As time marches ever forward, I’m beginning to have this bizarre sensation of writing retrospectives for films, games, and consoles that I was alive for the launch of. Released on November 18th, 2001, in the US, the Nintendo GameCube came at an exciting time for the games industry. Even to this day, it still feels “new” to me, but the console is practically old enough to rent a car. Where has the time gone?
As Nintendo’s first console of the 21st century, it marked a major turning point for the company. Not only was this the first Nintendo device to embrace optical media (though done in a very Nintendo manner), but it was the last console Nintendo made that focused on pure hardware power. By virtue of being newer than Sony’s PlayStation 2, which was released a little over a year earlier in the US, the GameCube was a more powerful machine. It had a ton of features that would become standard in gaming, such as progressive scan support, Dolby Pro Logic 2 surround capabilities, and eventually a wireless gamepad. It was also pushing visuals that far outclassed Sony’s machine, but which were eventually supplanted by Microsoft’s Xbox.
As with others around the time, the games I most wanted to play at launch were Luigi’s Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader. Both felt like such a dramatic step forward in terms of graphical rendering, showcasing new techniques such as volumetric lighting, bump mapping, and stencil shadows. As cliche as it sounds, I had never seen anything like that before. It was one of the few times when I naively thought that gaming would never get better.
The exciting launch was hardly the legacy that the GameCube wound up garnering, however. While the future seemed bright and Luigi’s first solo outing was a quirky little adventure, Nintendo could not continue that momentum. There are certainly some legendary games on the purple lunchbox, but as with the N64, Nintendo’s bizarre decision to use mini-DVDs wound up costing the company a ton of third-party support. The fact that the Cube was also quite the powerhouse of a console also meant Nintendo wasn’t making such a big profit from sales of it.
Obviously, Super Smash Bros. Melee was a dramatic success and has remained a fan-favorite ever since its release. It would close out the generation as Nintendo’s most successful game on the console and one of the best-selling of that generation. The thing is, Nintendo’s insistence on bucking industry trends cost it so much goodwill in the industry. If you look at the list of highest-selling games on the console, the top 16 are all Nintendo-published. Third parties felt constricted by the limitations Nintendo had imposed and while the PS2 was a weaker console, it had broader appeal. Everyone owned a PS2 as it felt out of this world. The GameCube came off more as the Nintendo Box.
Even looking back, I think the biggest impact the GameCube had on me as a gamer and critic is that I began to realize that Nintendo wasn’t infallible. Make no mistake, the Virtual Boy was a massive failure and I hated that device as a kid, but it was a side project. Even if the N64 hasn’t held up, it was revolutionary in its day and I was constantly blown away by it. The GameCube, though, was the first time that the only reason you bought a Nintendo device was for Nintendo’s games. I honestly can’t recall many third-party titles I even played on there. This philosophy was held until the Nintendo Switch, which became such a hit that third parties had to pay attention.
The generation also saw Nintendo make a gigantic fumble in the form of not acquiring Rare Ltd. as a first-party studio. This was an era before massive buyouts and mergers were the norm, but Nintendo’s legendary partnership with Rare from the SNES and into the N64 created a stable of games that players still hold in high regard. With Nintendo looking to focus more on first-party output, it sold its shares in Rare and left the company in a bad position. Since it needed funding to stay in business, Microsoft’s surprise deal made sense to management. Sadly, that resulted in a tarnished legacy that would take until Sea of Thieves to really be repaired.
That kind of fumble, though, recalls a similar situation to Squaresoft jumping ship to the PlayStation when Nintendo skipped out on discs for the N64. The company was almost in a tailspin and since third parties did not feel comfortable making games for Nintendo, the GameCube suffered. That’s what I remember about the generation, especially since Microsoft’s Xbox with its raw graphical grunt and online support completely stole my attention after 2003.
If there is any positive to be had here, the first-party output from Nintendo was stellar. I believe the sixth console generation holds the most original IP from Nintendo outside of the NES. We had Pikmin come out in the first month of the console’s life. Chibi-Robo closed out the console with a bizarre and oft-kilter adventure. Animal Crossing came into prominence because of its excellent US localization. Eternal Darkness was an absolutely out-of-nowhere horror game and the second game to be published by Nintendo to receive an M-rating.
Even within its already existing catalog of titles, Nintendo was taking tremendous risks with things. Metroid Prime was controversial pre-release as it shifted the series to first-person. Super Mario Sunshine stripped back some of the complexity of Super Mario 64 and focused on a bizarre water backpack. Star Fox would become a Zelda clone before then embracing an arcade-styled action title. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker also caused a massive uproar for its cel-shaded art style.
There is a lot to love about the GameCube, but most of its legacy rests in hindsight. During that console generation, it felt as if Nintendo couldn’t win. So many mistakes were made that it was no surprise Nintendo flipped the script for the Wii. It would have been cool if Nintendo went for more hardware grunt, but what would that have achieved? The GameCube pushed out incredible visuals and no one seemed to care. Why would you focus on that again, especially since it didn’t work with the N64 or SNES?
I don’t want to end this on a sour note, however. The true legacy of the GameCube is that it shows that Nintendo knows how to weather any storm. The Wii U would later reinforce this, showing how an absolute failure of a device couldn’t sink The Big N. Both consoles have troubled existences where they were underappreciated in their day but were overlooked because of how quirky they were. If Nintendo just stuck to conventional wisdom, the GameCube likely would have done better.
Even so, when I think back on the sixth console generation and recall games I want to play, I usually come back to Nintendo’s output. That was the last generation where triple-A games felt fresh, but a lot of those concepts are still things being pumped out today. Nintendo blazed a different trail and as such, returning to the GameCube feels fresh. It feels like something you can’t quite get today. That’s what I love about it.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
