Nintendo Gamecube: Missed Opportinity

I've been a Nintendo fan since I was only 3 years old. I played the original NES, and all of it's great games. I also enjoyed SNES, and truly loved the revolutionary N64. But then something happened...the Gamecube came out, and while it's graphics capabilities were as good as all the competitors, it seemed to fall behind them, and lose it's spot on top. The PS2 had a better selection of games, and the Xbox lineup was far more mature. In time, the Gamecube was a system of few games, and relatively childish or "kiddy" ones at that.

People ridiculed Super Mario Sunshine as not being a real Mario game, especially because of the Water cleaning aspect. The same was said about Wind Waker...while it was a good game, it was still labeled as "kiddy" due to its art style. By the last few years the Gamecube was on the market, it had almost no new games...it almost seemed as though the only games coming out for it were movie games and new Mario Party games, while in the meantime, XBOX and PS2 shared big budget games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Tom Clancy, and others. Gamecube also lacked the online gameplay that was growing more and more popular on the other systems, as well as DVD capabilities.

Based on these facts, I think Nintendo really dropped the ball with the GC, and is still suffering from the "kiddie" stigma that was placed on it during the Gamecube years. While it has definitely improved and reclaimed the number one spot, it is still considered "kiddie" by most, and certainly not as hardcore as it once was with the N64. I loved many games on the Gamecube, but ultimately, I think the system was a failure...and I think Nintendo is still trying to rebuild itself after that disappointing system. Just think of all the possibilities they missed, all the great games they could have shared with Playstation and Xbox. Let's hope the Wii starts to turn this bad trend around.

Out of all the systems I own, I played GC the least... sure, the graphics were ok.. but like Forsaken mentioned, the Game Cube was lacking so much. Ps2 had great games, games that I could play for hours. Game cube had some ok games that were fun for a couple of minutes. I don't mean to bash on nintendo, the GC had a few really good games (RE remake, wind waker, mario sunshine).. but they also had really poorly made games such as Mario Party 6, and all the movie games that came out....

i will have to agree with you guys that GC was almost a failed system but there were a few things that did keep it alive like ssbm, mario sunshine, killer 7, pokemon stadium, animal crossing, the only MGS game for the gc, and i think mario kart:DD also. i was also disaponted in the long time span for a new legend of zelda (not talking about ww) one of a few things that i did like about the GC was the controller compared to the N64 controller.

I would say that the real system that made the big N kiddie, childish games was the N64. Sure it had some really greatgames but nothing compared to the SNES. The graphics werent that great either, better then the SNES bt not better the the PS. If I remember right I think SONY made an offer at the time where they would use the sony discs or something like that but Nintendo refused and that was the start of the fallen N and the raise of the the PS systems.

Not sure what my opinion means here since I missed the N64 for the most part (I ended up playing most of the games like OoT and that kind of thing later on the GC)

I don't think the GC was a complete failure like some say (i.e. Jody's list), but I think it helped lead to the casual trend we've got now, to make up for what Nintendo seems to have perceived as losing most of its hardcore audience.....which might turn out to have been the right move, considering Nintendo's recession proof-ness on the other article.

I think the biggest mistake Nintendo is making now is relying too much on it's big series, like LoZ & mario (esp. mario ) and not really trying to create new series.....it just seems to throw "filler" games out there, in between its big realeases.....just my two cents.

Personally I found the N64 WAY more mature than the Gamecube. The main franchises, like Mario, Zelda, Starfox, and even DK seemed more mature then their sequels would be...lets compare the lists:

N64:
Mario 64
Ocarina of Time
DK 64
Starfox 64
Mario Kart 64

GC:
Mario Sunshine
Wind Waker
Star Fox Adventures
DK Jungle Beat
Mario Kart Double Dash!

Lets face it, when we saw Mario's water hose and Link's cartoony look, we all raised our eyebrows. Am I saying those were bad games? Of course not! But they certainly didn't keep people from feeling the GC was "kiddie". And of course, many people disliked Star Fox Adventures(although I liked it), and you really can't compare DK 64 to Jungle beat...

Also, we should remember that N64 was home to some classic mature titles, such as Goldeneye, Duke Nuke 'em, perfect Dark, etc. GC had RE4, but it wasn't long until that went to PS2, and it was perhaps too little too late. When Nintendo started messing with their own franchises, well, the whole thing just went downhill...

its true the games got more and more user friendly and less and less exciting... But DK + bongos was a sad mistake in my opinion