Wednesday, 4 January 2012

The Gamecube

WHATTHEHECKISTHISANDWHYDON'TIHAVEONE!?
I've never made it abundantly clear that the GameCube (Nintendō Gēmukyūbu) is by far my favourite console. This will probably come to most as quite a surprise. After all, the GameCube (I've now ctrl+c 'd the word) was in direct competition with another great console; a console which had a massive array of 3rd party producers thus meaning a significantly larger catalogue of games whilst still possessing no less impressive hardware. I am of course referring to the PlayStation 2, a system which is still plugged in aside my 360 and Wii. So why, you may ask, do I have what I consider an inferior console ready to play whilst I leave my revered gathering dust? The simple answer is "my Wii has backwards compatibility dumbass!". But there is a significantly more polite response. I myself have never actually owned GameCube of my own, only recently being able to enjoy many of it's great games on my Wii system. So how can I possibly claim that this console deserves to sit in Zeus' mighty throne atop Olympus; leaving the PlayStation 2 to duke it out with the Dreamcast over rights to 'Poseidon's swivel chair'. It all dates back to primary school.

¡Un forastero!
 When me and my group of friends were being too cool to play football and were not playing "Skies of Arcadia inspired airships and swords and magic battles, Whoo Yeah!", we would stay inside and play video games. When we were really young, we were all too happy to take turns on Sonic and Knuckles or just sit and watch the one dude who could play/remember-the-cheat-that-allowed-you-to-get-the-rocket-launcher-cars on Age of Empires. One of my closest friends was a real Nintendo fan and so he'd always be the first to get the latest console. It was already set up that Saturday morning when me and a couple of others arrived at his house, allowing us to immediately jump on and start a quick round of Mystic Heroes. It was quit extraordinary, all four of us playing at once. I mean, sure, the Nintendo 64 had the same amount of controller ports yet (weirdly enough) we'd never had more than two controllers for it. This was revolutionary to me, to experience an adventure; an exhilarating fantasy for all four of us to enjoy not solely produced from our imagination. At least that would have been the case had Mystic Heroes been any good. I've had fonder memories of trapping my fingers in doors. With a meager 5 levels and poorly progra-... Hold the phone! I barely have any memories of it in the first place. All I remember about Mystic Heroes is the box art and the level selection screen. Dwelling on the level selection screen, I am suspecting that there were only four stages to choose from. Kinda like the "Mercenary Mode" from Resident Evil 4. Lacking only the ever-present crowds of dangerous enemies... and the varied weapon and character selection...and the Spanish swears... and the FUN!


Fortunately, this was only the light shower before the rainbow, the clouds piddling upon us as the sun breaks through (bias, where?). Yes, games such as 'Pokemon Colosseum' and 'Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker' were already announced and awaiting release. These God-sent gems manifesting themselves to mankind revealed yet another truth to me. The GameCube was damn good with single player games. I will admit that I have barely touched the surface of single player games for the GameCube, having not even played Luigi's Mansion, Eternal Darkness, Killer7 or the Metroid Prime trilogy (mostly due to the fact these games have completely eluded me, I have recently purchased the first Metroid Prime game and am slowly working through it) but this slight drawback only actually means that I've got many more great experiences to venture through GameCube pad in hand. I feel I should also make a quick disclaimer for 'Pokemon Colosseum' seeing as I brought it up and wish to swiftly move on. While many will maintain the stance that Colosseum was a colossal failure, I disagree. Note that the majority of the group are People Incapable of (Literally) Living with Official Changes, made by Knowledgeable personS, toward the Pokemon series. I'm being serous! Basically, these people stubbornly uphold statements such as "Charizard iz da best pohwkaymans EvUr" and "By golly, the vast conglomeration of epitomized monstrosities is wholly superfluous! The good chaps ought not have permitted supplementary addition beyond one-hundred-and-fifty-one!". (By the way, Garchomp is the Pokemon that totally breaks the game; Charizard wouldn't even get a chance to bend over and raise his tail before Garchomp is done with him and all his close relatives.)
For those who don't know, Garchomp is actually a Ground-type...that can fly?




But I digress, I'm spouting off topics that could feature in future articles. The GameCube thundered ahead, releasing monumental games which ranked high scores and massive internet popularity. I honestly believe that although the single-player is what I am forced to use today, I feel I must return to speaking of the fond memories of hours spent playing with 3 friends to justify the GameCube's high ranked position. I make no mistake stating that hundreds of hours were easily spent on titles such as MarioKart: Double Dash, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures. But on the following game alone, I know an almost equal amount of hours were poured into. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. And we never actually completed the game either. Despite the equivalent of weeks put into mastering the game, we only ever attained minor game-play victories, the mastermind of story and plot completely evading us. Yet we never noticed, we would still play at every opportunity, pulling out the Gameboy Advances and hooking them up to the GameCube with as much enthusiasm and fervor as we had initially. This could only have been possible on the GameCube. People despise and bemoan this whole "GBAtoPlay" feature, yet there is no way we could have had the same experience without it. Split screens would have drastically changed the game and if one person wished to alter their inventory, why should they have had to stop the action?. Again, this was only possible on the GameCube. Nintendo was the only company who had it's hand dipped into the hand-held system at the time, the PSP still a distant two years off, and even then with no PS2 linkage. The Playstation2 and the Xbox desperately attempted to develop online capabilities which were only realized in fullness for this console generation, whilst the GameCube focused on the task at hand. Bringing the maximum amount of fun to a roster of up to four players. Sure, it's probably turned out better from a business perspective, but we've all seen how endeared (not endearing, however) Nintendo fans are. I know how much fun my childhood was, I recognize how blessed I am to have had those 3 friends who would always sit and play the same games day in and day out. I believe I've made my point as best as I can. I'll admit that perhaps it is only from my perspective and background that the GameCube could possibly be the best, but make no mistake: I will defend it's position. It's not like I'm saying the Playstation2 or Xbox aren't any good, it's just they couldn't compare. Yes, we all played games such as Halo and Timesplitters together, yet both experiences were best enjoyed with only 2 people at a time. Split-screening is a bit too much when it's split more than once, no matter how big the Television is.

Nintendo's solution to Split Screening
Anyway, in an attempt to wrap up, I hope you enjoyed some insight into this wonderful console and i hope you've enjoyed reading. I setting myself some guidelines to work by, I'm going to be posting at least one article a week minimum. T'would appreciate it if you checked in every so often to give my work a read. Also, check out thestudentreview.co.uk. That is what started me off, it updates frequently and offers some awesome and entertaining articles.


Pictureography 
I don't own any of the above pictures. I found them all on these following respective websites
(in no particular order)

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