Hardware VCG: GameCube at 20: Nintendo insiders on the failed console that changed the industry

[Haziqonfire]

I thought this article was super interesting, and I can’t believe the GameCube is 20 years old today. I have such fond memories for it and loved the console. The full article is worth reading, but just posting a snippet to give you some context of the feature from VGC. I can’t even imagine how different things would look if the GameCube actually did really well. We wouldn’t have seen the entire Wii/Wii U/DS/3DS eras and most certainly the Switch wouldn’t probably have existed either. Kind of crazy.

Even though its commercial performance was disappointing, It’s still the system that introduced Animal Crossing, Pikmin and Luigi’s Mansion, that perfected Smash Bros. and introduced arguably the house of Mario’s greatest traditional controller.

Its exclusive software library was the envy of nearly any other system, with genuine classics like Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime and F-Zero GX, and even its wonderful experiments – playing Donkey Kong with plastic bongos, and 4-player Zelda using Game Boy link cables – are treasured to this day.

But as a platform, Gamecube was also Nintendo at its most frustratingly conservative. Its third-party relations were at an all-time low, online gaming was virtually non-existent and its proprietary mini discs – designed to ease internal concerns over piracy – offered a fraction of the storage DVD did (not to mention no movie playback).

But GameCube’s biggest flaw, according to one man who helped create the console hardware, was that it didn’t offer a meaningful enough differentiator from its competitors.

“In order for a console to ‘win’, you need to do everything right and then you need to have one more thing, a killer feature that nobody else has,” developer Martin Hollis told VGC. Hollis – who’s probably best known as the director of Rare’s GoldenEye 007 – spent six months at Nintendo of America in 1999, consulting on the creation of ‘Project Dolphin’, which would eventually become GameCube.

 

[Apopheniac]

introduced arguably the house of Mario’s greatest traditional controller.

At some point in the future NSO is going to get GCN games, and Nintendo is going to make new wireless GCN controllers that add ZL, select, home, and capture buttons. At that point in the future where those NSO GCN controllers are available for purchase, I may bankrupt myself.

 

[YolkFolk]

I hate to say it but the Gamecube button layout and design was absolutely horrendous for some games which were designed around the standard diamond button layout. That tacked on Z button on the right shoulder is also the worst button on any controller ever.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

I genuinely don't know how the Gamecube changed anything in the industry.

 

[TheMoon]

I genuinely don't know how the Gamecube changed anything in the industry.

did you read the OP, though?

you're thinking proactively. the thesis is that it did so passively, by failing and thus laying the foundation for the Wii (which was birthed out of a concept for a prototype GameCube peripheral).

 

[Ozzie]

I genuinely don't know how the Gamecube changed anything in the industry.

It brought handles into the gaming industry. Pretty revolutionary I'd say.

 

[Pokemaniac]

At some point in the future NSO is going to get GCN games, and Nintendo is going to make new wireless GCN controllers that add ZL, select, home, and capture buttons. At that point in the future where those NSO GCN controllers are available for purchase, I may bankrupt myself.

I'm kinda torn on this. On the one hand, having a few extra buttons for system and emulation features would be useful, but on the other hand, they already made an adapter for real GameCube controllers.

Of course, nothing stops them from supporting both.

 

[Apopheniac]

I'm kinda torn on this. On the one hand, having a few extra buttons for system and emulation features would be useful, but on the other hand, they already made an adapter for real GameCube controllers.

Of course, nothing stops them from supporting both.

The real GameCube controllers are way more likely to get future support than an NSO version would.

 

[Rowsdower]

I genuinely don't know how the Gamecube changed anything in the industry.

I think its lack of success certainly spurned Nintendo’s decision moving forward in getting out of the tech arms race.

Great article.

 

[DumbDonkey]

The GameCube was so unfairly maligned during its time and it’s mostly because the time frame of the PS2, GC, and Xbox was the really cringy Video Games are extreme and edgy era. I remember Nintendo trying to get on board with that with tribal tattoo Mario and matching GBA SP lol

Looking at the console designs now the GC is visually more appealing and the controller is still the most comfortable to be released to date for me. Still, it’s failure is what made Nintendo look for alternative ways of making consoles and even if the GC had been a success I think making conventional consoles like Sony and Microsoft would still have been a dead end for Nintendo in the long run

 

[Pandora]

Pretty nice read with lots of choice quotes , too many of them to choose just a few , gotta say one thing this really gets in to and I feel is forgotten in its legacy is just how weird and quirky the gamecube was not only in appearance , but how nintendo was at the time in marketing it , to what games actually released , to how nintendo actually perceived it , to the fact they released some of the weirdest accessories ever for it , etc etc . It definitely is a cool interview with some neat behind the scenes anecdotes .

 

[Celine]

Introduced Animal Crossing only for western audience because AC was created on N64.

 

[Guaraná]

Introduced Animal Crossing only for western audience because AC was created on N64.

I still think Animal Forest is a better name

 

[samouraï]

At some point in the future NSO is going to get GCN games, and Nintendo is going to make new wireless GCN controllers that add ZL, select, home, and capture buttons. At that point in the future where those NSO GCN controllers are available for purchase, I may bankrupt myself.

It has potential but the triggers on their latest GCN controllers are pretty lacking, perhaps if they fix those issues then we can get a really good update.

 

[Soul Skater]

The thing that gets me about the system is just how seemingly unprepared Nintendo was for it as far as Mario/Zelda goes. They were both delayed way out and both still needed more time.

also the system in general launched a year too late. After how crushing coming so late into the market was for the n64 it’s just shocking to me they allowed Sony to beat them to market again. They should have read the writing on the wall with the n64 when the cartridge issues were really showing their head and moved to replace it with a next gen system asap. The fact that they even entertained the N64DD is sort of wild to me

 

[carlosfilho]

Definitely not a perfect console, but still a graphically powerful one with plenty of good games and even with "all-time low" third-party relations, a surprisingly decent third-party output (Resident Evil, Splinter Cell, lots of Sonic and Sega games in general etc etc). The timing of its release and the lack of a DVD drive were very harmful indeed. I think Nintendo still profited from it, though. Without these issues, the console probably would have been more successful, but it would be really tough to beat Sony at that time.

 

[Clov]

20 years, wow! While it's one of Nintendo's weaker consoles, there's still some great games on there. I have a lot of fond memories of it.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

The last line noting that Nintendo was doing R&D work on a "revolutionary controller sensor idea," at the time of the Gamecube's development is interesting. As we already knew they were developing prototypes of it for the Gamecube.

The only problem is that these versions seem to be newer than the project described in the article.

There was even a prototype of Metroid Prime 3 that uses some variant of this early controller, presumably before Retro got proper Wii devkits.

 

[Miraj]

It’s my favorite Nintendo home console. Such a diversity of IP, many of them getting some of their best or at least very acclaimed entries. Also quite risk-taking with a number of big IPs.

The fact it was the last Nintendo home console to get a new Metroid, Star Fox and F-Zero all released on it marks it as a top console in my book!

 

[Oscillator]

 

[Haziqonfire]

Whoa! This brought back so much nostalgia. Thank you!

 

[GamerJM]

The GameCube was so unfairly maligned during its time and it’s mostly because the time frame of the PS2, GC, and Xbox was the really cringy Video Games are extreme and edgy era. I remember Nintendo trying to get on board with that with tribal tattoo Mario and matching GBA SP lol

I lowkey think that if Nintendo did the exact same things they did with the Gamecube today then it would be received a lot better. Not as well as the Switch, so it's kind of a moot point, but it really was a wrong-place-wrong-time for a lot of what it did.

 

[doodlewhizz]

I love that little purple box and it's still my overall favourite console. A great library and appealing aesthetics.

 

[Kano]

Probably one of the weakest library a Nintendo system ever had, but still the home of many beloved titles. Its failure definitely changed Nintendo for good though.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I lowkey think that if Nintendo did the exact same things they did with the Gamecube today then it would be received a lot better. Not as well as the Switch, so it's kind of a moot point, but it really was a wrong-place-wrong-time for a lot of what it did.

Nah, Nintendo's software lineup on GameCube was ass, there were some good things like Prime, but those were few and far between, and certainly not the biggest tentpoles. Plus, the controller hamstrung it because having one big presumed primary button with others in weird shapes around it, simply doesn't match up with how most games are designed. (And my gosh, were the Dpad and C stick absolutely terrible to use as a Dpad and camera control stick, it's somewhat interesting seeing those Glosse over because if people think the pro controller in switch has flaws, woo boy).

 

[Guaraná]

Who has the biggest nostalgia factor: Gamecube or Dreamcast?

 

[Lozjam]

Who has the biggest nostalgia factor: Gamecube or Dreamcast?

Definitely GameCube. Nobody but a few gamers even remember the dream cast, even if they lived through the Era.

 

[JazzPotatoes]

Nah, Nintendo's software lineup on GameCube was ass, there were some good things like Prime, but those were few and far between, and certainly not the biggest tentpoles. Plus, the controller hamstrung it because having one big presumed primary button with others in weird shapes around it, simply doesn't match up with how most games are designed.

Conversely, the controller makes it easier for people who aren't used to playing 3D games to get a handle on button controls.

From a UI perspective, a big green button and a smaller red button are more memorable and easier to intuit than identical face buttons. You can remember pretty quickly that the big green button is going to be your main action, and the smaller red button will do something different to that. The jelly bean buttons are less memorable by themselves, but they shape around the A button nicely, and because of their positioning each one feels different to your thumb.

When most games are still designed around a small number of repeatable commands, there's no reason you couldn't make most games work with the Gamecube button layout. And there's an interesting alternate universe somewhere where it's design layout was adopted by the other two console manufacturers, and controller design became focuses around memorable button design and good thumb feel, rather than just iterating on the same designs over and over again.

 

[Dekuman]

It was a weird time for me when the GameCube launched, so I didn't follow it as closely as the other platforms. i was in university so money was tight and did not get one until 2002 when Nintendo panic discounted it. I remember not being able to buy books the following week because I had maxed out my very low limit CC , LOL.

Had a lot of fun with it, and I was a heavy user during 2002-2004 period, Animal Crossing was a revelation. Played the heck out of that. RE4, Wind Waker, Harvest Moon all were great. Sunshine was the first and only Mario game I skipped. I finally corrected that with 3D all stars.