The Nintendo Gamecube: Carry on my Wavebird Son

[FelixSH]

To this day, I have never found a Kart Racer that I loved as much as Diddy Kong Racing. I loved, how there were secrets hidden on the tracks and in the world, there were bosses, etc... I know, they are for multiplayer mainly, but this game proved to me, that a single-player cart racer can totally work for me. I wished there were more of those.

Sorry, I guess that was a derail. I just have a hard time not talking about that, because I wished there were more games like DKR.

 

[Kazin]

Oh for single player, Diddy Kong Racing is probably the best of all time. I always found its multiplayer pretty lackluster though if I'm honest. Meanwhile there were a bunch of fun ways to play Double Dash multiplayer, including on more than one screen (which I have done!).

 

[Phantoon]

Oh yeah, forgot Smash, I'll concede that one. Paper Mario is also excellent. I disagree to either DKR or Double Dash being better than MK64. If I'm playing I play battle mode and DKR's is nothing special and Double Dash is a mess.

Oh yeah, N64's StarFox batters anything on GameCube.

 

[Kazin]

I'm a weirdo who doesn't like battle mode in any kart racer, Mario or otherwise, so I couldn't tell you which game has the best battle mode lol

 

[gorha]

Viewtiful Joe was my favorite Gamecube game. It eventually came out on PS2 as well and my understanding is the port is decent and even has some new features, but I think I'd still prefer the 'cube version because of its controller. Speaking of which, the GC controller is so great. Having every button feel different under your thumb is really nice, and the layout itself, with A in the center, was a great idea. I wish Nintendo had iterated on it instead of going back to four identical buttons in a diamond layout on their subsequent systems. ETA: the controller is also the main reason I prefer the GC version of Soul Calibur 2 to the others. Trying to do moves that use two buttons in other games in the series was tough on the Dreamcast or any PlayStation controller, but was no problem on GC.

 

[Kazin]

Agreed - the Gamecube controller is the most comfortable controller of all time imo. I can play on that thing for hours and hours and never get any hand cramps or anything like that. Love it.

 

[JBear]

RE: DKR, I owned and like that game, but it also has the dubious distinction of being the most I've ever paid at retail for a video game. I bought it on release day for a whopping $125 CDN. Ridiculous.

Mega Man X Command Mission

I think I have a copy of this still in the shrink. Just bought it and never got around to it. (Not unusual for me in that era.)

If I'm playing I play battle mode and DKR's is nothing special and Double Dash is a mess.

Hard disagree on Double Dash battle mode being a mess: Shine Get is some of the most fun MK battle mode has ever been. That said, I do actually like MK64 better, and think that it's the best battle mode in the series, hands down; I just think DD is also one of the better battle modes in the series.

ETA: Oh, and RE: controllers, the Wavebird is the best video game controller ever made. I used 4 of them right up through the end of my Wii's life attached to the TV.

 

[Ixo]

I don’t have a whole lot of GameCube memories. We jumped from N64 to PS2, and I can’t remember knowing anyone who had one. If it tells you anything, one of my strongest memories of Mario Sunshine is noodling around with it on a kiosk during our Circuit City’s store closing sale.

Would totally play Cubivore if it was put in front of me though.

 

[Sarge]

While I feel some of Nintendo's output on GC was disappointing (Sunshine, Wind Waker), they more than made up for it through Metroid Prime, another great Paper Mario, Double Dash, Eternal Darkness, Melee, Twilight Princess, and a whole bunch of random stuff like Pikmin, F-Zero GX, Battalion Wars, Wario World, Luigi's Mansion, Star Fox Adventures, and a bunch more I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Add in some excellent third-party games (not many RPGs but dang, Symphonia/Baten Kaitos/Skies of Arcadia rock) and I thought it was far superior to the N64, despite not having the same console success.

Of course, I think Nintendo's Wii output was even stronger than the GC, but that's another discussion entirely.

 

[FelixSH]

Was Wario World good? I only read bad things about it, but by now, I know that reviews of all kinds aren't that much to be trusted.

Let's ask that way: How does it compare to the four Wario Land games? Not just in quality, but in how the gameplay works (like, Wario Land 2 and 3 are pretty different from 1 and 4).

 

[Sarge]

I don't think it's as good as those games, but I enjoyed it. Honestly, my memories of it are quite fuzzy, but I remember it being pretty action-oriented, and a good bit different from the other Wario Land games.

(Looking at some old footage, I'm getting rougher Super Mario 3D Land vibes. Controls aren't nearly as tight, though.)

 

[Bongo]

Wario World was made by Treasure, wasn't it? I don't think that it even tried to be similar to Wario Land.

 

[Sarge]

Yeah, it was Treasure.

Oh, wait, it may be more akin to Pac-Man World.

 

[muteKi]

Looking at some old footage, I'm getting rougher Super Mario 3D Land vibes.

Yeah, that's oddly an accurate description I'd say. Right down to the kinda secret challenge levels (though I suppose Sunshine had something like that, I think Wario's are more like SM3DL)

 

[Kazin]

Wario World is one of those Gamecube games I've never gotten around to, which I should rectify. That and Kirby's Air Ride, which reviewed horribly at the time, but for which a ton of people have a lot of nostalgia for.

 

[Voncaster]

I'm also firmly in the DD > M64 camp. I don't play battle mode either. But N64, IIRC, has pretty sparse tracks. The jump on Peach's Castle is awesome and Rainbow Road is great, but I seem to remember liking the top to bottom list of tracks in DD way more than M64.

I think M64 gets a lot of love because it was the first one with 4 players. That is great for the time, but when you revisit M64 I think its pretty bland compared to later entries in MK.

 

[Sarge]

I mean, considering how big a jump Mario Kart 64 was, I can absolutely understand the love. That it also added four players just added to the excitement. But subsequent games have definitely continued to improve on the formula.

I should put more time into Kirby Air Ride myself. Maybe I should bust that out and play it a bit with the GF.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I like what I've played of Wario World. And yeah, 3D Land/World before those existed isn't too far off the mark.

 

[Ludendorkk]

I replayed Wario World for the first time since release this last year and I do think it's an interesting title. It's too short, has weirdly too much mechanical depth in some areas and not enough in others, ideas are developed haphazardly and there is a ton of aesthetic weirdness -- it's definitely a Treasure game through and through. I don't really grok the 3D World comparisons -- the game is much more a plodding brawler than a zippy platformer. A game it does kind of remind me of is, oddly enough, Bomberman Hero of all things. Not in direct gameplay, but the aesthetics and level design have a certain je ne sais quois in common.

 

[Phantoon]

Yeah, Wario World has more in common with Final Fight than it does with 3D World.

 

[karzac]

The first Pikmin is still one of my favourite games of all time, and really feels like it would have hit better if it came out today rather than 2001. Well worth playing, although you might want to use a guide, especially for the bosses.

And Skies of Arcadia, man, so good.

 

[WildcatJF]

*cough* (I'll write something later)

 

[Tegan]

!!!

The wheels are already turnin'. I found a Gamecube controller Bluetooth mod, but you need to remove the rumble motor to fit the battery in, I can't find any confirmation that the analogue triggers work, and the PCB sticks out of the top. I assume someone will have a kit for a better one for sale soon.

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, as cool as that mod is, I cannot imagine playing Gamecube games without a Gamecube controller, so until that happens, I'm not interested in the internal bluetooth mod. But once it does...

 

[Kazin]

Been playing the absolute heck out of the Gamecube ever since I got my MemCard Pro GC. Being able to just channel surf Gamecube games on an actual Gamecube console without having to juggle memory cards or saves is a delight. I beat Luigi's Mansion on Saturday (missed the best ending by 5 million gold, which isn't much since you need 100 million for that, apparently), playing through Eternal Darkness now and having a great time (I remember more about the game than I thought I would), etc.

I think I'm going to pick up that Bluetooth mod, and keep an eye out for those BlueCubeMod kits showing up again somewhere for sale, because I think I need an official spice orange Gamecube controller with a wireless mod to complete my setup lol (I swapped my black NA Gamecube into an official spice orange shell and picked up a spice orange Gameboy player, and it's gorgeous imo). It also seems like I could reset the console using a button combination, which combined with changing a Swiss setting means I should be able to reset to the Swiss menu, which means I wouldn't have to get up, making channel surfing Gamecube games even easier, which would be fantastic...

 

[ghosttaster]

I regret never laying hands on Cubivore or Gotcha Force. Those were my white whales then and now.

Loved the Cube

 

[Sarge]

I'd like to use my 'cube more, but I do almost all that through the Wii these days. But I did get a SD-to-MC adapter for running stuff through Swiss.

 

[Kazin]

@Sarge Supposedly the MemCard Pro GC works with Wii, but I haven't hooked mine up yet to see if GameID works (I would think probably not). At least you could still wirelessly switch cards with your phone in that case. You may want to look into it even if you play Gamecube primarily on Wii!

EDIT: GameID only works with Swiss on Gamecube, so it wouldn't work on Wii, but you can still use it like a regular memory card there and just page through cards if you need to.

 

[Sarge]

I probably don't run enough Gamecube games to fill up my current card (I think it's like a 1000+ one?), and the nice thing about the Wii is that you can do virtual memory cards on the SD through Nintendont as well. I should still set up the GC on another TV - I had it running a while back, but only really occasionally used it for the GB Player (via GBI, much better than Nintendo's software). But very happy to know that the MemCard Pro works great, and I can see a normal card filling up fast if you throw a full set onto the system.

 

[Kazin]

Either I'm using the wrong version of GBI (or my plasma TV doesn't like it, but it works and looks fine with the regular Game Boy Player software), but GBI looks like shit to me. Primarily because sprites just smear all over the place. I don't think I'm using a PAL version of the GBI software or whatever, just the standard version of GBI, but it looks terrible.

It's a bit of a wash, though, because my HDMI out GBA looks better than either anyway lol