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Why was Gamecube-era Nintendo so weird?

SolVanderlyn said:
It's funny, because today Nintendo gets constant backlash for "rehashing" their ideas. But back then, at least for a while, it seemed like every game they churned out was extremely creative and took huge risks by deviating very far from the expected norm. Almost all of the games from this era are highly polarizing, too, with the exception of Metroid Prime and maybe RE4.
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If it helps any - I don't like Metroid Prime or RE4 (but then, I don't like any of the Resident Evil games, or the entire Prime series)

I also find Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, and Double Dash to be of pretty low quality in relation to their series as well.

The Gamecube definitely had some great games, but, as far as those core series, it was really pretty disappointing for me.
 
Zalman said:
Same. Based on what I experienced back then I would've thought it was a highly popular system. I knew many people who owned it and they all loved it.
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Yeah same with me. Everyone I knew had a Gamecube, one person had an Xbox, and I'm not sure I ever saw a PS2. Same with N64/PS1. I'm still baffled to this day when I see how badly the PS1/2 dominated everything while the Gamecube did so bad.

But goddamn I wish the Gamecube was that successful. Nintendo would be completely different because they would've had the urging to keep making these awesome, different games. I love the Wii U and most of the games are the best in their respective franchise, but I do wanna see more of these games. Oh well, still got Bayo 2, X and SMT X FE
 
NES = the birth of an industry (again)
SNES = amazing, but delayed
N64 = good, but cartridge-based and extremely delayed
Gamecube = great, but horrible choice for medium
Wii = Loved bowling
Wii U = I like it, love the virtual console stuff, enjoying the hell out of fun games -- wish it played Blu-ray (never will, but one can wish)
 
I miss Nintendo so much. I hope they get out of desperation mode and just make solid Wii U games. Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda U and X will be a great start. Then we need a proper game changing 3D Mario game, a brand new Metroid Prime, and some weird new IP like when they made Pikmin.
 
I think we all miss GCN era Nintendo. That whole generation was freaking awesome, I miss going into gamestop and seeing PS2/XB/GCN games line the shelves. The other day I stopped by the local gamestop I'd ride my bike to over the summer a decade before and remincised over going to that shop as a kid to buy Steambot Chronicles, Tales of Symphonia, Katamari Damacy, Viewtiful Joe, Ultimate Muscle, those GBA movie cartrdiges, etc...what a wonderful time in gaming.
 
I wish they were that weird now. Capcom seems unwilling to publish their niche IPs so they should do another Capcom collaboration.

Just replace the Gamepad with the Pro controller and call it the GameCube 2
 
Caayn said:
Star Fox shouldn't have been released as a Star Fox game, it should've stayed Rare's own IP.
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It still would have been a bad game, just one that nobody remembered because it doesn't have Star Fox in it. And Star Fox would have gone even longer without another game.
 
MrT-Tar said:
Giftpia
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Man did I want that game.

RLdrqKX.jpg


I knew it didn't have a chance in the world of being localized, but it looked so wonderful.


Also, Homeland (which was an online game too)

upXWGks.jpg
 
Logash said:
I miss Nintendo so much. I hope they get out of desperation mode and just make solid Wii U games. Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda U and X will be a great start. Then we need a proper game changing 3D Mario game, a brand new Metroid Prime, and some weird new IP like when they made Pikmin.
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You want solid Wii U games? Man, have I got some good news for you.
 
I will defend Mario Sunshine to the death.

I honestly like it way more than Mario 64. It's janky in some areas but I love it.
 
It was a good time for Japanese developers in general, Sega especially were on fire at the time. It was just the right level of hardware which suited their development team size and style, they could get games done and take risks with manageable costs.

HD then came along and steamrollered the lot of them. Nintendo have adapted to HD but the scale of it has meant they've fallen back on safer options. With the risk taking falling back to handheld and small eShop titles.

It's a shame because it's a long time since we've seen something as well realised as Pikmin from them.
 
SolVanderlyn said:
20130902233416!Resi4-gc-cover.jpg


This hardly counts, because it's not a first party title, but the fact remains that it was a GCN exclusive for a while. And, like all the other games on this list, it's a really different game than its predecessors. It got rid of tank controls, pre-rendered environments, and even zombies.
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I disagree with that. It changed the camera to third person and allowed you to aim manually. The tank controls were still there and the walking and running animations were very similar to REmake. I do see what you're getting at though.
 
The years of the gamecube were wild, although it's only fitting given that they released a purple lunchbox with a handle. Luigi's mansion as the main launch title, 3D metroid by an unknown studio, a strange cartoony zelda game, some weird game called Pikmin, Mario now has a water pistol, Star Fox is now an adventure game, Mario Kart has two players per kart, Rare being sold, Donkey Kong played with bongos the mayhem of the Twilight Princess reveal etc. So many highs and lows. As a gamecube owner it was a crazy ride.
 
They also had 5 epic jrpgs you wouldnt see anymore on a Nintendo console of that quality.

Tales of Symphonia
Baten Kaitos + Origins
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Paper Mario the thousand year door

and you also had 2 masterful single player Metroid games, another thing you wont see anymore for the WII U.

And you had 2 awesome Zelda games, another thing you wont see for the WII U.
 
I don't really get the weird vibe from the games you put forward as examples. I think with the exception of Resident Evil (which I have not played) I loved them all.
 
Back then, Gamecube launch was unusual by Nintendo standards as well.

  • No Mario at launch
  • Instead, a Luigi game
  • that isn't a platformer
  • where you suck up ghosts like in Ghostbusters

Also, people are familiar with Pikmin now, but when that first was announced it seemed weird as hell, too.

Despite the Wiimote, a lot of big Wii titles are downright conservative in comparison.
 
richisawesome said:
...Wind Waker wasn't the sequel to Ocarina of Time, OP.

This was:



and it was far weirder than any other example you gave:
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I disagree with this. It was originally announced as Zelda Gaiden and is considered a side story. I guess it was technically a sequel in the purest sense of the term, but Wind Waker really continued on from the mythos of Ocarina of Time, while Majora's Mask showed us what Link did after regaining his youth and losing Navi.

dab0ne said:
I disagree with that. It changed the camera to third person and allowed you to aim manually. The tank controls were still there and the walking and running animations were very similar to REmake. I do see what you're getting at though.
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This is true. I'll update the OP.
 
richisawesome said:
...Wind Waker wasn't the sequel to Ocarina of Time, OP.

This was:



and it was far weirder than any other example you gave:
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Nah, MM reused assists and had the same Link, but that really didn't have anything to do with the game itself. WW is a direct continuation of the story. You see what happened after OoT, what motivated the characters to act the way they did in OoT, and even have a new hero make up for the OoT Heros mistakes. It's a sequel in every sense of the word.
 
Kade said:
I was (and still am) pretty bummed that this wasn't localized.
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Glad I'm not the only one.

There were a few games back then that - even with the internet and all - just kind of sneaked out in Japan without any real notice at all about them over here.
 
Beelzebufo said:
Nah, MM reused assists and had the same Link, but that really didn't have anything to do with the game itself. WW is a direct continuation of the story. You see what happened after OoT, what motivated the characters to act the way they did in OoT, and even have a new hero make up for the OoT Heros mistakes. It's a sequel in every sense of the word.
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Wind Waker is a continuation of the story, but Majora's Mask is in every way the direct sequel to Ocarina of Time.
 
GameCube era Nintendo = best Nintendo.

They took many different approaches with their franchises and made them really awesome.

I want a new F-Zero so bad :(
 
As a proud Console War Veteran that saw the most action during the Gamecube era, it's really weird - yet kinda vindicating - to see people now celebrate the GCN as "experimental and brave" while chastising the Wii for being the gimmicky one

The Gamecube era is absolutely the primary reason the word "gimmicky" is associated with Nintendo in the first place.

The general consensus at the time was that Nintendo didn't have the expertise or ability necessary to develop a true sequels to SM64, SMK64, OoT, etc., and so instead had to rely on bizarre one-off gimmicks because they had "run out of ideas".

There's was a definite shared feeling that the whole thing was disingenuous, like Nintendo was trying to dupe consumers to push units

(their words, not mine)

I'm happy that years later the GCN is seen in a positive light.
 
SirPenguin said:
As a proud Console War Veteran that saw the most action during the Gamecube era, it's really weird - yet kinda vindicating - to see people now celebrate the GCN as "experimental and brave" while chastising the Wii for being the gimmicky one

The Gamecube era is absolutely the primary reason the word "gimmicky" is associated with Nintendo in the first place.

The general consensus at the time was that Nintendo didn't have the expertise or ability necessary to develop a true sequels to SM64, SMK64, OoT, etc., and so instead had to rely on bizarre one-off gimmicks because they had "run out of ideas".

There's was a definite shared feeling that the whole thing was disingenuous, like Nintendo was trying to dupe consumers to push units

(their words, not mine)

I'm happy that years later the GCN is seen in a positive light.
Click to expand...
It'll probably happen to the Wii too. There are too many gems on the system to ignore how good of a line up it secretly has.
 
I don't see how it's much weirder compared to other era's, but another was the weird and cheesy direction F-Zero GX went with its story.
 
Sadist said:
First post wins.

Sunshine is a bit weird though. It's a good platformer, but a bad Mario game.
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Honestly Mario 64 is a bad "Mario game".
I would even go so far to say its just straight up a bad game, being someone that didn't play it when he was 9 and isn't blinded by nostalgia.

In the framework of 3D Mario established by 64, Sunshine was a massive improvement. I would still say it is a bad "Mario games" if we evaluate against what makes the 2D and 3D Land style games great, Galaxy 1+2 being something in-between with still a little too much dicking around.
At least these three are good games, though.
 
Beelzebufo said:
It's not though. It's more of a spinoff than anything else.
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No? It's a direct sequel. It directly follows the events of OoT, and it's events occur closer to the events of OoT than WW, whose events occur hundreds of years later. WW is more of a new generation of Zelda games, while MM is only a step away from OoT.
 
In terms of the console itself, the Gamecube was probably the least "weird" of all the Nintendo home consoles. Compared to the NES revitalizing a dead industry, the N64 making the colossal jump to 3D, the Wii's use of motion controls that helped lead it to becoming the best-selling Nintendo home console of all time, and the U's use of a tablet controller to obviously much more mixed results, the Gamecube was pretty standard-fare and felt more like a 64-2 than any other succeeding Nintendo console comparably did to its predecessor.

And as far as quirky Nintendo software, you can find that on any of their systems, honestly in larger abundance for the most part.
 
SirPenguin said:
As a proud Console War Veteran that saw the most action during the Gamecube era, it's really weird - yet kinda vindicating - to see people now celebrate the GCN as "experimental and brave" while chastising the Wii for being the gimmicky one

The Gamecube era is absolutely the primary reason the word "gimmicky" is associated with Nintendo in the first place.

The general consensus at the time was that Nintendo didn't have the expertise or ability necessary to develop a true sequels to SM64, SMK64, OoT, etc., and so instead had to rely on bizarre one-off gimmicks because they had "run out of ideas".

There's was a definite shared feeling that the whole thing was disingenuous, like Nintendo was trying to dupe consumers to push units

(their words, not mine)

I'm happy that years later the GCN is seen in a positive light.
Click to expand...

dat Nintendo cycle
 
Grief.exe said:
Eternal Darkness was a very strange investment for Nintendo.
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It was a product of the Nintendo 64 era, when Nintendo had a large 13-20 year old demographic from Turok, and Goldeneye. They were even releasing first-party sports games at the time.

I miss you N64.
 
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