The Video Game Critic

Okay, in multiple threads the topic of Nintendo "screwing people over" with the Gamecube has reared its ugly head.

With the system all but dead (other than crapola licensed games and compilations), what's everybody's *official* take?

Remember, we are talking FAILED or NOT, not whether the system was a A, B, C, D, or F effort. Also, use whatever criteria you like, whether from a business or personal perspective. I'll argue from a personal perspective myself. I'm also not going to argue with anyone: I just want to hear the "takes" from the VGC community.

My personal take:

Not a failure:

The system was released in 2001 and lasted until early 2006 (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance being an example of a strong title during this time). Five years is a little on the short side, but not that short, and barely a year shorter than the Xbox's run.

I find the argument that the Xbox had more titles available to it to be a bit wanting. I never remember myself having a shortage of great first party titles. Yeah, third party sucked, other than a few major exceptions.

That said, I had a blast with Windwaker, Metroid Prime, Fire Emblem, Mario Kart, Smash Bros. Melee (perhaps one of the greatest mutiplayer titles of all time, in my book) and others. The Star Wars Rogue Squadrom exclusives were fantastic, with the second game in particular boasting some tremendous co-op play.

And, though I can understand of some don't think this is important at all, the Gameboy Advance Player really extends the usefulness of this system. It literally makes thousands of Gameboy, GBC, and GBA games playable on your big screen with a regular controller. With the Gamecube being cheaper used than a new Gameboy Micro, it is totally feasable (and even desired!) to go out there and spend a bit less thna $90 bucks to own a Gamecube with GBA player, a great value.

Keep in mind my definition of "not failing" is limited to "did I get plenty of use from the system, did I have plenty of good games to play on it." You can rather easily deduce the system was a failure if you are looking at it from a brand or business perspective.

Finally, I find it odd that the Gamecube is so hated upon, when other systems with short lifespans (but a small selection of quality games) are celebrated, namelly the Saturn and Dreamcast.

This is just one man's opinion...

-Rob

Personally, I don't think it failed. Granted, twenty million consoles sold is a far cry from the 100+ million the ps2 sold, but it's still not bad at all. The 32X was a failure, the DC was a failure, Saturn, 3DO, Jaguar, etc. were all failures....oh, and the Virtual Boy, the biggest failure of them all!! The GC had a good library, I believe, with some of my favorite games of the past generation. Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Fire Emblem, RE4, Pikmin 1 and 2, Smash Bros, Soul Caliber 2, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, etc. I saw the GC as a huge step up from the 64, actually. I would love to hear from anybody(namely Shawn, SSX, BlueMonkey) who thinks that the GC was a failure....a disappointment, sure, but hardly a failure.

Not a failure.

I got one in 2003 for $150, plus an extraneous $45 or so for memory cards, extra controller, and a game or two. Since then it provided everyone in my family with all kinds of gaming fun (except my mom who will only play majong on the computer <.<.

Among the games I got reasonable enjoyment from include F-Zero GX, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Super Mario Sunshine, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Sonic Mega Collection (before I started my l33t collection of Sega Genesis stuff, anyway), and Metal Gear Solid: the Twin Snakes. Metroid Prime, namely, makes it to my list of one of the greatest games of all time. I also loved the Zelda: Collector's Edition disc (although it's not so easy to get anymore, seeing as it goes for $40 and $50 on eBay). Some of the not so greats? Um... Probably Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters, Metroid Prime II, Enter the Matrix, and James Bond: Agent Under Fire. Some of the great multiplayer games included Soul Calibur II, Timesplitters 2, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

My dad, whose tastes lean in near exclusive favor of first person shooters and military/terrorist themed games, had a pretty good time with Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. There was a several month period during which my sister was helplessly addicted to Harvest Moon: a Wonderful Life. My brother also vanished from the face of the earth for a significant month-long period while he was playing Zelda: Windwaker. Sadly I never played that one myself; I just watched him play through every significant dungeon and plot spoiler so now it's ruined for me. Sob.

All in all, the Gamecube had a satisfactory library of fun and even classic games. It's graphics were lightyears superior to the N64 blockiness I had become accustomed to for the previous five years. Nearly everyone in my family got some enjoyment from it at some time or another. I did always notice that the Gamecube section was just a LITTLE smaller than the XBOX and PS2 section in the stores, but I do not believe it was a failure.

The game cube was easily my favorite system of the last generation when it was alive (being a raging nintendo fanboy helped).  But to me it died in early 2005 january and febuary marking the last noteworth releases.  And sadly looking back on my collection there really isn't to much I want to re-play, couple of favorites though.  From a simple buisness perspective it DID make money but it also did nothing to gain them ground.  And making enough money to get by really isn't a stirring success.  Plus it was all but dead for two years. 

So since it didn't gain ground and did nothing but lose it, for that reason alone I'll call it a failure.  Honestly that was back when I still really liked underdog consoles, but now it doesn't matter to me.  waiting 6+ months after a games release date didn't help much.  Something nitnendo liked to make us do a lot.  It's still a good system but aside from a handful of games I wouldn't really play it again.  It's not a system where you can go digging for hidden gems.  Since it really lacks games as well, it is regretably a faiure from my own perspective as well and let down. 

[QUOTE]If a system as about a dozen or so killer games, its not a failure  [/QUOTE]Then the saturn, dreamcast and neo geo pocket were highly successful.