Gamecube celebrates 10th birthday in the UK

[Blacksite]

Nintendo launched its fourth major home console 10 years ago today in Europe. A decade ago, the GameCube was born.

The console launched in a blaze of excitement flared up by a pre-emptive pre-launch price cut. The GameCube launched in the UK for £129, in either purple or black.

Nintendo's launch line-up included the often overlooked Luigi's Mansion, the beautiful water physics of Wave Race: Blue Storm and the best version of a Hoth level ever in a Star Wars game, found in Factor 5's Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader.

Sales started briskly, with 75,000 consoles shifted in the UK during the GameCube's first two days on sale (PlayStation 2 managed 40,000). But the console would spend the majority of its life in third place.

The GameCube eventually notched up a total of 21.74 million sales, a little behind the Xbox, Microsoft's more powerful first console effort (24 million sold). But both would always trail the already-ingrained PS2 (a whopping 153.6 million sold).

The console launched without a Mario title in tow - Super Mario Sunshine followed some months later and achieved commercial success, but fainter critical praise than its N64 counterpart.

Still, the console served as Nintendo's last great period of ingenuity for fresh core franchises: the aforementioned Luigi's Mansion (whose 3DS sequel earned cheers at Nintendo's E3 press conference last year upon its announcement), Pikmin and its delightful sequel Pikmin 2, and the bizarrely addictive Animal Crossing (originally launched in Japan during the dying days of the N64, but then hastily re-released on 'Cube months later).

And while internet message boards initially derided the cartoonish graphics of Zelda: The Wind Waker, time (and sales figures) now hold it as one of the series' finest hours.

Nintendo-sponsored Retro Studios was busy putting itself on the map re-inventing the Metroid series, with the first two entries in the Metroid Prime trilogy offering some of the console's deepest experiences.

The GameCube era saw the controversial sale of Rare to Microsoft, following the disappointing launch of Star Fox Adventures, but a draw up a closer relationship with Capcom. The much-lauded "Capcom Five" deal gained Nintendo initially-exclusive titles such as PN03, Viewtiful Joe, Suda 51's Killer7 and Shinji Mikami masterpiece Resident Evil 4 - a game so good it has been ported to pretty much every platform since.

The deal even spawned a pervasive online rumour that Nintendo was set to buy Capcom in a "megaton" announcement, although the entire episode was a widely-spread internet myth.

Every home console has its own selection of wacky Nintendo accessories, and the GameCube was no different. Nintendo gingerly dipped its toes into the internet era with the console's Broadband Adaptor add-on (usable with Phantasy Star Online and little else), had players shouting at their TVs to control Mario Party 6 and pinball strategy mash-up Odama, hit life-size bongos to control Donkey Konga and tried to convince gamers to hook up their Game Boy Advances with Zelda: The Wind Waker to spend more time with Tingle.

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I still have my Gamecube (even though I played more games on the PlayStation 2), mainly for great titles like Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and the enhanced port of Skies of Arcadia.

[BoyBettaKnow]

Best console ever IMO. Metroid Prime, Windwaker, SSBM, Viewtiful Joe, Paper Mario, MK: Double Dash, Rouge Squadron, Mario Golf and Super Mario Sunshine (yeah, I said it. Judge me) all on one little black box.

Being able to connect your GBA to it to use in some games was always fun or using the attachment underneath to play GBA games on a big screen was nice!

And the Wavebird controller. I loved everything about it apart from the position of the Z button!

And seeing the tiny size of the disks always surprised me. I was starting at the disk of Mario Sunshine all the way home! The GC was actually the first console I bought with my own money.

I remember when it came out I always wanted the Panisonic Q but it used to cost an arm and a leg! I actually was looking at one on eBay a few weeks ago and they're still around £250

Some cunt wiped my Memory stick I used with it loosing me all of my saves and most importantly my SSBM save (some characters where a bitch to get like Falco for example) I was fucking livid - could've killed whoever did it!

BBK. Tapatalking.

[Nitey]

We still got out black one, got the Mario Kart bundle. Played the shit out of that and Mario Sunshine, which was amazing - best water physics/graphics last gen lol! Played the Zeldas and super smash but other than that not a lot >.<

[nofear01]

This was the first of the muliplayer systems in my opinion

[DarkVincent07]

But... it isn't even a cube... :P


Anyway its crazy that its been 10 years already, I remember playing the hell out of SSB and Mario Sunshine at friends places. SO much fun Also Link in Soul Calibur II, epic

[AaronSOLDIER]

This was the first of the muliplayer systems in my opinion

What do you mean by that?

[Kuro]

oh man i had so many memories with this system i got it the christmas after it came out i remember co-op in conflict desert storm and desert storm II,super mario sunshine the first game i got with it along with spider man:the movie,ssb melee,bond games haha it was a blast with splitscreen espcially team deathmatch,mario party of course sadly my purple gamecube died 4 years ago when i was trying to play resident evil 4..R.I.P my gamecube

[Blacksite]

And seeing the tiny size of the disks always surprised me.

Same here. Although some of their more visually-impressive games came on two discs. Back then, though, I think Nintendo were aiming to design the Gamecube to be something you could easily carry around, unlike the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

[Sufi]

This was the first of the muliplayer systems in my opinion

Whichever way you meant that.

No.

Look up Xbox.

[Blacksite]

Whichever way you meant that.

No.

Look up Xbox.

I'm pretty sure the Sega Dreamcast was the first console to support online play.

[Fon]

The only game I played a lot on this thing was, Harvest Moon(A wonderful life?).. Best game ever on the console >_>

Of course I also tried my hand with SSB and Mario Sunshine but the latter I hardly touched. Another excellent game was Luigi's Mansion.

[AaronSOLDIER]

I'm pretty sure the Sega Dreamcast was the first console to support online play.

Yep, and it doesn't get anywhere near enough credit for being the first console to do so.

[Sufi]

I'm pretty sure the Sega Dreamcast was the first console to support online play.

That's true.

Daytona USA.

[Kuro]

the dreamcast had online support? wow i really didn't know that

[TGO]

the dreamcast had online support? wow i really didn't know that

Yep Sega World, was basically a 56k Xbox Live.
PSO, QUAKE ARENA, etc, etc
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2

[Sufi]

Except it was shitty and hardly ever worked.

[claud3]

Happy birthday GameCube, the drinks are on you. The GameCube had some awsome games and i loved playing it

[Kuro]

Oh ok lol no wonder I didn't notice

[claud3]

Here is the top ten gamecube games enjoy