"Kills X-BOX dead!"

Note: This review was typed on April 13, 2003. I have to put this here because the GameCube is in the middle of its life cycle, so the review will make less sense as time goes on, but it will still be just as much fun to read.

I am a big Nintendo freak. Apart from the PS One, all of the gaming consoles I have are Nintendo. But for a while, I was receiving the consoles towards the end of their life cycles, so it was mainly looking for old, hard-to-find games that kept those systems alive. But with the GameCube, I received it on Christmas of the year it came out. Now, the frantic searching for games is over, and I have what is definitely the best console since the Super NES.

The first thing you notice about the GameCube is how compact it is. Compared with the PS2 or X-BOX, this puppy is SMALL! That makes it so much easier to carry around and bring over to a friend's house, so that makes one convenience right from the get-go.

The disks are ridiculously small as well. Nintendo has used the optical disks for this console, unlike the PS2 and X-BOX that use ROM-sized disks. This means that the disks have plenty of room to fit in their holding cases. That may not sound like much, but it does give much more protection from dust and other harmful materials.

With such a small console and disks, you might be led to think the console is nowhere near as powerful as its competition. You would be incredibly wrong. The GameCube is very powerful and capable of some beautiful graphics and sound effects. Three launch titles in particular showed that the GameCube had what it takes.

The first is Luigi's Mansion. In this game, you control Luigi who has to search a haunted house for his missing brother. Of course, the mansion would be dark and ghost-filled. The GameCube does an excellent job of showing dark and moody settings. The ray of light given off by the flashlight is so very realistic, and the occasional lightning will reveal Luigi's shadow. In addition, you will be able to see steam from a shower, dust coming off of old furniture, and a freezing mist that emits from a refrigerator.

The second is Wave Race: Blue Storm. This game is a sequel to the popular N64 game Wave Race 64. The water effects for the game are unmatched, even with some of the more recent games! Water splashes on the camera lens, and you can even see the waves coming up at different heights. Not to mention the cool weather effects in that game that appear at random. Very nice.

The third is Star Wars: Rogue Leader. This game had the best graphics of any of the launch titles. Basically, this game is a collection of missions that retell the events of Star Wars Episodes IV through VI. The cinemas looked almost identical to the movies. The missions themselves were set in beautiful-looking backdrops from Hoth to Bespin, and they all looked very much like their movie counterparts. The game also had some excellent voice acting.

Now for the sound effects. All of the titles mentioned above had some very nice and moody sound effects and music. Luigi's Mansion has very chilling and haunting music, which Luigi actually hums and whistles along to! Very creative. The ghost laughs were pretty funny, too, as were Luigi's screams of fright. It just served to make the game that much creepy.

Wave Race: Blue Storm has an absolute bounty of rock music to listen to. While it doesn't play if you have sound effects turned on(?), it's worth turning the sound off just to hear them. The announcer actually wasn't annoying for once, which is an extreme rarity nowadays, and each racer has their own soundtrack.

Star Wars: Rouge Leader, as mentioned above, had some amazing voice acting, but that wasn't all. Every sound effect, from the X-Wing taking off to Darth Vader's infamous breathing problem, was perfectly reproduced from the movie. That gave the game an authentic feel that you don't get too often in games nowadays.

Those three games were all well and good, but two weeks into the GameCube's life saw one of the greatest games ever made. That game is Super Smash Bros. Melee. This game had it all: insanely detailed graphics, nostalgic music and sound effects, 25 characters, 29 stages, and 290 trophies to collect. While some people don't seem to understand the beauty that is Melee (coughcoughDOAcoughKertracough), the rest of us know what a wonderful game it is.

Of course, graphics and sound alone can't do a console justice. There has to be a wide variety of games to choose from as well. Thankfully, Nintendo doesn't disappoint there. With so many categories to choose from, I will break it down into several sections:

ACTION/ADVENTURE:
This is the category Nintendo seems to focus on the most, and some of the GameCube's best titles happen to be here. Luigi's Mansion will definitely keep you busy for a while, but it has a weakness in being so short. For a longer adventure, try Metroid Prime (best game on GameCube so far), or Star Fox Adventures if you want a little Zelda flavor in your adventure games.

ARCADE:
The strong suit in this category is definitely Mario Party 4. It has 50 new mini-games, eight adventure boards, and a new team mode to add to the excitement. For nostalgia purposes, there's Sonic Mega Collection, which features over 7 classic Sonic games from the Sega Genesis. You could also try Pac-Man World 2, which plays much like the old Pac-Man in 3D and also features replicas of some old Pac-Man games. Also try Namco Museum.

FIGHTING:
Duh! Super Smash Bros. Melee reigns supreme here! There's also Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, but it's hard to like that after Smash Bros. Try Def Jam Vendetta or wait for Soul Calibur 2.

PUZZLE:
There's not much to find here, but ZooCube is pretty good once you get into it, I guess. The real highlight would have to be Tetris Worlds, since it's such a classic game to begin with anyway, but that's about it.

PLATFORM:
Super Mario Sunshine gets the nod here, although that game has a lot of adventure elements in it as well. A really great game in this genre would be Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, since it's for the most part similar to a side-scroller. This genre has some pretty underrated and obscure games.

RACING:
We first got Wave Race: Blue Storm when the GameCube came out, and it was an incredibly fun game. Now, we have a lot of NASCAR licensed games that haven't received too much attention. Hopefully, Donkey Kong Racing will soon come out and give this genre the boost it needs.

RPG:
Sadly, this genre has been neglected too much, but it still has some mighty good games. The first one to come out was Lost Kingdoms, which is innovative but not excellent. However, there is now Phantasy Star Online and Evolution Worlds, both of which are well worth checking out. Also, there's Zelda: The Wind Waker.

SHOOTER:
This genre has a lot of games, the first being Star Wars: Rouge Leader. Then we have a couple of 007 games, Agent Under Fire and Nightfire, which are both okay. There's also Die Hard: Vendetta and Minority Report, but neither are too appealing. But there should be a Tomb Raider for the GameCube, so that could be worth it.

SPORTS:
There are so many sports games that I have to create sub-categories for this genre.
Golf: The best one here would be Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003, which is the best golf game to come out in quite a while. There's also Swingerz Golf for beginners and Outlaw Golf for those who want some flare.
Tennis: I can't really think of any tennis games out right now that are worth checking out. Mario Tennis for GameCube should be out soon enough.
Baseball: Perhaps the biggest sport covered on the GameCube so far. There are three All-Star Baseball series games and all are worth checking out.
Football: What else but Madden NFL 2002 and 2003? You could also look for NFL 2K3 if you wanted.
Hockey: The best one here would have to be NHL Hitz 20-02, which mixes creative teams and arenas with the occasional fight between players. The other NHL Hitz games are pretty good, too.
Basketball: The GameCube has a lot of this type of sport. The best selection here would be NBA Courtside 2002, NBA Street 2002, and any NBA Jam game that happens to come out in the future.
Volleyball: As far as I know, the only volleyball game so far is Beach Spikers, which is pretty good. However, Nintendo needs to come up with something quick now that X-BOX released Dead or Alive X-Treme Beach Volleyball.

STRATEGY/SIM:
Two games in particular stand out here, but only one of them is right for you. They are Animal Crossing and Cubivore. Animal Crossing is a sort of real-life simulator that has your character living the life that you want him/her to. Cubivore is very much like SimCity only with customizable characters and an adventure theme sprinkled in. They are two different games, and you need to experiment with them to find the right one. As for other games in the genre, try the GameCube version of The Sims or the arcade-ish Super Monkey Ball 2, along with Pikmin.

One thing I didn't mention about the games is that it takes the people who label Nintendo as ''kiddy'' and hauls them off in chains. Resident Evil has been remade for the console and is considered by many to be the best game ever in terms of graphics, and it offers the same shocks that it did in the past. Eternal Darkness is more psychological, draining your character's sanity and leaving them to see things that aren't there. This just shows that Nintendo can make ''mature'' games as well.

I haven't even mentioned how incredibly comfortable the controller happens to be. The shape of it fits perfectly into your hand, and the way the buttons are placed and their size become second-nature very quickly. The A button is the size of your upper thumb and thus allows you to press it quickly and easily. The B button is small and positioned nearby. The Control Stick and C stick are very responsive, and the D-pad is rather smooth as well. The shape of the L and R shoulder buttons allow your fingers to fit on them rather nicely, with the Z button put near the R. Y and X can be found near the A button for easy access. The controller is so smooth that I was able to operate it just as easily with one arm in a cast! If that isn't proof, I don't know what is.

While the machine cannot play DVDs, does it really need to? It's a gaming console, for crying out loud. If you really want a DVD-playing machine, get a DVD player. Sheesh.

There are not very many extras for the console itself, although the Game Boy Player will soon be here. This will allow you to play all Game Boy games on your TV, and it only costs $40! I can already see Sony and Microsoft shaking in their shoes.

The GameCube itself right now costs $150. That's $50 less than the PS2 or X-BOX, which makes the console even better than it already is! Why pay too much to get less quality? I certainly wouldn't.

So overall, you have the best console since the Super NES. With powerful graphics, crystal clear sound, and one comfortable control scheme, as well as a wide variety of games to choose from, this is one cube that knows how to enter the third dimension.

The Kelly Clarkson:
-incredibly realistic graphics
-sharp sound effects
-some of the best music to grace gaming consoles
-Best. Control. Ever.
-the sheer variety of games to choose from
-the console is compact, and so are the games
-the upcoming Game Boy Player will make it even better
-Super Smash Bros. Melee. Need I say more?

The Kelly Osbourne:
-the console is not as graphically powerful as the X-BOX
-That's it. Now SCRAM!

Final Verdict: Like you don't already know?

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/03, Updated 04/13/03