"Nintendo Survived..."

A LITTLE HISTORY:
Nintendo has always been known as the one who would do everything a little bit differently when compared to the competition. Back when Nintendo began its videogames division, not much could be said about the little unknown card maker. The company came out of the blue with a completely off the wall, bizarre idea. Make a little plumber jump and fight the likes of a giant ape named Donkey Kong. Try telling this to someone who didn't give squat about games and you'll have a very interesting feed on just how much response this sort of attraction would get.

Time passed and this bizarre idea began to spread like a wildfire. Nintendo struck gold with its arcade machine and proved it had some true talent in its hands. This talent is known by the name of Shigeru Miyamoto. Who was this unknown entity? He was the father of Mario and many more mascots yet to come. In the end, the original Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom in Japan) was a monster success.

In the early 90s, Nintendo had developed the SUPER NES, a console that was double the power of their original trend-child. It was a huge leap in visuals and held strong with massive amounts of 3rd party support. Needless to say, Nintendo had the videogame market at its finger nail despite competition from Sega.

As the 90s continued, Nintendo's first 3-D console rose out of the success of the SNES. The only thing to be worried about now was an old business partner who had felt a little bit sour due to failure to implement its new CD drive into the SNES. Sony waged a war with the N64 and with both consoles running neck and neck… PSone broke the footrace and advanced far beyond the N64… leaving the console dead in its tracks despite its initial success.

The next console was Nintendo's ticket to reigning lord of the videogame industry… However, something was in the air that left the company a little bewildered. The PS2 and Microsoft's new console were being considered the hot items of the future. Nintendo felt confident in their plans and with use of teasers and announcements, the Gamecube was coming up as an impressive creation. By 2001, the PS2 was taking full charge and had the nation taking it into their arms, grasping and worshipping the new Playstation. Nintendo had a similar run, but for a much shorter amount of time… It turned into a critical disaster due to its childish look. Before anyone could've guessed, Nintendo haters were in and the Nintendo loyalists were out. It was cool to hate Nintendo. Yet, the company fought a good fight and within its 5 years of life, the console managed to impress!

OUTSIDE APPEARANCE: 5 “Cute… but too cute”
The number one thing that people notice about the console is the actual shape. It's a box-shaped machine with controller ports and memory slots on the front. On the backside are the TV and power cable slots. On the same side as these, you'll find a black round handle like object that can be best used for that purpose. It can be carried around with much ease. The top plane of the console holds the CD bay and 3 buttons used for Power, Reset and Opening the console bay. It's simple but nothing that breath-taking by any means. Sad but true, Nintendo lost a lot of its charm in its console design. The console launched in “Indigo” which was a poor choice in color, then decided to adopt the “Limited Edition” platinum color as its primary. Too bad there just wasn't much thought towards appeal.

INPUT DEVICES: 8 “Never a dull moment”
Over the life of the Gamecube, there has been several input devices used to help create some innovative, different and interesting entertainment ideas. The core controller (wired) is a comfortable representation that fuses the look and feel the SNES controller with that of the N64 controller. Overall, it fits nicely to your hand (to anyone's hand) and has a real old-style arcade feel to it. You have the largest button, the A-button that usually manages as the primary action button. The smaller B-button does help in distinguishing which button is which, meanwhile, the X and Y have their appropriate feel as well. The R and L triggers work extremely well and provide the player with a couple gameplay options as to the idea that these shoulder buttons have 2 button functionalities. There's the press-sensitivity option that allows the player to control something like a gas pedal of a car with a good tight feel. There's also the “click” which can be initiated when the L and R are pressed as hard as can go, thus initiating a clicking sound used for that of firing weapons and what not. The start button is a simple grey button at the center of the controller. Lastly, the analog sticks are major upgrades from what the N64 offered. My only two complaints are with the Z-button which sits too close to the R and the C-stick which has such a small grip to it, that it makes it very difficult to enjoy first person shooters with. Nintendo should have taken some pointers from Sony on this one because the controller's C-stick is too small to handle for long periods of time. The Z-button as I stated sits right beneath the R trigger and creates one heck of scenario for trying to press the button. Another unspoken but expected feature is its rumble tilt which adds a nice feeling to the controller when playing in rumble sensitive scenarios.

Other input options have also existed like that of the WaveBird, the first official wireless controller. It could be handled in distance away from the console and work quite nicely for long periods of battery life. Another very interesting idea for the console was the use of Bongo drums to help control the action of onscreen characters and events. This was used in games such as Donkey Kong Konga, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. It was an ambitious attempt and actually created some really incredible game experiences with DKJB.

GRAPHIC POWER: 9 “Wow….”
While the XBOX was the powerhouse of the generation, it was the Gamecube that fought hard to prove that it could be just as bad. The console utilized many specialized forms of visuals in cel-shading, bump mapping, complex 3-D models while keeping great frame rates. There wasn't a whole lot that the system couldn't do. I think the biggest problem with its visual capabilities was the lack of 3rd parties actually trying to use the Cube technologies to its potential. Nintendo wielded out some masterfully beautiful creations in that of Super Mario Sunshine, and the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It was however, Resident Evil series that took the console's power to the max in games like Resident Evil 4 and the remake version of its original classic.

SOUND CAPABILITIES: 8 “It's good!”
The Gamecube's sound performance was well made. There isn't a whole lot to say on the audio features since it is almost identical to that of the PS2 and XBOX. It is a shame that Dolby Pro Logic II was the most heightened form of sound when compared to the PS2's even greater sound capabilities, but how well do you really notice this issue? ALMOST NEVER! All the consoles sound the same in one way or another. It's all in the games to utilize the power!

STORAGE: 7 “It works…”
The Gamecube discs are an interesting little marvel. They are about a 3rd of the size of common CD yet hold 2x more information (1.3 Gigs). The only thing that turned into a real lame duck was that some PS2 and XBOX games couldn't be ported due to the limited resource. It was difficult making a game like GTA because it would involve multiple discs that lead to having to waste more space bringing environments over to the secondary disc while still having to squeeze the event data. As for games with a lot of CGI-FMVs there was a lot of compression used that would leave the video footage looking grainy and textures horribly corrupt. In games like NFS: Underground 2, there was so much compression used on the models, sound, etc…that the game dragged in frame-rate. It's too bad that Nintendo hadn't tried a little harder to assist the developers.

The memory cards were an interesting medium for game save storage as the very first models could only store 59 blocks which was equal to about 5 games max.. Heck, some games couldn't even fit onto 1 of these babies. There were alternatives that came out like the 256 and the 1012 which gave more than enough room for game saves at a reasonable price.

GAME LIBRARY: 7 “Healthy amount of titles”
The Gamecube library had a healthy amount of titles, unfortunately… there just weren't enough to keep the average gamer happy. It sufficed the casual gamer who played maybe once or twice a week, but outside of that, the average gamer went to the massive libraries of Sony and Microsoft. Another problematic situation was that a lot of the (licensed) titles were aimed towards young children and the titles that were aimed for everyone were cast aside into these groups because of the console's developing appeal. There were some adult games but just not enough to help fix the “childish” foot that Nintendo unfortunately lugged about. To describe the activity of the Gamecube's library, one would have to say it started off strong and great during the 2001-2003 years. It wasn't until 2004, that the console's game pace was beginning to slow. By 2005, it was becoming more and more difficult to find titles that would push the Cube's interest factor. By 2006, the console was on its last legs awaiting its last gem of greatness, “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”.

LACKED: Sports titles and Adult oriented games
TOO MANY: Party brawlers and licensed games
NEEDED: More platformers and RPGs
JUST RIGHT: Resident Evil Titles

GREATEST GAMES:
Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Tales of Symphonia, NFL Madden 2005, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Eternal Darkness, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Mario Party Series (and plenty more, but that's to name a few)

OVERALL: 7 “Nintendo survived”
The most I can say out of this generation is that Nintendo survived. It had many rough years and with so much going for it gone down the drain, we can only shake our heads and hope Nintendo has realized every mistake it made and gone out of its way to fix it. Only time will tell when the Nintendo Revolution is finally released in fall, 2006.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/06