From what I've played of it, the GameCube app is pretty good. Though outside of finishing my replaythrough of Luigi's Mansion, I haven't used it too much since there's not too many games for it as of now.
"May the stars shine down on you." - Rosalina, Super Mario Galaxy
Not nearly enough games, the only game of interest on it has been Pokemon XD (and we don't even have Colosseum yet despite it being one of the first GC games announced). Most of the games I'd be interested in playing are not here. No Colosseum as mentioned earlier. No Mario Sunshine. Neither of the Metroid Prime games. No Smash Melee. No Mario Kart Double Dash. As with most things Nintendo recently, they've been doing too much drip feeding with niche titles few care about and there's been no sign of the bigger hits that actual draw huge crowds.
I think Nintendo realized they don't actually need Gamecube to help sell Switch 2 now so...they're not lol.
I don't blame them for being slow, because every game on there is throwing away money you could make from a remaster (Prime remastered was at like 1.5 million the only time they ever bothered to tell us its sales), but it is funny how slow it is at this point.
I think that most of the available games are pretty good and I’ve put a fair bit of time into each. But the current selection and rate at which new games come has been a bit disappointing. Was expecting at least bi-monthly releases which hasn’t been the case (3 months since the last update and I was also expecting all the announced games (Sunshine and Coliseum) to be out by the one year mark, or at least the end of this month)
I do feel we may get an update in half an hour, but will have to wait and see on that. Edit: and still no update… not expecting anything next week either with Star Fox arriving
There are a fair bit of games that I’m interested in so I am hopeful that releases can start picking up a little bit.
There have been a lot of games coming to NSO this year. It's just mostly been Virtual Boy stuff. Now that that's mined out, we might see a bit more for other systems, including the Cube.
Not nearly enough games, the only game of interest on it has been Pokemon XD (and we don't even have Colosseum yet despite it being one of the first GC games announced). Most of the games I'd be interested in playing are not here. No Colosseum as mentioned earlier. No Mario Sunshine. Neither of the Metroid Prime games. No Smash Melee. No Mario Kart Double Dash. As with most things Nintendo recently, they've been doing too much drip feeding with niche titles few care about and there's been no sign of the bigger hits that actual draw huge crowds.
Metroid Prime probably wont come as i think they are remastering the whole series.
I wanted to try Pokemon XD, but the lack of home compatibility makes me think there is little point.
Gamecube emulation just seems horrible on Switch 2, not just the lack of games but the horrible input latency and other issues. It just feels the Gamecube experience is best played elsewhere. It seems many are waiting for the drip feed of Gamecube games from Nintendo Online but even when you get a new game it is inferior to other emulators. The amount of videos I have seen where they show smart phones emulating Gamecube with game controller enclosures and of course desktop and mini pcs for home based solutions and the experience just seems far superior. Even cheap android tablets can do a better job. I think one of the best ways to experience gamecube is on a smartphone installed in a VR headset enclosure running dolphin with 3D output enabled. It works really well and brings Gamecube games alive and you don't need a super powerful smart phone to do it. Fairly powerful but not super powerful and of course you need a decent HD screen on your phone for best effect especially OLED is hugely beneficial.
I wish they'd release games with more frequency, but what's there is solid. I'd like to see more mature games added, like Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Geist and maybe even Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
BentIeyma
Switch Friend Code: SW-1925-7423-3410 | My Nintendo: Bentleyma
Metroid Prime probably wont come as i think they are remastering the whole series.
We've been saying "they're going to remaster 2 and 3" for a while now. First everyone assumed they were coming before Prime 4 and they didn't. Now people are saying they're still going to remaster them after the fact because... reasons. I'll believe that when I see it. We saw a similar prediction with porting WW/TP HD to the Switch and that never materialized, similarly it could be that we just... don't get remasters for the other 2.
Additionally, NSO and remakes/remasters have little to do with each other. For example, we have Link's Awakening on NSO despite being remade for Switch, and now we're getting an OoT remake despite already existing on NSO. They can do both if they want.
I am fairly happy with it because some of the games are pretty beefy. E.g Chibi Robo got 20 hours of gameplay for me. 40 hours in Pokemon: Gale Of Darkness. 20 hours in Wario World. I had never played any of them before. On the flip side, I spent a few mins with F Zero, Mario Strikers, and Fire Emblem, but none of those were for me.
Not a Zelda player either. If they had released more that I wanted faster, I would have been overwhelmed. I hate that. So, for me it has worked out well thus far. Choice paralysis is real, and it’s the reason I avoid streaming services. I still use a DVD postal service—yes, one still exists in the UK—and I absolutely love it XD.
There are still plenty of things for me to look forward to, and I’ll have time to play when they arrive. Not every release is meant for me, and that’s perfectly fine! We all have other games to enjoy, and no one is lacking something to play.
This all being said...I fully accept that little or nothing of what has come so far is for everyone either. Also, some people don't mind swapping between many games and want unplayed or old favourite offerings faster.
We are probably due a new one soon I expect. Any guesses? I think it will be Mario Sunshine. Hope it is not Pokemon Colessium. Think that would be an odd choice so quickly AFTER the sequel.
I'm really getting frustrated with the lack of updates for this. We've barely even scraped the surface of the library.
No Mario Sunshine, no Mario Kart Double Dash, no Twilight Princess, no Mario Party games, no Smash Bros Melee, no Pikmin, no Star Fox Adventure or Assault and no Metroid Prime. How do we NOT at least have Mario Sunshine after an entire year?
It's just ridiculous. We got one game a month for the other consoles when NSO first dropped so what gives?
@squiddu-real I think the big issue is the weakness of the Switch 2 CPU while its fantastic at running Switch games as the CPU is backwards compatible with the older ARM cores of the Switch the Gamecube is powerpc based so has to be fully emulated and its more of a stretch so where as more powerful systems get to do a lot more, the Switch 2 is right at the maximum of what it can do. Hence you see emulators with versions of wii mario kart with huge upgrades, new courses, texture packs and ability to run that game amazingly via emulation. The fact Nintendo are drip feeding games probably means getting games working well needs extra work done to optimise for Switch 2 on a individual game basis where as other systems just emulate fully with brute force. The passmark score for the Switch 2 is around 2000 which was confirmed by a Switch developer but the Steam Deck for example is 9000, 4.5x the CPU performance. When you are emulating its more about CPU performance than GPU performance because the Gamecube only has a GPU of 8 Gflops performance.
I am fairly happy with it because some of the games are pretty beefy. E.g Chibi Robo got 20 hours of gameplay for me. 40 hours in Pokemon: Gale Of Darkness. 20 hours in Wario World. I had never played any of them before. On the flip side, I spent a few mins with F Zero, Mario Strikers, and Fire Emblem, but none of those were for me.
Yeah, I think this is the thing. It requires having certain tastes but it is easy to justify putting a lot of time into these games, which can do a lot to make up for the lack of games (this was also true of N64, I've probably put 100 hours just doing one playthrough per game for my 4 most played games on it (100% the N64 Zeldas for the first time (barring one bs thing in OOT I got softlocked out of) were longer than even I thought it would be despite having done like...nearly 100% runs in the past).
When I get around to Switch 2, even without more games announced, I could easily find myself beating at least Chibi Robo, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Sunshine, Wario World and Soul Calibur 2 again, and putting a decent amount of time into the rest. I've not played any of these since the 2000s, and most since the year they came out. (I think the only Gamecube games I played at all after the 2000s were the Super Monkey Ball games, SSX Tricky, Metroid Prime, Smash Melee and Mario Kart: Double Dash, and none in the past decade (edit: I just remembered I replayed Metroid Prime for its 20th anniversary, so that's not true))
It is also funny to see you praise Wario World for its length, when that was the entire problem people had with it at the time (probably(?) correctly since it is short for a 50 dollar game, even at the time, but it does have enough for a 100% blind playthrough if you want that).
@kkslider5552000 Yep, I 100 percented Wario World, which probably extended the length greatly. Some of the jumping challenges were tricky and took many many goes! I enjoyed this one, and never had it back in the day, so wanted the full extent of what it offered.
Just checked now and I have 120 hrs on the N64 NSO games myself. 25 hrs for both Paper Mario and Pokemon Stadium, 10-15 for the likes of Yoshi's Story, Kirby 64, Mario 64, and Mario Party 3. With the exception of Mario Party 3, I owned all of these, but had great fun going through them again.
As you say, once they put something that fits your taste, some of these titles will give you as much playtime, if not more, than some modern titles.
I accept that isn't yet the case for many with GC NSO. Feel they have focused more on the rarities than the wider known classics so far. Hopefully everyone will get a personal favourite soon! 🙂
Edit: Lol - God, how did I forget Luigi's Mansion. Yes. That got another playthrough from me! My first GC game alongside SA2B. Enjoyed it very much again.
Only played Wario World, but recently decided to play Wind Waker. Can't believe I got lost in the first freakin' dungeon. x_x (didn't know where to go after getting the grappling hook, it's been forever, shaddap. lol)
Also I swear the camera controls weren't reversed when moving it left and right...bleh. lol
The thing about GameCube games, especially Nintendo's output, is that they still look and feel quite modern. To me getting access to a GameCube game I haven't played before, like Chibi-Robo is just as exciting as getting a new Switch or Switch 2 game.
I wonder when they'll add Mario Kart Double Dash!!, it was obviously sidelined at launch to not clash with World but it feels too important of a title to leave off the service for too long.
Besides, it could use a few more multiplayer offerings I think.
I think the app itself is in a pretty good place, honestly. The awkward bit is the library pacing. GameCube is one of those systems where the “obvious” games are so obvious that every smaller drop feels like Nintendo asking people to be patient twice.
That said, I don’t mind starting with a few less predictable picks if the bigger stuff follows at a reasonable pace. Soul Calibur 2 online is probably the one that makes me most curious, because that’s the sort of thing that can make the service feel different from just replaying a ROM quietly on your own.
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Topic: How is the Gamecube NSO so far?
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