Nintendo GameCube



"Who Are You?"

The Nintendo GameCube (officially abbreviated as GCN), Nintendo's entry into the sixth generation of the Console Wars, was released in late 2001. It marked Nintendo's shift from cartridges to optical discs in response to third parties being driven away by the Nintendo 64's continued use of cartridges, using miniature proprietary discs. The graphical capabilities were better than the PlayStation 2, and in some cases, on par with those of the Xbox. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III actually holds the sixth-gen record for polygon count, at 20 million polygons. The GameCube was the first Nintendo console to have fewer buttons on its controller than its predecessor; this was due to the introduction of a second analog stick, though this C-stick was smaller than the primary analog stick.

Nintendo offered many of its properties to other developers. Namco ran around with Donkey Kong and made the Donkey Konga series, Dolled Up Installments of the Taiko no Tatsujin series of drumming games. Namco and Rare (under the company's last days with Nintendo before getting bought out by Microsoft) both had Star Fox-based games (although Rare's was too a Dolled Up Installment, this one born out of Nintendo meddling with the would-have-been Nintendo 64 game Dinosaur Planet.) Most famously, Retro Studios rose to fame with the smash hit Metroid Prime. Capcom was working on The Legend of Zelda and liked the 'Cube so much they promised a few exclusive games for it, dubbed the "Capcom 5":


 * Dead Phoenix (cancelled)
 * P.N.03: Project Number 03 (the only game to stay exclusive)
 * Killer 7 (ported to the PlayStation 2)
 * Resident Evil 4 (ported to the PlayStation 2 again)
 * Viewtiful Joe (ported to-you guessed it-the PlayStation 2)

Oh, and this thing is tough, as in physically. There are stories of people having dropped GameCubes off the top of tall buildings and them still being perfectly intact. It's gotten a reputation for being damn near indestructible; someone once fended off a mugger with a knife with his Gamecube and it wasn't even damaged. Intentionally trying to break it is just about the only way to go. Considering Nintendo's history of making their products Tonka Tough, there might be a reason for that.

Its codename during development was "Project Dolphin" and there are often little nods to this throughout early Gamecube games, such as Super Mario Sunshine being set on "Isle Delfino" (Italian for dolphin). An early rumoured release name for the console was "Starcube", which was apparently dropped for copyright reasons.

There was a stylish-looking variant of the GCN that plays DVD movies and contained other multimedia functionality called the Panasonic Q, but only in Japan and only for those who care not about the health of their wallet.

Oh, and the slow, haunting theme that plays when you turn on the thing? It's the start-up theme for the old Famicom Disk System, slowed down a whole bunch. Pretty neat.

GameCube games and series include:

 * Alien Hominid
 * Amazing Island
 * Animal Crossing 1.x (the series made its international debut on this system, though there was a Nintendo 64 version in Japan, which is why there is a Nintendo 64 logo item in the game)
 * Backyard Sports
 * Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
 * Baten Kaitos
 * Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
 * Batman: Vengeance
 * Battalion Wars
 * Beyond Good and Evil
 * Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
 * Blood Omen 2
 * Chibi-Robo!
 * Crash Bandicoot the Wrath of Cortex
 * Cubivore
 * Custom Robo (international debut again)
 * Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix
 * Darkened Skye
 * Donkey Konga
 * Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
 * Doshin the Giant
 * Eternal Darkness
 * James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
 * Evolution Worlds
 * Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
 * Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (although not the first game in the series to be released internationally, this was the first non-handheld installment to be released internationally)
 * F-Zero GX
 * Geist
 * Gotcha Force
 * Gun
 * The Haunted Mansion
 * Harvest Moon a Wonderful Life
 * Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (in Japan and North America; it was released for the Wii in PAL countries and later it was given an Updated Rerelease for the same console in North America.)
 * Hello Kitty Roller Rescue
 * Ikaruga (For those who didn't import a Dreamcast.)
 * The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
 * Killer 7
 * The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker
 * The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures
 * The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
 * Lost Kingdoms
 * Luigis Mansion
 * Medabots
 * Mario Kart Double Dash
 * Mario Party 4, 5, 6 and 7
 * Mario Golf Toadstool Tour
 * Mario Tennis
 * Mega Man Anniversary Collection
 * Mega Man X Collection
 * Mega Man X Command Mission
 * Metal Arms: Glitch In The System
 * Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes
 * Metroid Prime (the first two installments were released on this system)
 * Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
 * Mortal Kombat Deception
 * Naruto Clash of Ninja
 * Odama
 * Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Super Paper Mario was originally going to be a GameCube game, but didn't get the treatment Twilight Princess got. Also had misfortune of being released the same day as Halo2)
 * Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2 (improved from the Sega Dreamcast/PC version), Ep. 3 C.A.R.D. Revolution & Ep. IV Blue Burst. These were the only games on the GameCube that had online capabilities.
 * Pikmin
 * P.N.03
 * Pokémon Channel
 * Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
 * Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
 * Resident Evil (the "REmake")
 * Resident Evil 0
 * Resident Evil 2
 * Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
 * Resident Evil Code Veronica X
 * Resident Evil 4
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * The Simpsons Road Rage
 * The Simpsons Hit and Run
 * Second Sight
 * Skies of Arcadia Legends (For those who didn't buy a Sega Dreamcast)
 * SNK vs. Capcom
 * Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium
 * Sonic Adventure DX (Again, for those who didn't buy a Sega Dreamcast)
 * Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
 * Sonic Heroes
 * Sonic Riders
 * Soul Calibur II
 * Star Fox Adventures
 * Star Fox Assault
 * Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
 * Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
 * Summoner: A Goddess Reborn (A port of Summoner 2 for the PlayStation 2)
 * Super Mario Sunshine
 * Super Robot Wars GC
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee (The Killer App for the 'Cube.)
 * Tales of Symphonia
 * Tom Clancy Series
 * Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
 * Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
 * Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
 * Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
 * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
 * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
 * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
 * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
 * Ultimate Spider Man
 * Viewtiful Joe
 * Wario World
 * Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!
 * Wave Race: Blue Storm
 * XIII
 * Yu-Gi-Oh the Falsebound Kingdom