy - Pikmin 1 & 2, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
• Survival horror - Resident Evil 0, REmake, RE2, RE3, Code Veronica X, Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness

But it's the only place you can play F-Zero GX.

I liked the Gamecube controller quite a lot. only serious problem IMO is the short cable and the small d-pad. Otherwise it's really good, AND the way the L/R buttons work has never been exactly replicated. They had travel, were "triggers", but also "clicked" at the end for a sort of extra button press, which at least some exclusive games used.

It was a steal too, launching for LESS than the less powerful PS2.

I think had it had Final Fantasy 10, it would clear cut be my favorite console of that gen (not counting like 3DS or whatever to have to think through).

Starfox Adventures needs a rerelease...

Easy:

Metal Gear Twin Snakes

Kirby Airride

Metroid Prime 1 + 2

BS on the "original was the only good one." That's called nostalgia glasses. Mario Party 4 and 5 were both solid entries. Melee is the most beloved Smash game of all time and added so much more content over the OG. Mario Power Tennis was good too.

Super Mario Strikers

Resident Evil 4

Eternal Darkness

Pikmin 1 + 2

Killer 7

Ew motion controls in Metroid Prime.

I can list 50 great games on Gamecube but your cup of tea!

It did get FIFA. It also got some great 3rd party exclusives.

This is a copy of a previous post I made in this thread:

It didn't miss out on too many multiplats though. Gamecube got Madden and the other EA sports games, Tony Hawk, Soul Calibur, Viewtiful Joe, Beyond Good and Evil, Lego Star Wars, Prince of Persia, The Simpsons, Splinter Cell, Need for Speed, Spiderman, and Medal of Honor.

It didn't get GTA, Star Wars Battlefront, Silent Hill, Max Payne. And I'm sure there's others I missed. But most were there. I'm not sure if you can even chalk it up to bad third party relationships- other than Rockstar and Square Enix. I think it was more Nintendo's family friendly standard.

Pros: Powerful with pretty graphics, some awesome exclusives, multiple new franchises (Pikmin, Animal Crossing [on N64 in Japan but not here], Luigi's Mansion, Geist, Eternal Darkness [published])

Cons: Worst 3rd party (PS2 and Xbox both had vastly more multiplats, also PS2 had god tier exclusives while Xbox dropped megaton PC ports), worst controller (the tiny C-nubbin was annoying and the Z trigger actually painful to hit), it's short and delayed 4* year lifespan was pathetic (launched 2* years after the PS2 yet still died long before it), no online (PS2 and Xbox both had piles of online games), no media features (PS2 and Xbox both played CDs/DVDs)

(*In Ireland, PS2 launched 2000, GC launched 2002, Wii was 2006 and PS3 was 2007. Not only was the GC console delayed but so were most games. Metroid Prime was a Christmas 2002 game for the USA, not for us though! Delaying every major/great game 2, 3 or sometimes up to 6 months [Smash Bros Melee!!!] was a real sign of how little they cared about European gamers, and this was continued on into the Wii generation)

Bottom Line: Compared to other Nintendo systems, GC is pretty cool. It felt like a massive leap forward compared to the N64, had plenty of new and/or incredible 1st party games and had better 3rd party than N64. But compared to it's competitor systems, PS2 and Xbox, it gets an emphatic bronze medal.

Citation needed. It got some top tier ones for sure, it wasn't like Wii/WiiU missing all the good ones. But I question saying it got "most".

The EA sports games, Tony Hawk, SSX, Soul Calibur, Viewtiful Joe, Beyond Good and Evil, Lego Star Wars, Prince of Persia, The Simpsons, The Ubisoft Tom Clancy games, Timesplitters, Need for Speed, Rayman, Alien Hominid, Spiderman, King Kong, Medal of Honor, a ton of movie and cartoon licensed games, a bunch of superhero games, Burnout, Sonic the Hedgehog games, Megaman Collections, the entire Resident Evil numbered series.

It got a handful of third party exclusives- Metal Gear Twin Snakes, REmake, Resident Evil Zero, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Lost Kingdoms, PN03, Star Wars Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, WWE Day of Reckoning and WrestleMania.

It got exclusive ports of Dreamcast games- the Sonic Adventures, Ikaruga, Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star

Now what it didn't get

Grand Theft Auto

Star Wars Battlefront

Silent Hill

Fatal Frame

Midnight Club

Burnout 3

What'd I miss?

I have the Prime games on gamcube and wii and I'll take the wii trilogy any day. Not only does it play well it looks incredible with component cables on the wii. I have a $200 set of gamecube component cables and prime trilogy blows the gamecube versions away visually. The bloom lighting is better with almost no assailing. Trilogy looks just as good as any hd ps2 remaster on ps3. In my opinon trilogy is as close as any hd remaster I've played.

@drummerdave9099:"BS on the "original was the only good one." That's called nostalgia glasses. Mario Party 4 and 5 were both solid entries. Melee is the most beloved Smash game of all time and added so much more content over the OG. Mario Power Tennis was good too."

No glasses here. When I played the sequals to these Mario spinoffs, they weren't as impressive as the originals.

Metal Gear Twin Snakes

Kirby Airride

Metroid Prime 1 + 2

Super Mario Strikers

Resident Evil 4

Eternal Darkness

Pikmin 1 + 2

Killer 7

Is that your GameCube lineup?

@locopatho:"and had better 3rd party than N64."

Nope.

Actually... it did.

Namco - N64 had a few Pac-Man games, Namco Museum and a Nintendo published Ridge Racer. GameCube had Soul Calibur II, Tales of Symphonia, typical Pac-Man games, which included Pac Man VS which developed by Shigeru Miyamoto and two Namco Museums. Adding their partnership with Bandai, even anime games like Zatch Bell and One Piece still made it.

Capcom - N64, they only did MML and RE2. On GC, they had RE2 and 3 ports, REmake, RE Zero, Mega Man Anniversary Collection (though don't tell hardcore MM enthusiasts), MMX Collection (same as prior), MMX Command Mission, Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2, and of course, RE freaking 4. EDIT: Oh, and Killer 7, thanks for reminding me.

Square - They only released ONE game on the GC: Crystal Chronicles (published by Nintendo, sure but still a Square IP), which is STILL more than the freaking N64 (which was NONE at all)

EA - N64 got WCW Mayhem, Madden, 007: The World is Not Enough (the best version) and... that was about it. GC got more Bond (and all of them of that gen too), Sims, Madden, TimeSplitters 3, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.

Ubisoft - Can't remember much out of N64 besides Rayman 2, but Cube at least got the Prince of Persia SOT trilogy and (albeit altered, if not stripped down versions) of Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon.

SEGA - It was the first freaking Nintendo console to retrieve Sonic the Hedgehog (even if the games weren't great) and have a team up between Nintendo and SEGA on F-Zero.

Konami - Probably the only company that had worse support on GC than on N64, but hey, at least Metal Gear made an appearance.

Eidos - A rough patch, but compared to the jack the N64 got from them. GC got TimeSplitters 2, the first LEGO Star Wars, and freaking Tomb Raider, a series that (unlike Metal Gear) AVOIDED Nintendo consoles (and did it again with the reboot series)

Lucasarts - N64 had four Star Wars games and one Indiana Jones game. GameCube got Rogue Leader, Rebel Strike, Jedi Outcast (even if the port wasn't the best), Clone Wars (one of a few decent games set exclusively in that era of Star Wars), the SECOND Lego game, and Bounty Hunter (a better port than the PS2 version).

Hell, it may have missed freaking GTA, but it got the next best thing in Simpsons: Hit and Run.

It's still not saying much compared to competition, but to say N64 had better third party support than GameCube is a bold faced lie

Holy s***! I said something in defense of locopatho of all people.

About 1/5th of it

Metroid Prime

Windwaker

Twilight Princess

Paper Mario Thousand Year Door

Pikmin

Super Smash Bros Melee

Resident Evil 4

Eternal Darkness

Resident Evil Remake

Super Mario Sunshine

Mario Kart Double Dash

Metroid Prime 2

Luigi's Mansion

Pikmin 2

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil Code Veronica

Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 0

Megaman Anniversary

Megaman X Collection

Viewtiful Joe

Tales of Symphonia

Soul Calibur 2

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes

Skies of Arcadia Legends

Beyond Good and Evil

Super Mario Strikers

Mario Superstar Baseball

Mario Power Tennis

Mario Golf Toadstool Tour

Mario Party 4

Mario Party 5

Super Monkey Ball

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Zelda Collectors Edition

Kirby Airride

Donkey Kong Junglebeat

Donkey Konga

Spiderman 2

Pokemon Colosseum

Pokemon XD

Starfox Assault

Ikaruga

Killer 7

Zelda 4 Swords Adventures

Timesplitters 2

Prince of Persia Sands of Time

Animal Crossing

Billy Hatcher

WarioWare Inc

Chibi Robo

Crazy Taxi

Star Wars Rogue Leader

FZero GX

King Kong

Simpsons Hit and Run

Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

Baten Kaitos Origins

Phantasy Star Online

Take it away, Homer...

The original Smash aged fairly poorly compared to future releases. Melee, as much as I think Brawl is better and 4 is the worst in the series despite being more playable, out does it in every way.

For the same reason the original Xbox was underappreciated: PS2 was overrated and overhyped in 6th gen.

TBH id say it was the worst Nintendo console I bought, even more pointless than the WiiU and only because BOTW actually made me play the WiiU for more than than 30 hours MK8 and Picmin3 helped a little. I liked three games on Gamecube: Resident Evil, Picmin and Rogue Squadron but I doubt id have spent more than 15 hours on that system in total.

GameCube vs. Xbox genre comparison:

Action-adventure - GameCube wins

• GameCube - Zelda: Collector's Edition, Wind Waker, Four Swords, Twilight Princess
• Xbox - Grand Theft Auto trilogy

Fighting - Tie

• GameCube - Soul Calibur II, Super Smash Bros Melee, Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 & 4, Capcom vs SNK 2
• Xbox - Soul Calibur II, Dead or Alive 3, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Guilty Gear X2, Capcom vs SNK 2

Platformer - GameCube wins

• GameCube - Viewtiful Joe, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Mario Sunshine, Sonic Adventure 1-2, Sonic Heroes, Monkey Ball 1-2, Prince of Persia trilogy
• Xbox - Psychonauts, Rayman 3, Sonic Heroes, Prince of Persia trilogy

Racing - Tie

• GameCube - Burnout 1 & 2, Mario Kart: Double Dash, F-Zero GX, SSX Tricky, SSX3, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2
• Xbox - Burnout 1-3, SSX Tricky, SSX3, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2, Project Gotham Racing 1 & 2, Forza Motorsport

RPG - Tie

• GameCube - Tales of Symphonia, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Phantasy Star Online I & II, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Baten Kaitos
• Xbox - Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, Morrowind, Phantasy Star Online I & II, Sudeki, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

Shooter - Tie

• GameCube - Metroid Prime 1 & 2, TimeSplitters 2, Resident Evil 4, Ikaruga, Rogue Squadron II & III
• Xbox - Halo 1 & 2, TimeSplitters 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Chronicles of Riddick, House of the Dead 3

Simulation - GameCube wins

• GameCube - Rogue Squadron II & III, Animal Crossing, The Sims 1 & 2
• Xbox - Crimson Skies, The Sims 1 & 2, MechAssault 1 & 2

Sports - Xbox wins

• GameCube - Winning Eleven 6, FIFA 2003-07, Mario Power Tennis, SSX Tricky, SSX3, NFL 2K3, Madden NFL 2005
• Xbox - Winning Eleven 8, FIFA 2003-07, SSX Tricky, SSX3, NFL 2K5, Championship Manager, Madden NFL 2005

Stealth - Xbox wins

• GameCube - Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory
• Xbox - Metal Gear Solid 2, Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory

Strategy - GameCube wins

• GameCube - Pikmin 1 & 2, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
• Xbox - Full Spectrum Warrior, Sid Meier's Pirates

Survival horror - GameCube wins

• GameCube - Resident Evil 0, REmake, RE2, RE3, Code Veronica X, Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness
• Xbox - Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 4

Overall winner:

GameCube